Blog about Psychology

Pension and Depression Symptoms

2009-12-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

One time in the span of human life that are vulnerable to depression are the retirees. According Blakburn and Davidson (in Kuntjoro, 2002) there are some conditions that cause depression retirees, among others: first, Retirement [whether it is civil servants, private, or wrestle in the world of business] is often regarded as an unpleasant fact that towards the time come some people are feeling anxious because they do not know what kind of life to be faced later. In the modern era, as now, work is one of the most important factor that can bring satisfaction (because of money, position and strengthen self-esteem). Therefore, often retired people who can not enjoy old age with relaxed living, on the other hand, there are even experiencing serious problems (mental or physical).

Second; age, many people are afraid of old age because of the presumption if it is old, it will physically weaker, more disease, quickly forgotten, looks even less attractive and more other obstacles that make life even more limited. Pensions are often identified with a sign someone into old age. Many people perceive negatively by assuming that retirement is a sign he was not useful and no longer required because of old age and decline in productivity that are not profitable for companies or organizations where they work. Often without realizing that understanding affects a person's perception that he became over-sensitive and subjective to the stimuli that were arrested. This condition is what makes people so sick when retirement arrives.

Furthermore Blakburn Marie and Kate Davidson (in Kuntjoro, 2002) suggests that the psychological symptoms of depression when viewed from several aspects, is as follows: 1. Mood, characterized by sadness, anxiety, irritability. 2. Thinking, characterized by simple loss of concentration, slow and confused in thinking, blame themselves, doubt, low self-esteem. 3. Motivation, characterized by lack of interest and hobby work, avoiding work and social activities, wants to run away, high dependence on others. 4. Behavior, the mark with a nervous look of a slow movement, often pacing, crying, complaining, 5) Loss of appetite or increased appetite, loss of sexual desire, sleep disturbed.

According to Kim, J., E. and Moen, P., (in Rini 2001) from Cornell University examined the relationship between retirement with depression. Both were found: Women who had retired tend to have higher depression than women who have long retired or even that still works, especially if the husband is still working; newly retired men tend to experience more marital conflict than those not yet retired; man newly retired, but his wife still works tend to have higher marital conflict than men who are both newly retired, but his wife did not work; Men who retire and return to work and have a wife who does not work, then they have a higher morale than couples who both Neither worked.

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Depression in Stroke Patients

2009-08-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Generally stroke continues with depression. That is, the patient conscious, the other condition to do this and it routinely, such as food must be fed, the road is slow, and the bath had to be helped. Because mental factors, they become depressed: frequent crying and starry-eyed. This was added for those who have a high enough position in the career or the rise as a public idol. Any relatives who come visiting receives with tears. Patients like asking, why this happened. In fact there was a curt said you were going to die soon, because it can not stand the situation.

This situation is hard and time consuming. Efforts to rehabilitate up to no less difficult to cure with "medical treatment". As in the Netherlands, Australia, for example, psychologists are directly involved with the doctors. Missed the problem of depression, will only make the patient worse and also difficult to grow healing, let alone cure. Because depression is very close to the employment. That is, the depression will make a lot of energy / psychic energy being drained.

In these efforts, stroke patients can take steps such as:

1. Opportunity to express their feelings properly and untukditanggapi seriously.

2. Treatment that can give motivation to rebuild their optimistic attitude waver. We need to eliminate the impression that they are no longer useful to society and family.

3. Association, in the context of social rebuilding. Suppose a dialogue with his friends, that arise sependeritaan attitude, and the impression that he was not just had a stroke and who experienced impotence.

4. Opportunity to communicate with relevant parties and monitor progress, such as doctors and psychologists.

5. Equanimity, a guarantee that all complaints will be kept confidential, so he does not need to feel anxious and ashamed

Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia

2009-08-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Are you on a diet to stay slim body? All of a sudden become allergic to chocolate, ice cream and food, high calorie foods. Then be afraid to eat for fear of weight going up so the whole day with just a few spoonfuls of rice. Be careful, because the diet does not normally be in danger.

Just an example of the hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of cases of eating problems experienced by some people. Actually, we unknowingly had friends, friends or lest we ourselves had experienced similar cases. Yes, it called anorexia or bulimia. What is anorexia or bulimia, and why someone may experience these things.

Anorexia Nervosa

Eating disorders are commonly encountered in young women is anorexic or fancy term known as anorexia nervosa. Anorexia is an activity to deal with loss by food restriction is deliberately and through strict control. People with anorexia are aware that they feel hungry but afraid to meet their food needs because it can result in increased body weight. Their perception of satiety so disturbed when they consume some foods in small portions, they will soon feel 'full' or even nausea. They are constantly dieting so hard to achieve a thin body. Ultimately this condition could cause a dangerous effect of the death of the patient. Just imagine, if they continue to refrain from eating, from whom they obtain energy to live.

Bulimia

If the anorexic desperately to keep his hunger and trying so hard to not consume food in large quantities so that it can hold 'live' simply by eating 2-3 tablespoons of rice per day, it is not the case with bulimia. In essence, the ultimate goal of people with bulimia and anorexia are the same, namely to maintain the slim body shape (thin) may be but how they are different. People with bulimia tend to like foods that they like. They overeat to satisfy their desires, but then they throw up again until there was no food left. Thus they avoid getting fat but still be thin without the need to restrain their desire to eat. Can imagine if someone constantly spewing the foods they eat, where they get the calories for the move. The body becomes weak, it is difficult to think and ultimately no more energy can be used to defend himself.

Impact of Depression

2009-08-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

There have been many studies that depression usually accompanied by physical illness, such as asthma, coronary heart disease, headaches and ulcers. According to an expert who is also author of the book, which is Philip Rice, depression will increase a person's risk of developing the disease due to depressed conditions tend to increase the circulation of adrenaline and cortisol, resulting in lower immune levels. In addition, the disease easily settled because of people affected by depression often lose their appetite, so changing his eating habits (too much food or hard food), lack of exercise, easily tired and have trouble sleeping.

There are also other cases, where the depression does not cause disease, but rather a prolonged illness that can not heal it eventually causes the sufferer to feel depressed. Examples of cases are experienced depression cancer, asthma, back pain which usually lasted for years.

In addition to decreased endurance, depression is considered quite dangerous for mental and physical health because it can cause cognitive impairment, emotional and productivity of individuals who experience depression,

The impact of depression experienced by one person will affect the balance of the "environment". Just as if we have a cold, then the whole body felt weak and uncomfortable. Not only that, other people around also potentially infected by the disease. According to Miner (1992), a professor from the State University of New York, in the context of such a situation the organization known as the concept of the Sick Organization. Therefore, an employee who suffered only emotional disorders such as depression, will have implications not only on performance and satisfaction in his own work but also on organizational performance and atmosphere.

Internet and Self Exploration

2009-08-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Is the Internet can be used as a tool for self exploration? The question is not without reason, given that many sites that display a variety of EQ and IQ test. Besides this virtual world technology provides many opportunities for individuals to express themselves uniquely. However, the psychologist argues, if a person fails to integrate the true self with the self that are expressed differently on the internet, then this would be very dangerous for these people's personal growth.

Regarding the impact of the Internet as a means of self exploration, the psychologist view it depends on the individual users. Of course the Internet can be useful if able to increase a person's life, and instead becomes a disease if a person's life is a mess. Bad effect will occur if the Internet is used as a means to insulate themselves. Many people do not realize that he was eventually closed to the social communication either because as the Internet is used as an escape from the problems associated with personality. That could happen because there are individuals who show a different personality when online with offline. The motivation behind it is different from one person to another. Problems will be complicated if the reason is because the individual is not satisfied / love with himself (probably because of inadequate, embarrassed, or feel unworthy), then creates and displays a very different personality from his original. Often he would rather the personality of the new engineering because it seems ideal for him. In fact, according to the psychologist, this is not true and not healthy. Why?

Michelle Weil, a psychologist and author of popular books, providing concrete examples of a girl who was shunned by her friends and then spend time berchatting Proxl ria by displaying a very contradictory character with its original character. As a result, over time he grew a lot with the existing social fact, not even able to accept yourself what it is. According to psychoanalysis renowned experts such as Erich Fromm, this condition is called neurosis. Conditions of prolonged neurosis will result in serious mental disorders. Michelle further added, the danger is created online personality different from the original.

Of course there are positive effects from the use of the Internet on the personality of a person (not addiction). Reid Steere, a sociologist from Los Angeles said, if someone uses the Internet as a medium of self exploration with a clear conscience, he would experience growth as a result of the reflection of himself in full over the Internet.

How Well do you Listen?

2009-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Most people can talk about themselves and their ideas, jobs, plans, friends, etc. on and on. And yet, the ones that truly stand out -- in business and in life -- are those who cannot only talk but also LISTEN.

And by listening we don't just mean saying "uh-huh" every now and then in polite conversation. If you want to be heard when it's your time to speak, you must also learn how to listen well.

Active Listening Techniques

Pay attention. When someone is speaking to you, pay attention! Move closer to them and maintain eye contact. If in a crowded and noisy area, turn your head so that your ear is close to the speaker. And don't just take note of the words you hear. Look at his/her face and take note of the facial expression of your speaker and other body language.

Don't prepare. Part of listening attentively is NOT planning what YOU are going to say when it's your turn to talk. If you do this, you're only half-listening because you're already busy formulating your response. So don't prepare; just listen to the one speaking.

Convey that you're paying attention. Give the speaker clues that you're listening by making a few gestures such as nodding your head, smiling when appropriate, laughing when necessary, and so on.

Interjections such as "really?", "uh-huh", "no way!", and others also help relay to the speaker that you're listening to what's being said.

You may even want to "return the story" by saying something like "so let me see if I have this straight, you mean . . . ". Feel free to ask questions too. This conveys to the speaker that not only are you listening, but that you are interested in the conversation.

Another situation where you may need to clarify with a speaker is when he/she is speaking in a slightly different tongue or tone. He/she may be pronouncing the words differently and rather than just ‘drift off', ask politely for the speaker to repeat or clarify certain things he's said.

Don't interrupt. One common mistake of most people in a conversation is that they keep interrupting the speaker. Not only is this rude but you run the risk of completely misunderstanding what's being said because you didn't give the speaker a chance to finish his story. So give the speaker the time he deserves before you join in.

Listening is really an integral part of ANY relationship. Pay attention at how you listen to others. When you hone this skill, you'll find yourself naturally getting better at communicating with others.

Having the Confidence to Be Yourself

2009-08-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

It is important that you do what is right for you, that you choose to do the things in this life which suit you as a person. There is no point in doing what you do not like, or do not believe in, in order to please another person. If you do, then you will usually end up resenting the person whom you had chosen to try to please.

We humans do what we want in this life (generally speaking) but we do not always admit to ourselves that this is the case. It is easy to say that it is another person's fault that something happened, and so on, and yet in reality the truth is that we chose to go along with whatever it was. There are many situations which I think the majority of people will relate to as ones in which we knew didn't quite feel right and yet we never the less went along with it.

It is easy in hindsight to see that the wrong choice was made, and possibly that choice was made based upon the wrong reasons. How many people know of someone who stays with their partner because they are afraid of being on their own? Or perhaps you know someone who leaves a good and stable, loving and successful relationship because "something" (which they cannot quite identify) is missing?

In the world of business, how many people go into a job because it is expected of them as opposed to what they are really passionate about? It is so easy for human beings to be swayed by what other people think, or by the local "norms" in our community, or by what we think that others expect of us. It is also easy to be swayed in our very beliefs about what is right or wrong, and perhaps it is also easy to alter our own beliefs in the hope that we will change the beliefs of others.

When the chips are down, the most important thing is to be true to your own path in this life, and this means not being swayed too much by others and also not swaying others to go along with you. We are all on our own paths, and we all have to take our individual course through this life. Your own beliefs should change only because you are discovering more and more accurately who you are as a person and not because you are purely aligning with the beliefs of friends or associates, or because you are trying to impose your beliefs on another.

This does not mean that you should not change. To not change would be to stagnate and die. This is a world which constantly moves and changes and everything within it moves and changes too. Human beings are no exception. The important thing is to have the confidence to move and change in a manner appropriate to you, in a way which suits you and affirms your true beliefs about yourself.

Nor does it mean that you should not compromise in certain circumstances or situations. Compromise is inevitable in a world where everyone is an individual living their own life, upon their own path. The key is in having the ability to compromise without compromising your own beliefs or those of the other person; Balance has to be sought. There has to be give and take in every relationship in life. Life is like a see-saw; as one end goes up there is another end which goes down...but there is an optimal point where both ends are level and everyone is happy. This is the equilibrium which everyone should seek to achieve in their relationships with others.

This equilibrium can only happen if you have self-confidence. To have the confidence to be yourself and to continually grow in your understanding of yourself and the world is the basis of what life is all about.

By; Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis downloads for self-confidence. Visit http://www.roseannaleaton.com/

Original Baby Shower Invitation Ideas

2009-08-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Celebrating the upcoming birth of your child is a lovely, fun time and a baby shower adds to that enjoyment, Organizing a baby shower can take a lot of time and effort and even a little thing like the invitations take a lot of decisions. If you look around and know your budget guidelines there are a huge arrange of baby shower invitations ideas that you can consider.

The usual invitations are made of thick paper or cardboard on which the request is printed. Traditionally baby shower invitation ideas have included designs of pictures and shape cut-outs generally associated with babies. Things like storks, pacifiers, cribs, toys, feeding bottles and teddy bears are all included. Many baby shower invitations are sold by bulk and have many others that are exactly the same of highly similar.

Thinking Out Of The Box Limiting baby shower invitation to standard two dimensional card or paper is not necessary. A lot of baby shower invitations ideas involves thinking outside the box and including little things that make the invitations fun and original. Be creative when thinking of baby shower invitation ideas as inspriration can come from many different sources.

Items associated with babies then cut out of wood can be used for some unique baby shower invitation ideas. Items to be used for your baby shower invitations can include balloons, cakes, teddy bears, safety pins and storks. Baby shower invitation ideas like this can come to life with the help of a skilled craftsman when can carve the wooden figures. You may decide to leave the figures untouched or you may want to have them hand painted. The details of the baby shower can be printed on the wood or printed on sticker paper and stuck to the wood.

A novelty item such as a baby pacifier can be sent out with a little note attached with gives the details of the baby shower. Baby shower invitation ideas need not only be the plastic rattle, other cheap baby toy replicas can be used. You can base the whole theme of the baby shower around the invitations. If you prefer the two dimensional invitations, some baby shower invitation ideas to make it unique is to put your baby's first ultrasound or 3 dimensional pictures on it. Having a small baby doll holding a scroll in its hand containing the invitation is one of a number of unique baby shower invitation ideas you could use.

Whatever kinds of baby shower invitation ideas might hit you, the important thing is to word it well in a way that you set down the details clearly.

By; Anna Shannen, site: http://babyshowerdreams.com/

Chinese Astrology, the art of the chinese zodiacs

2009-08-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

People consider Chinese astrology as an art. The reason of Chinese astrology is to aid people attain their objectives through alertness and continuous development of the mind and soul. Just like the western astrology, you can consult Chinese astrology to know about your future, like career, relationship, love, likes and dislikes, good fortune and lot of other things.

Chinese astrology is created of a 12 year cycle and has 12 animals to depict every year, they are better known as the Chinese Zodiacs. The animals which are arranged in a particular order are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The perfect begining of the twelve animal plan remain not known. But there was a legend about it, here is the legend: the Jade King was bored, and was not doing anything in Heaven. He did not see what was happening on Earth, since he had servants satisfying his every wish. He decided that he wanted to see the animals that live the earth so he sent word to his advisors to bring him twelve animals. The advisor primarisly sent an request to the Rat, asking him to even bring the cat, as the Rat was envious he avoided the cat from knowing the news.

Later on, invitations were sent to animals like, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Ram, the Monkey, the Rooster and the Dog and were asked to attend the next days. They queued in front of the king, and later on he found out that they were just eleven, than 12 that he desired. The Jade king sent his servant down to Earth to get the twelfth animal. The servant hurried into a man carrying a Pig, and grabbed| it and presented it to the king.

The animals stood in front of the king in no particular order. The Rat, being smallest of the remaining, jumped on the Ox's back and continued to play the flute. This impressed the king greatly and he was happy. He gave the Rat primary position. The second stood the Ox for his true sportsmanship quality and the third stood the Tiger as he was quite strong. The forth place was for the Rabbit, the Dragon took the fifth position, The sixth place was fro Snake, the seventh for the Horse, the eighth one for the Ram, Monkey stood ninth, tenth was Rooster and eleventh was the Dog. By default, and due to the king's just nature, twelfth place went to the Pig. After the event got over, the cat asked the king to reconsider but he did not agree with the cat.

Chinese astrology is also composed of 5 elements. These elements were Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, always placed in that order as it is said to be a continuous procedure, that is Wood generates Fire; Fire generates Earth; Earth generates Metal, Metal generates Water, and Water generates Wood, and as it goes back to its beginning.

Last but not least there is the cosmic and divine strength that influences the entire Chinese astrology system. This force is well known as The Yin and The Yang. The yyin stands for the female whereas the Yang stands for Male. An diverse interpretation states that the Ying stands for the Evil and the Yang stands for the Good. And when both are taken into consideration, Ying and Yang, create harmony and everlasting balance. The amalgamation of Yin and Yang is the hidden power in the wake of the Chinese Horoscope system. But the Chinese Astrologers are not stern decision makers. They do not believe a person's destiny is already given exactly the time he/she took birth. However, they do believe in the philosophy that the time and the birth place set the limits of a person's freedom and liberty. What happens in these limits is influenced not just by own decision also by external issues such as locality, monetary conditions and the like.

By; Jamie Hanson

Verbally Abusive Relationships

2009-08-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed how some couples believe that verbal abuse in marriage is acceptable? It's as though that foulness is his/her bad breath or messy bathroom habits.

Even though they don't like the way it feels, they make excuses for it, minimize it, rationalize it, and often just look the other way. But deep down inside, at the end of the day, they hate it. It hurts deeply, and they know it.

Yet they don't know how to stop it, nor do they know how to deal with it. Here are some important facts you will want to know about verbal abuse, so you weather its brunt more comfortably.

3 Keys to Dealing with Verbal Abuse

1) It is not about you. You may think the verbal abuser is saying something about you because their commentary is directed toward you and supposedly describes you. But it isn't about you.

It's their insecurities leaking forward. It's their anger oozing out. It's their need to feel and appear omnipotent in the face of their experience of impotence.

2) You can't stop it because you don't control it. You don't drive its release. Verbal abuse is owned, operated and controlled by the verbal abuser and no one else.

3) You can, however, control the impact it has on you by controlling your interpretation of it. It will amaze you to discover that you can step back and see the verbal abuser as a broken child, rather than as an overbearing guerrilla.

And when you do, the impact of the words uttered is different. While it still may hurt, it no longer defines you and you no longer define yourself through the ugly utterances of your partner's verbal abuse.

By; Dr. Jeanne King, Ph.D.

First Date Tips by a Professional Matchmaker

2009-08-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Often the first thing men and women worry about when beginning a dating relationship is starting out on the right foot or better yet avoided putting their foot in their mouth. There are key elements and a few tips that will be helpful in guiding you into a successful, secure, and lasting relationship.

Often the first thing men and women worry about when beginning a dating relationship is starting out on the right foot or better yet avoided putting their foot in their mouth. When we first meet someone, whether it be a friend, perspective employer or date we tend to focus on all the wrong things. Our presentation, our looks and image. Appearance, although important is not the only key to a successful date. There are key elements and a few tips that will be helpful in guiding you into a successful, secure, and lasting relationship.

- Pay attention to the signs or possible red flags. As we enter into each date, not only do we have hope that he or she may be the "one" person we have been searching for, we also overlook actions or mannerisms that may reveal volumes about their history. Their past as well as how they may have acted or reacted to situations or conflicts can better help you determine how they will deal with them in the future.

- You should disclose what is relevant, what is important to you at the beginning and then ask the other person to do the same. It will help to conclude if both of you are right for each other. Listen carefully to what that person says. Early on, most people feel open to telling a prospective mate about what they are looking for since they have just met you & therefore have nothing to lose. If a man mentions that he does not want kids, odds are that is what he means. If a lady says she is the jealous type, believe her. Often what they casually mention in conversation may be just the tip of the iceberg. If hers or his personality traits and interests are not what you looking for, don't ignore it. You can not change this person; take what they say at face value. If you ignore this it will create disappointment and misunderstandings later, down the road.

- Get to know your date as a friend first, see if you share common interests and take time before becoming intimate if you are looking for a true partner. If you learn more about each other before having sex, you will have a chance to see if your attraction is on many different levels. Sex can sometimes be the foundation of the relationship but as a solo component, the relationship will not last.

- On the first date, ask a lot of questions, and study the person’s body language to see if they are sincere. Also pay close attention to how they speak about their exes. Do they speak poorly of there previous relationships, if so that could be red flag. Ask detailed questions about their background, where they went to school, do they have kids and if they have ever been married before. When preparing for a job or buying a home or car we concentrate on the most important details and think them through thoroughly before taking them on…why wouldn’t we take the utmost care in directing our heart to do the same?

About Author:

Svetlana Novikova has a decade of experience as the premiere relationship expert. She offers counsel, guidance and advice as well as an elite approach to matchmaking which connects two people into becoming life partners. www.SvetlanaInternational.com

Weaning A Baby

2009-08-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

The best time to wean your baby onto solid food is at about age 6 months. This is because your baby's mouth will start to change around that time to help her cope with the transition. Another guide is to start when baby doubles in weight.

Before then your baby's digestive system and kidneys are able to cope only with breastmilk and formula. But don't leave it too late as baby may find it difficult to adapt to swallowing food, and she will need a balanced varied diet.

What You Will Need

* Bibs - and plenty of them! At first she will spit out more than she swallows and feeding will be very messy.

* Unbreakable bowls and spoons.

* Lidded containers for storing the food.

* A food processor. You could manage with a fork and a sieve, but the one thing you won't have plenty of is time, so a blender will make life easier.

You don't need a high chair, not at this stage anyway. Baby won't be able to hold her head up until about age 12 months, so feed her while she is in your lap or in a seat that supports her head.

Foods To Try And Some To Avoid

* Baby rice is usually the first solid for babies, it has a low protein content and is unlikely to cause an allergic reaction. Mix with milk (expressed breast milk or formula) to make the rice easier to swallow. Rice also has the advantage that it can be mixed with both vegetables and fruit, so after a few days, mix in a little puréed potato, vegetable or fruit. You may wish to start with vegetables to ensure she establishes a taste for savoury foods as well as the sweeter fruits.

* Foods to try include: potato, carrot, swede, parsnip, sweet potato; and apple, banana and pear. Cook where appropriate and purée. If the result is too dry or lumpy, add milk (breast milk or formula).

* Avoid cow's milk until she is about 12 months old. Other dairy products like cheese and yoghurt can be introduced after a month or so.

* Avoid soft-boiled eggs; nuts; blue-veined cheese; salt; sugar or sweeteners, including those found in fruit drinks and squashes; bread and pasta; and rusks.

The Transition

The move from milk to solid food can take place only gradually. At first, solids should take the place of one of the milk feeds. Then, over the next 3 or 4 months, introduce more solid food and cut down on the milk; and chop and cut food rather than purée after a few weeks.

Vegetarian

If you are vegetarian and want your baby to avoid meat and fish, this should not be a problem. The same nutrients present in
meat are also available in other foods and you will be familiar with what is
required for a balanced diet. However, if you are a vegan, your baby could miss out on certain vitamins as well as sufficient protein. Prolong breastfeeding as long as possibleFind Article, and take expert advice on any necessary supplements.

Baby's In Charge

Of course no two babies are the same and there are no rules laid down regarding exact timing. Appetites vary too and your baby will tell you by her actions whether she needs to be 'topped-up' with a bottle of milk.

Source: from gozine.search4i.com

Benefits of Humor

2009-08-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

In public life or reality some people feel that humor has no place, but that’s not the truth. Decorating a serious subject with an anecdote at the right time will grip your audience instead of making them snore.

In public life or reality some people feel that humor has no place, but that’s not the truth. Decorating a serious subject with an anecdote at the right time will grip your audience instead of making them snore. Simple and cold facts can be delivered by any Tom, Dick and Harry but, a good public speaker keeps everyone interested in said facts with anecdotes and sharing a good experience. Efficient communication skills are important for anyone whether an employee or an employer and humor plays very important part in creative communication.

Benefits of using humor:

• You can grab people''s attention and convey your point.

• People will like you more if you use humor in your speech. You can get connected with the audience very easily.

• Humor helps in conveying your point across without any force. This is very important if you are sharing new ideas and policies that may not appeal to some people.

• Using humor shows that you r approach is not with self ego. This can overcome flattering introductions. Who would like to listen to a snob who thinks too much of himself?

• Humor lightens up heavy subject or topics and makes the interaction more memorable.

• Humor can make a positive impression.

• Humor paints a picture in people''s minds. An illustration can explain a point more clearly than mere words.

• The audience will leave happily. You''ll get your message across and they''ll have a good time laughing. Everyone wins!

You may not be a "funny" person, but it doesn''t mean that you cannot use humor to convey a point. If you''re not expert in telling jokes, then try some humor on yourself or just use a witty one-liner to grab attention of the audience right off the bat. The idea is to find what is working for you. The last thing a public speaker wants to be is forgettable. You of course wish that your audience should remember your words and what you had to say long after they have left. A good laugh is always remembered by people. A humorous point always lingers in their minds and your job is effectively handled.

Dealing with Anti Social Behaviour

2009-08-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

Domestic anti-social behaviour is unfortunately something most of us have to deal with sooner or later. It can be anything from serious harassment from a close one to nuisances brought on by anti-social landlords or neighbours. A lot of victims blame themselves when situations get out of hand and are reluctant to file a police report or contact other appropriate authorities.

After all, most of us just want to get along with our acquaintances, neighbours, landlords and tenants and when something bad happens, we hope that it will turn out to be a one-time incident. When problems gradually escalate, it is possible to go through a so called “normalization process” where actions that you would have reported to the police 6 months ago are now left unreported, simply because you have gotten used to accepting anti-social behaviour from others.

When you find your self amidst anti-social behaviour, the worst thing that you can do is to keep it to your self. In order to determine how serious the problem really is, and possibly find viable solutions, it is always recommended to tell others about your situation. A person form outside can look at the situation with fresh eyes and let you know his or her opinion. Support, encouragement and tips from others can also make a tremendous difference. When a victim decides to file a police report and try to put an end to the anti-social behaviour via the legal system, support form others who have gone through the same arduous process is often essential.

Today, there are many online sites where people share their experiences regarding crimes and anti-social behaviour. You can for instance pay a visit to a website where UK citizen congregate to discus crime, crime prevention and experiences with crimes.

It is important to remember that as a victim of anti-social behaviour, you are not the one who should feel ashamed; nor are you the one who should alter your life or be forced to move to a new neighbourhood in order to get away from anti-social behaviour. In some instance moving can be the easiest solution, but before you make such a life altering decision you should take a good look at your other options. By sharing your experiences with other, especially with others who have been in similar situations in the past, it is often possible to work out feasible solutions to this complicated type of problem. Stop feeling ashamed and angry, and start doing something constructive today! You are the victim here and you deserve a better life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Crime forums UK allow you to discuss crimes, anti social behaviour, crime prevention and experiences with crimes in the UK. Joining the online forum, is totally free.

Motivation; The A to Z Steps To Motivated Success

2009-08-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

Motivation is a strong determinant to the amount of success you will have in life. I have shared with you a number of ways in which you may increase your own level of motivation. I hope you find my A to Z steps of motivation, very motivating.

Motivation is the key to all success. There are many factors in life that determine the amount of motivation we have at any given time. Pain can be a motivator as well as pleasure. The degree to which we desire to have something or some situation is another motivator. Desire and determination has the ability to spark our motivation into a particular path. Ultimately it is what is inside us all that determines our level of motivation in live.

With the countless negativity's the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z...

A - Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Consume yourself with the motivation to achieve tremendous results from everything you attempt

B - Believe in your self, and in what you can do. Motivation comes from within, if you trust in your abilities you will come out on top.

C - Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides. Never say never, there is a way of accomplishing anything if you keep an open mind and never give up.

D - Don't give up and don't give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel. The only way you lose for sure is when you quit.

E - Enjoy. Work as if you don't need money. Dance as if nobody's watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you'll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy. Maintain a positive attitude under any circumstance. Fill your mind with positive thoughts and the whole world will be your playground.

F - Family and Friends - are life's greatest 'F' treasures. Don't loose sight of them. So often we look past our greatest treasures, remain motivated to always seek the treasures in your family bonds.

G - Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self improvement take place? At work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things. Try to give more than what is asked of you, this shows true self motivation.

H - Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force. Dreams keep us motivated to go after the things that excite us in life. Holding onto your dreams shows a strength in your character of positive expectations.

I - Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don't let other people to get the best of you. Stay away from toxic people - the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success. Surround yourself with positive people and you will all keep each other motivated to seek out the positives in life.

J - Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone. Believe in your strengths and live by your positive terms.

K - keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement. Motivation keeps you striving for the best, hang onto the values brought on through positive thinking.

L - Learn to love yourself. Now isn't that easy? You cannot give love to others unless you love yourself. Learn how to motivate yourself into working on your own personal development. You will never grow as a person until you learn to take responsibility for your own self improvement.

M - Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes. Motivation is one of the strongest characteristics you can have. When you live your life filled with motivation you become a person who really gets things done.

N - Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game. A person with a good moral standing will go further in life than an unmotivated cheat. Never look for short-cuts to good things, this will lead to missed opportunities and challenging possibilities.

O - Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways - how they want things to be, and how they should be. Life is full of possibilities, keep the motivation to go after the wonders in the world.

P - Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes. Maintaining the motivation to work hard towards the things you truly want out of life will bring you more rewards than sitting back and expecting things to happen.

Q - Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate - are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?

R - Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn't raining when Noah build the ark. The boy scout motto is "Be Prepared" and this is a way of life we should all adapt to.

S - Stop procrastinating. Nothing kills motivation more then procrastination. Choose to spend your time accomplishing positive things in your life.

T - Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self improvement. When you know what you want out of life and you are motivated to work towards the attainment of your dreams, you will accomplish more then the average person lacking motivation.

U - Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second. Understanding another persons problems in life and being motivated to offer help to others, builds your own character.

V - Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land. Your mind can bring you whatever you desire in life. Visualize success and success will be yours, visualize defeat or loss and failure will encompass your life. Maintain the motivation to visualize success and achievements.

W - Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement. When you have strong wants this leads to the motivation to attain what you truly desire.

X - X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on "extras" on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on. Set yourself apart from others, stand out in the crowd, hold your head up high with pride and conviction.

Y - You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you're just going to spend it once. Use the fact that you are one of a kind to excel at everything you do in life. True motivation is for you and you alone, use it to move forward in life, show your uniqueness.

Z - Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!! Never lose your motivation to go after your dreams because living your dreams means you are living your life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The level of our personal motivation is usually determined by the strength of our own personal development. If you are interested in more relevant information to help you with your own motivation please visit: http://www.positive-thinking-for-you.com/ http://www.nlp-self-help.com

An Overview of Motivation Theory

2009-08-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

Motivation is simply defined as the one that kindles change and concentration. As Elbert Hubbard says, "Positive anything is better than negative nothing." True isn't it? Motivation is the one that keeps people to stay focus. It's motivation that helps people to stay optimistic amidst all the challenges that they encounter in their everyday life.

As Elbert Hubbard says, "Positive anything is better than negative nothing." True isn't it? Motivation is the one that keeps people to stay focus. It's motivation that helps people to stay optimistic amidst all the challenges that they encounter in their everyday life. Literally speaking, motivation is based on the word "motivus" which is a Latin term that denotes a moving cause. It is the element that pushes an individual to take action or initiate change. It is the one that keeps an individual to get going. To best explain the importance of motivation and how it affects the behavior of a certain individual, you should look into this article and discover the whole story of motivation theory. There are many motivation theories that were conceptualized on account of giving people a vivid picture of what motivation is and how important it is to be motivated. Here are some of the theories of motivation that you should take into account.Consistency TheoryThe consistency theory is based on the principle that people need some form of regularity and control in their lives. It is very important to have consistency for the reason that it is the key element that binds everything as one. Being consistent is necessary not only because it holds everything together but also because it drives people to reach that standard level of stability in this world. Self-discrepancy TheoryThis theory deals with the human self-esteem and how it is affected by the dealings with cognitive elements of the self. People are encouraged to have that sense of consistency depending on their point of views or how they perceive things. This sometimes led to some problems because people have different expectations. This is evident when people don't get what they wanted for example you want to win the first prize for the essay writing contest but you end up on the 3rd place. You feel dissatisfied and depressed for you don't get what you like to achieve. Reactance TheoryReactance theory is based on the notion that when people don't feel comfortable and they think that they can do what they want, they experience a bad feeling. This bad feeling is known as reactance. When they feel this, they will be motivated to do what they were threatened to do, which is a sign that their freedom has not been suppressed.Goal-setting TheoryThe goal-setting theory implies that people set goals for themselves. But you see setting goals for yourself is more effective unlike when other people set your goals. This is because people are more encouraged to fulfill the goals that they have set for themselves for it's based on what they believe. Acquired Needs TheoryThe theory of acquired needs explains that needs may vary depending on people's experiences and these needs may change as time goes by. This theory is also referred to as the Three-Need Theory or Learned Need Theory. Generally, the needs of the people are classified into three. These are the achievement, affiliation and power. On the whole, understanding all the theories of motivation can be a great help to you especially when it comes to harnessing your leadership skills. Motivation is a very important ingredient in the success of every individual. Without it, your life will not be bright.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

"Wanna Lean The Secret To Making $85,147,717 Per Month While Quickly And Easily EXPLODING Your Network Marketing Organization by 7,141 People Without EVER Buying Or Calling a Single Stinking Lead?" Free CD Explains All - http://www.easymlmprofits.com>http://www.easymlmprofits.com

Developmental and Child Psychology

2009-08-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

At this age the child does not have the capacity to take into consideration others point of view, but as he grows up to be six or seven, he will engage in group play and understand different people’s perspective and progressively as he enters into his teens he would feel the need to develop positive human relation-ships (Hetherington et al, 2006). The intriguing question is what accounts for this progressive and steady evolution of the child’s ability to perceive and describe complex relationships and learn new things efficiently? The quest for its answer and research into the area has lead to the inception of the field of developmental psychology (Papers4you.com, 2006).

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of progressive psychological changes that transpire in human beings as they age (Margaret & Butterworth, 2002). Child development is its rapidly emerging sub-field of study, which seeks to account for the gradual evolution of the Childs’s cognitive, social and other capacities, first by describing changes in the child’s observed behaviours and then by uncovering the process and strategies that underlie these changes (Hetherington et al, 2006, p4). Although field has seen rapid developments recently, it’s relatively young with the first theories coming up just a century ago.

Proposing one of the first theories on the children’s emotional development was none other than the legendary Charles Darwin, who based most of his work on his son’s earliest emotional expressions. Alfred Binet was another individual who pioneered in the filed by studying children’s learning and methods of assessing intelligence (Hetherington et al, 2006). Moreover, the field of cognition i.e. the way the human mind acquires, remembers and learns to use knowledge forms an integral part of the field and has a wide range of implications. From devising teaching methods in schools to big organisations employing it to create a learning environment for its employees the field has had a far reaching effect.

The nature of the subject is such that it has seen a flurry of theories, one contradicting the other, especially in the area of Cognitive development (Papers4you.com, 2006). There have been several different approaches to cognitive development like Jean Piaget’s theory, which emphasizes developmental changes in the organisation or structure of children’s thinking process or the Lev Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of cognitive development, which attributes the advancement in the child’s thinking and learning to his/her interaction with the social world (Hetherington et al, 2006).

The field has limitless implications especially in improving children’s functioning and opportunities for development in important areas of their lives, especially in relationships with their family, friends, peers and personal development. There is no doubt that child psychology is a field on the move.

References

Hetherington, E. et al. (2006). ‘Child Psychology: A contemporary viewpoint’. 6th ed. McGraw-Hill, London.

Margaret, H & Butterworth, G. (2002). ‘Developmental Psychology: Student’s handbook’. Psychology Press, Hove.

Papers For You (2006) "P/PS/67. Disclosure of sexual abuse in children", Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtpsy5.htm [20/06/2006]
Papers For You (2006) "S/PS/50. This essay critically discusses the assertion that the principles of transactional models of development help us to understand the causes of disturbing behaviour in young children", Available from Papers4you.com [19/06/2006]

Psychology essay

2009-08-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

Psychology essay writing usually demonstrates your knowledge gained and your ability to think critically. Psychology essay writing presents all sorts of issues to write about in this manner. Each one is interesting in its own way, and different writers tend to specialize in critically analysing different issues of psychology.

Your Psychology essay provides you an opportunity to present your views and compare them with scholarly works. In a manner of speaking, you will be contributing to the field of psychology through presenting your arguments. However, before you start writing down your arguments in a Psychology essay, you need to present your topic in an introduction. This part will inform your readers about the direction you intend to take in your essay. Additionally, your introduction will describe your title and also highlight a specific area you want to address. Basically, you will place your main arguments here that you will build upon in the main body of your essay.

In your Psychology essay, selecting the right sources to support your arguments is important. These will help you to draw your conclusion effectively. Also, the authenticity of these sources will help to convince your readers about the conclusions you draw. A Psychology essay without adequate or authentic sources cannot achieve the goal of your essay.

Along with using your sources well in your Psychology essay, you need to place arguments in coherent paragraphs. One argument should need into the next. You may analyze your claims as you go along or you may do so in a separate section. If you decide to analyze your arguments in a separate section of your Psychology essay, your arguments must be analyzed in the same sequence as you presented them earlier. This will help the reader to experience a smooth follow in the direction you take.

In a Psychology essay, your claims and arguments are not to impede the work of other scholars. Instead, your work will compliment their research. This is most likely to be the outcome because you will be using established and scholarly sources in your Psychology essay. Apart from complimenting scholarly work, your main goal is to prove your point. Depending on how you use your sources you will be able to do this.

Your Psychology essay will not have its complete strength without a solid conclusion. You need to make sure that your essay states finally what you have managed to prove. To do this in your Psychology essay, you need to remind your readers about the main points. After this, you should briefly review your evidence. Your last step should be a clear statement that supports your arguments.

For writing a successful Psychology essay, you can hire professional writing services or you could get down to doing it yourself. To be a successful Psychology essay writer, you need to practice your skills. After some time, you will find out how much you have improved. You will be able to write your own essays effectively whenever you need to.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The article was produced by the writer of masterpapers.com. Sharon White is a senior writer and writers consultant at Essay writing. Get some useful tips for psychology essay and argumentative essay.

Social Psychology: The Psychological Explanations of Social Phenomena

2009-08-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

The various aspects of social psychology could be examined within the wide concepts of intelligence, gender, advertising, consumer culture, stress and psychological issues that define society.

Considering consumer behaviour, social psychology uses convincing theories to explain addictive consumption, the influence of advertising and the phenomenon of purchasing. Advertising is seen as a subtle psychological manipulation as it creates desires and anxiety in the potential consumers (Papers4you.com, 2006). Advertising can have both psychological and commercial aspects including misattribution, bias, suggestibility, and could be studied from global or local perspectives. Organisational consumption is seen as different from individual consumption although generic psychological theories of human motivation such as that of Maslow and Freud can explain consumer behaviour. However consumer behaviour can also be studied in terms of the notion of quality and its relation to customer satisfaction (Silva et al, 2005). The objective measures of customer needs, pricing and expectations of the customers may have to be analysed within Service Quality or Expectations models. Hogg and Garrow (2003) highlighted on the psychological aspects of gender and the influence on consumption of advertising. Advertising has been found to be processed and interpreted differently according to gender schemas and perceptions. This would in turn relate to psychological theories of gender such as the theory of biological determinism, Freudian theory of personality development, cognitive-developmental theory, and feminist theories. Bridging the gap between gender studies and gender differences in consumption could provide us with new insights on social and psychological aspects of consumer behavior. Orth (2005) indicated that consumer behaviour largely depends on consumer personality and susceptibility to interpersonal influence, consumer situational disposition such as risk taking and curiosity, purchasing behaviour and purchasing frequency and demographic variables such as age and gender. Contemporary consumer culture could be studied in relation to an excessive emphasis on beauty and appearance and an obsession with youth, a phenomenon that has seen an increased dependence on cosmetic surgery. The increased importance of the body in the consumer culture could be studied along with the significance of appearance in modern society, the role of marketing and advertising images, and the psychological need for self-expression (Papers4you.com, 2006).

Social psychology is however focused not just on consumption and public attitudes on advertising, but also on group behaviour, general individual and collective attitudes towards various social issues including war, work, violence and quality of life. This would in turn explain how individuals deal with stress, and focus on the psychological consequences of stress. Although psychological disorders may in some cases be a direct result of social stress, deviant behaviour in society could be explained with the help of several theories such as the theory of subcultures by Parker, the structural strain theory by Merton, or the theory of conformity. Social psychology is thus focused on explaining a wide range of issues from advertising and consumer behavior to public attitudes on social issues and antisocial behaviour.

Bibliography

Hogg M.K.; Garrow J. (2003) Gender, identity and the consumption of advertising Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, June, pp. 160-174(15)

Orth, Ulrich R.(2005) Consumer personality and other factors in situational brand choice variation The Journal of Brand Management, Volume 13, Number 2, November, pp. 115-133(19)

Papers For You (2006) "P/M/510. Advertising: means of psychological manipulation", Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtpsy3.htm [22/06/2006]
Papers For You (2006) "P/M/646. Causes of addictive consumption in modern society", Available from Papers4you.com [21/06/2006]

Silva Jr, Nelson da; Lírio, Daniel Rodrigues (2005) The postmodern re-codification of perversion: On the production of consumer behavior and its libidinal grammar International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Volume 14, Numbers 3-4, Number 3-4/December, pp. 217-223(7)

Online Degree in Psychology

2009-07-31T00:55:00.000-07:00

Make Online Psychology Master Degree Work for You

by Christina Williams

Are you considering going for your psychology master’s degree online? In the US, masters degrees consist of the Master of Arts or M.A.; The Master of Science Degree or M.S. and the Master of Business Administration or M.B.A and other masters degree programs such as the Master of Social Work, M.S.W. or a Master Degree in Psychology, M.S.

If you decide to go into one of the popular career professional tracks (nursing, MBA/Business, computer science or of course psychology), make sure to roll up your sleeves and put the time into to investigate which schools’ degree programs online are praised and recommended by students, employers and other important parties.

But first, let’s give some history here. As technology becomes a greater part of our lives, it’s obvious why online degrees would be seen as a more valid option for advancing in one’s career.

When it comes to the right online psychology masters degrees, it’s vital to search for the right accredited educational institution. This means that you have diligently done your part to earn the coveted degree. Employers correlate this to the ability of the person to look at things in a more mature perspective that implies that they would be a great asset to the company. Low-standard are rampant everywhere, even in the internet. more likely to be frauds. They will bombard you with empty promises and give you a worthless piece of paper that they will call a “diploma” in exchange for you hard earned money.

Online learning schools that swear they will grant you a top not degree in a matter of a few weeks are probably the kind you would want to stay away from. They’ll hammer you with big promises and say they’ll grant you the sky but at the end of the day, it’ll probably be a waste of your time.

A school that is accredited has been assessed by experts in order to judge the strength and soundness of its educational standard. To gain accreditation, online schools must demonstrate as much quality and effectiveness at training students as campus, off line colleges and universities.

The certification that you will get from the hoax online education providers are worth nil as employers will not recognize them. You might even have legal impediments when you try using them when applying for jobs.Colleges and universities are kept on their toes in terms of the quality of the training they give you.

Make certain you opt to attend a school that is absolutely an officially recognized academic institution. As the formal board that decides if a school is accredited or not maintains a regular evaluation schedule of thousands of schools, you should feel comforted. When you finally go for your ideal online psychology master degree program, you’ll end up far ahead of the curve by having done your research.

About the Author:
Excel in Life. Discover online psychology degrees and online psychology master degree information now.

Master Degree in Psychology

2009-07-31T00:48:00.000-07:00

So, what are you going to do with that psychology degree? With your college-educated insight into the human mind, you could do just about anything. Psychology is fundamental to nearly everything we do, and the degree is among the most versatile in the job market.

The qualities that make a good psychologist are also the qualities that make good business managers, health care workers, educators, or researchers. Psychology students need strong communications skills, compassion, research and analytical abilities, and last but not least, an understanding of what makes people tick.
Five Careers for Psychology Majors

Most psychology graduates do not go on to careers as psychologists. Business and healthcare are the top employers of psychology majors, and the top three careers are manager, sales representative, and social worker. Here's a look at five different ways to put your psychology degree to work.

1. School Counselor

With the quality of education under increasing scrutiny, school counseling is more important than ever. And psychology graduates are in a position to do the job well. Psychology-educated school counselors have the background to troubleshoot student performance and help them develop effective learning strategies. In addition, they can guide students in the introspection necessary to answer that crucial question: "What do I want to be when I grow up?"

School counseling typically requires specialized training in addition to a bachelor's degree. State certification requirements range from a teaching certificate to a master's degree in the field. The good news: an online Master of Education in School Counseling can be completed in as little as a year.

School counseling promises to be the fastest-growing counseling specialty, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

2. Social Worker

Social workers draw on their interpersonal and organizational skills to guide clients through psychological, social, or financial problems. Psychology graduates have the training to work effectively in what can be an emotionally draining role. Their counseling background enables them to maintain an appropriate level of empathy and support without taking on their client's problems.

A bachelor's degree in Psychology is sufficient qualification for many entry-level positions in social work, but most social workers go on to a two-year master's degree. An advanced degree is a requirement for supervisory, policy, and clinical positions.

Social workers can look forward to plentiful job opportunities: the field is projected to grow 36% through 2014. <

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3. Occupational Therapist

Occupational therapists help patients adapt to mental or physical challenges and achieve an independent lifestyle. The job takes practical ingenuity--occupational therapists develop tools to improve mobility, exercises to improve mental acuity, etc. But most of all, it takes psychological insight. Gadgets and strategies aren't worth much unless the therapist can inspire a patient to use them. That's where your psychology degree comes in.

As of 2007, board certification requirements include graduate-level training and an exam. Psychology majors will need to supplement their undergraduate training with a master's degree in Occupational Therapy.

Earning that additional degree should pay off: Occupational Therapy ranks among the Department of Labor's Fastest-Growing Careers.

4. Marketing Executive

Psychology graduates excel at Good Samaritan roles, but can they take on the business world? Yes, say employers of managers, sales representatives, business strategists, and marketers. A bachelor's in psychology is a valued qualification in all these careers.

Marketing executives, for example, rely on their understanding of human behavior to communicate effectively. Marketing initiatives play to mass audiences, and they need to be carefully calibrated to drive specific responses. Psychology majors understand what motivates consumers, and are therefore able to develop effective promotions, merchandising strategies, and advertising campaigns.

Psychology undergraduates can proceed directly into a marketing career without additional training, but many will find professional education an asset. MBA programs and Marketing certificates are readily available online.

Consumer spending is alive and well, and so is the job market for marketing specialists; the BLS predicts faster than average growth through 2014.

5. Criminologist

Criminologists draw on their insight into the human psyche--plus their research skills--to catch criminals and improve law enforcement. Psychological profiling is a major asset in criminal investigations. Criminologists review patterns of behavior and present their research in reports. Some assume a more active role, inspecting crime scenes for evidence and questioning suspects.

Criminology is "exciting," "interesting," and "unpredictable," according to its practitioners, but it is also competitive. A psychology bachelor's degree is the standard qualification, but many boost their career profile with graduate work in behavioral sciences.
Criminal justice occupations are booming, but criminologists face a competitive market; demand is higher for those with investigative skills.

Understanding the human mind, it turns out, is a critical asset no matter where you turn. Psychology majors graduate to a world of career opportunities. What are you going to be when you grow up?

Source; Clare Kaufman

Forensic Psychology Degree

2009-07-31T00:43:00.000-07:00

Forensic Psychologists apply psychological theory and principles in a number of legal areas, including child abuse, sexual abuse, criminal responsibility, and personal capacity to manage one's affairs and stand trial. They work in a variety of legal settings but are most often recognized for their involvement in the processing of a crime scene.

Forensic Psychology involves the application of psychology to legal issues through administering psychological tests, gathering hospital records, police reports, and witness statements. Forensic psychologists are expected to synthesize psychological analysis with legal relevance of cases involving child custody disputes, child abuse, competency, criminal responsibility, and advising judges on sentencing. Most forensic psychologists possess an advanced psychology degree at the Master or PhD level or a specialized Forensic Psychology M.A. degree. Obtaining a forensic psychology degree online has never been more readily available. The colleges listed below all offer forensic psychology degrees.

Careers in Forensic Psychology

2009-07-31T00:38:00.001-07:00

FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY is the application of psychology to the criminal justice system. Many people confuse Forensic Psychology with forensic science. Although the two are closely related, there are many differences. The primary difference is that forensic psychologists delve into the vast psychological perspectives and apply them to criminal justice system. On the other hand, forensic psychologists frequently deal with legal issues, such as public policies, new laws, competency, and also whether a defendant was insane at the time a crime occurred. All of these issues weave together psychology and law topics and are essential to the discipline of Forensic Psychology. Forensic Psychology knowledge is used in various forms, such as in treating mentally ill offenders, consulting with attorneys (e.g., on picking a jury), analyzing a criminal's mind and intent, and practicing within the civil arena.

Individuals interested in pursuing a Forensic Psychology career would have take psychology and criminal justice courses at the core of their academic studies. There is a very limited number of academic institutions that specifically offer a Forensic Psychology degree. Clinical, social, cognitive, criminal investigative, and developmental psychology also help to prepare one for this speciality.

A forensic psychologist may chose to solely focus his/her career on research, ranging anywhere from examination of eyewitness testimony to learning how to improve interrogation methods. Another form of Forensic Psychology work is public policy, in which researchers can help in the design of correctional facilities and prisons. More generally, Forensic Psychology covers territory between the traditional options of criminal justice (i.e., academic training, law enforcement, and corrections).

Applying to Graduate School in Psychology

2009-07-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been told that you would make a great psychologist? Perhaps you've heard this from friends, who rely on you for advice and wise counsel. Or maybe faculty, pointing to your analytical mind and interpersonal skill, have encouraged you. Maybe your own enthusiasm and ability in psychology classes has sparked your interest in following this career path.

No matter which factors influenced your decision, once you determine that you want to apply to graduate school in psychology, a number of additional considerations await you. Some of the issues you'll face include the following.

1. Which specialty area?
Psychology is a very rich and diverse field. As one illustration, consider the American Psychological Association (APA), which currently lists more than 50 "divisions," including behavioral neuroscience, developmental, industrial-organizational, and clinical psychology to mention just some of the better known specialties. Deciding which to select depends, in part, on what you want to do professionally. For instance, if you want to work with clients, you'll probably lean toward one of the license-eligible specialties such as clinical or counseling psychology. If you want to focus on research and teaching, then experimental psychology may be your preference. However, there are a variety of other factors you also might want to consider such as differences in competition for graduate school admission, the length of training, minimum requirements for professional practice, and future employment outlook. For instance, admissions for license-eligible specialties generally tend to be somewhat more competitive (with clinical psychology being among the most competitive), involve a longer duration of training (including a yearlong predoctoral internship experience), and require passing a licensing examination for independent practice. Due to shifting market forces, the employment outlook for different specialties can be difficult to forecast. However, at the present time, health psychology, neuropsychology, and pediatric psychology seem to be especially popular.
Given the many factors to consider, deciding on a specialty can involve a complex decision-making process. One place to start is by reviewing a couple of books on this topic. Some of the best are edited volumes containing chapters written by psychologists working in different areas (e.g., Sternberg, 1997). Armed with this overview, you might gradually begin to narrow the field. Discuss your thoughts with your advisor. If you know psychologists specializing in an area you are considering, make contact and arrange to spend some time talking with them or, if possible, taking their classes or working on their research teams. If your psychology department has graduate programs in the specialty, talk with graduate students about what the training is like and their hopes for the future. The time and effort spent not only will help your immediate decision-making process but also will make you a more informed consumer when you do apply.

2. Which program?
Having decided on a specialty area, your next task is to identify programs to which you might want to apply. One excellent source of information is the APA publication entitled Graduate Study in Psychology (2001), which contains a description of graduate programs nationwide. Most university libraries will have this guide among their holdings. Examination of this publication is a good first step to surveying the range of possibilities available. If you are able to relocate, consider programs from a wide range of geographic areas. To the extent that you are tied to a specific location, your options will be more limited.
After you identify the programs that pique your interest, have a look at their websites. For programs that you continue to find appealing, request additional program materials. Pay particular attention to the program description and listing of faculty interests. A key question centers on how well your background and interests match those of the program and current faculty. For instance, if you are interested in conducting research on schizophrenia and no one on the faculty works in that area, you probably would not be happy in that program. In sum, familiarize yourself sufficiently well with the program materials to determine if you and the program match. You'll probably want to eliminate those programs where the "fit" is not good. Gradually, the ones that represent a good match with your background and interests should rise to the top of your "apply" list. For each program on your final list, you should be able to articulate the reasons you believe you and the program match and to identify faculty with whom you would be particularly interested in working.

3. Who should write letters of recommendation?
An important part of the application process is identifying individuals who will be asked to write reference letters in support of your application. You should make this decision with great care. Ensure that you select letter writers who are able to comment very specifically on your abilities to pursue graduate study.
If your only experience with a faculty member was in the context of a class in which 80 other students were enrolled, it is unlikely that person will be able to say much about you that would be helpful to a graduate selection committee, even if you did come to class regularly and get an A on all your exams. A much better choice would be the faculty person you assisted on a research project or the psychologist who closely supervised you on a practicum.

4. What is a "personal statement"?
In the applications for most programs, you will be asked to write a paragraph or two about yourself. The personal statement is an opportunity to provide a sample of your best writing and gives you the chance to describe how your academic background and professional goals are consistent with the program's mission and faculty specialty areas. This is not the place to reveal deep, dark, personal or family secrets. It's always a good idea to have your current advisor review your statement in draft form. In this way, you will increase the chances that you are clearly conveying the points you intended to express. Obviously, you'll also want to be sure your writing is grammatically correct and the final copy is free of typographical errors.

5. What if questions arise while completing the application?
The majority of applications have detailed instructions attached. If you are sure you have read the instructions carefully, it is perfectly acceptable to seek clarification of unclear questions or other issues that arise. A good place to start is with your advisor or other faculty at your current school. If, after local consultation, the question remains, contact the program directly. Depending on the question and the program, you might find the program secretary helpful (e.g., if the question has to do with the correct mailing address). However, as the person responsible for program administration, the program director or director of clinical training is generally available to discuss applicants' questions or concerns. In fact, if the application is unclear in some way, it would be very helpful for the director to have that feedback. Of course, whenever you contact program faculty or staff directly, you should endeavor to "put your best foot forward."

6. What about those application deadlines?
Application deadlines are not uniform across programs. Therefore, the various deadlines are important to keep in mind as you put together your applications for different programs. Keep in mind that the application deadline is the date by which all materials must be received, not just the part of the application for which you are responsible. To ensure that your materials arrive on time, request your GRE scores and letters of recommendation well in advance. At least one month before the first deadline, provide your letter writers with a list of the programs to which you are applying, the name of the individual to whom the letter should be sent, the deadline date for each, a copy of your recent curriculum vitae, and any additional reference forms required by the programs. Moreover, it is customary to provide a stamped, addressed envelope for each letter to be sent. It's not a bad idea to ask your letter writers if other information would be helpful to them.

7. To check or not to check?
Universities vary in the way they process graduate school applications. Some schools ask you to assemble the various pieces and submit one complete packet. For example, your letter writers may be asked to provide letters to you in sealed envelopes for inclusion in your application. However, at many schools, the pieces of the applications (e.g., your part, the reference letters coming directly from faculty, GRE scores, etc.) arrive independently and travel on a circuitous route through various graduate school divisions before they reach the program for which they are intended. In addition, at large schools, the admissions staff are processing incoming applications for many different departments and programs all at about the same time. Consequently, there are numerous opportunities for things to go awry. For these reasons, you'll want to check to be sure your application arrived and that all the various components are there. Some programs will not review incomplete applications.

8. What if the program director or program faculty calls?
Once you send in your application, there is a chance that a representative of the program (such as the program director or other faculty member) may contact you. Although not everyone will be contacted by phone, it is wise to prepare for the possibility. Toward this end, several points are worth considering.
The phone number you list on your application should be one that will answer during normal business hours (even if the answer is by machine) and reliably transmit a message to you. For instance, if you share a phone with several roommates, be sure that they will take messages accurately and get them to you in a timely way. If you share an answering machine with several others, make every effort to ensure that no one will erase an incoming message in error. This also would be a good time to review the greeting on your answering machine. Does your greeting present you as you would like to be seen by others or does it create an impression that does not reflect your assets? If you recently added a greeting in questionable taste as a joke among your friends, this might be the time to reconsider it.
Be aware that the timing of a call may seem somewhat unpredictable from your perspective. In other words, you could be in the middle of anything when a call comes. For instance, if you listed your cell phone number as your phone contact number, you could be shopping, rushing to your next class, or arguing with a significant other when you are phoned. Make every effort to minimize the influence of these extraneous factors on the professionalism with which you conduct yourself during a conversation with program representatives.
Even if you applied to many programs, try to keep in mind all the program names and key characteristics. If you don't remember applying to the program or remember very little about the program, you could find yourself in an embarrassing position in the event that someone calls. Be prepared to discuss typical questions such as why you applied, your fit with the program, and faculty with whom you might like to work if you were to be accepted.

9. To interview in person or by phone?
Programs differ in the way they handle interviews. However, if you are given an option to interview either in person or by phone, it is well worth the effort to select the in-person interview. Visiting the campus and meeting personally with faculty, staff, and students not only gives you much more information on which to make a decision but also provides data that are difficult to detect based on the written program materials alone. For instance, during the course of visiting for a personal interview, you'll get a sense about how you might fit with the other students, program climate, graduate student office space, and campus facilities (e.g., library, gym). If you are unfamiliar with the city, a visit could help you decide if you would be comfortable living there for several years.

10. What if I don't receive an offer of admission?
Application to graduate school has become increasingly competitive over the years. In many programs, there are far more excellent students seeking admittance than graduate student slots available. For this reason, the absence of an offer does not mean you are not a good candidate for graduate school. If you are not admitted this year, take time to review your application strategy and background. Did you limit yourself to a very small geographic area? Are there things you might do differently in preparing your application? Does your interview style require some fine-tuning? Are there areas of your background that could benefit from some additional work (e.g., research experience, course work)? If so, make some changes based on what you learned. Take some time to strengthen your application and reapply next year.

References

American Psychological Association. (2001). Graduate study in psychology: 2002 edition. Washington, DC: Author.

Sternberg, R. (Ed.). (1997). Career paths in psychology: Where your degree can take you. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

by Lisa Terre - University of Missouri-Kansas City

How To Talk To Your Baby – And Understand What She’s Saying Back

2009-07-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

It is incredible, but within a years time your baby will progress from random crying to talking. This is quite an achievement for your baby and in a very short period of time. In this chapter we will look at your baby’s development when it comes to language. You’ll also discover what you can expect to see every month but it’s important to remember that these stages of your baby’s development are broad and because every baby is different these are not meant as exact milestones.

One month. Your baby will be able to understand speech long before actually talking. From birth he will look at your face and listen to your voice. He may make a small range of noises that will start to mean something to you - these may be made when he experiences feelings of hunger or pain (such as crying and certain sounds while he is breathing). When your baby is eating, you may notice him making sucking type noises and sounds of contentment.The way that your baby cries is an important communication method while he is actually unable to talk. Crying lays the foundation for speech as your baby learns to control his vocal cords. Crying is also a baby’s way of indicating hunger, discontentment, or general discomfort. Through responding to this crying you let your baby know that she is important to you – and this can really be reassuring for a young infant.

Two months. As a child enters his second month he is far more aware of the world – things such as sounds, even that of your voice, will amuse and fascinate your child. Change the tone of your voice and this will keep him amused. Your baby will respond with a variety of cooing sounds, vowel-like sounds, and sometimes some consonant sounds such as a “k”. You will find that your baby has quite a collection of cooing sounds that she uses to communicate with you as well as discover how to use the sound of her own voice. During this time, try and talk with your baby – this will encourage her response and help in the development process. By looking into your baby’s eyes you are communicating an important thing to her – that you are listening.
Three months. By now you will find that your baby is able to recognize your voice and may come to you or face you when your voice is heard. You may notice him laugh out aloud and may even scare himself by doing this (as he does not initially know that he is the one making the sounds). Your baby will be making sounds such as “ahhhh gooo”. He will squeal when he is happy and content, again often startling himself as he learns his own abilities.

At this stage you should not only talk to your baby but also introduce other communication forms such as singing and story telling. The greater your effort in trying to talk with him, the better his response is likely to be.

Four months. By now more and more communication should be taking place with your baby. You may notice a greater amount of smiling – while his babbling may have a noticeably singsong quality to it, often ranging into a high pitch that delights him as he learns to like the sound of his own voice. There will be lots of repetition to the sounds that your baby makes.

It is important that you always respond to your baby’s “oohs” and “ahhs” and whatever other communication methods she is using - respond with your own voice tones. This is your chance to have a “chat time” with your baby and you should take advantage of these times – you are helping him to discover the art of conversation. There will also be certain times when your baby may also not be in the mood for talking. He will turn his head in the other direction and may put his arm over his face. He may be showing signs of anger or frustration by crying out, especially if something is taken away from him.

Five months. As each month progresses you will find that your baby is becoming better at communicating. It’s possible that you will notice him imitate some sounds and gestures. By now he’ll most likely be able to let you know if he’s happy or sad. When attention is wanted your baby will babble until he is given the attention he feels he deserves. Interestingly, if you always respond to his communication efforts (whatever these may be) he’ll repeat them whenever he wants your attention this way.
During this month it’s likely that your baby will be looking at your mouth moving while you talk. Talk to him from across the room and he’ll be able to find you with ease. He is learning to control his vocal sounds as he watches your response to his sounds.

Six months. Your baby may now be using consonant-vowel combinations. It’s quite possible that he has discovered his mirror reflection and is probably having conversations with himself. Your baby’s language is becoming much more precise.
Here are some ways that you can help your baby develop her language skills:
Speak very slowly and clearly.
Identify and point out items, objects and people as you talk about them.
Use shorter sentences sentences.
Using repetition when singing songs and nursery rhymes helps the learning process.
Reading to your baby is a good idea and should be done as often as possible – ask your baby questions and point things out to make the process as interactive as possible.
Let your baby respond in his own way when communicating with her.

Seven months. Your baby is now continuing to learn how to use his newfound language skills. He may be able to do things such as wave goodbye and may accompany his wave with babbling sounds. He can say “mama” or “dada”.

Eight months. Your baby is playing games such as pat a cake and peek-a-boo. Even though he can’t speak the words that belong to these games, he can babble and talk to himself. It’s likely that your baby knows what the word “No” means by now as well.
Nine to twelve months. It’s possible that by now your baby understands requests and commands such as “give it” or “don’t touch that”. Similarly, she may understand simple questions such as “where’s your rattle?” At this time you should be encouraging your baby to use gestures (and you should respond to them). For example if your baby indicates she wants to be picked up then say “you want to be picked up?” while picking her up. This helps the learning process. You should also talk about everything that you do, and use gestures (and short sentences) as you’re doing them.

Here are some ways to help your baby with the learning process:
Look at books and talk about the pictures in simple languages. Where possible try and use books that your baby is able to hold.
Talk often to your baby using simple words to identify objects in his life. Name trees, numbers, colours, and animals as you take your baby for a walk. You should also use your baby’s name often – this way she will be able to recognise it.
Talk back to your child when she talks with you.
Introduce concepts to your baby, such as the “big” dog or the “little” mouse.
Give your baby time to get his words out; don’t be tempted to complete sentences for him.
Continue to read to your baby as much as possible. Reading should be part of your daily routine.
From day one start to talk in a simple, short and uncomplicated way with your baby – even though she will not understand what you are saying this is laying the foundations for learning language.

Twelve months. After one year babies are generally able to say one or two words and are able to understand 25 words or more. For example if a person in the room asks, “where is daddy?” your baby will look for you. Your baby is also able to point at things (and ask for things in this way).

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keziah Engineer is the author of the best selling ebook “THE BABY CARE BOOK”. You can find more of her books at www.global-ebooks.com

Self Motivation : Building The Techniques

2009-07-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

There are many methods to build motivation in someone. The only lasting thing is self motivation. There are four techniques that anyone can use to build self motivation. This article will describe the four techiques in their priority order. These are quite simple techniques but powerful. If anyone follows them consistently, he or she should be able to keep the motivation level high at any time.

Fear and reward are two most commonly used methods to build motivation in someone. But, these methods are temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation. Motivation actually is the enthusiasm of doing something. It refers to inner feeling, strong desires, and expectation about something. You may sometimes loose the necessary level of the inner drive to get something done. Self motivation is what you need to boost the level of your inner drive to achieve your goals.

Self motivation is a form of self encouragement. You will say to yourself that you have the capacity to do better and eventually get whatever you want in your life. This inner enthusiasm will push you forward until you achieve your set goals. You may not even be aware of any reward in the beginning but you keep working on it. You work on it because your inner strength says that you can attain your goals. This is your will power - the driving force behind your self motivation. Self motivation is a combination of will power, goals and ability to continue attaining the highest level of your success.

You need self motivation to accomplish tasks you have now. Along the way, you may be facing with situations that are discouraging and can bring down your motivational level. You need to keep yourself really focused on your objectives to maintain the level of your self motivation. Here are techniques you can adopt to start acquiring higher motivational level and achieve greater success.

Writing Your PlanSuccess does not come easy without any proper plan. Failing to plan is actually planning to fail. Therefore, you must give a greater emphasis on having well prepared plan to achieve your goals. You simply need to have your plan written on a piece of paper. Having your plan clearly written gives you more psychological inner drive to work toward achieving your goals. You create more enthusiasm and can see more clearly how you want to achieve your goals. Thus, your commitments will be much stronger.

When writing down your goals, state very specific terms. For example, if you want to accumulate certain amount of money, state exactly how much you want. You must also set a specific date to fulfill your goals and specific rewards for achieving your goals. Writing is not enough if you do not follow up with some reading. You have to make a point to read your written plan at least twice a day. Once in the morning before you start your day; and one at night just before you go to bed. This simple routine will keep you stay motivated.

Be realistic, things happen in life. Unforeseen circumstances may sometimes require you to make adjustments in your plan. Go ahead and make the necessary adjustments. But, try to maintain realistic limits. Do not make it too easy or too hard for you to achieve. Set it just right to maintain your motivation level.

Visualizing Your GoalsYou need to simply make your goals as visual as possible to maintain your motivation at the highest level possible. If your goal is to own an apartment, find pictures of your desired apartment keep them in front of your eyes. Visualizing your goals creates a positive impact on your mind and keeps your motivation surging. When you feel very down, visuals will help you provide the necessary boost to surge your motivation level.

Like the written plan, you have to make a point to see the visuals at least twice a day. The images you see of yourself achieving the goals you desire will instill strong impact in your mind, which will control your actions to maintain your level of motivation.

Controlling Your FeelingThis one is not quite straight forward action. It has to do with your feeling in your mind. You need to control what you feel. Your feeling will reflect your mental attitude and moods. If you feel upset and depressed, you will feel as if everything crashes on you. This feeling reflects on your physical self. You will lose concentration and everything you do will be full of mistakes. You have to learn to start controlling your feeling.

The simplest way will be to start your day with a smile. No doubt this can be fake at times due to things that happen around you, but you have got to master this simple task to ensure that things around you will be pleasant and enjoyable for the rest of the day. You can feel the enthusiasm and energy level soaring. You will be able to stay motivated and spread positive energy around you.

Your mental and physical attitudes work closely. Hence, to stay motivated, learn to develop cheerful and confident characters by simply walking with your face up and smile on it. You will realize that your confidence and self motivation developing. It is probably kind of hard to maintain the action, but with time, once it naturally becomes your way of life, you are able to motivate yourself even during difficult times.

Giving Your Effort A RewardYou need to give yourself a reward for what you have achieved. This one simply acts as an appreciation to yourself in achieving your goals. You have to credit yourself for what you have gone through, your determination and your hard work in ensuring your success.

Earlier I said reward is a temporary method to motivate someone. In this case, a reward is not what keeps you motivated. It is just an element to add flavor to your self motivation exercise. You may want to think of a simple reward that sounds reasonable with what you have achieved. Do not get over excited about this. Meaning, the reward has to be at par with your level of achievement. Take this positively to further enhance your level of self motivation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fadzil is an entrepreneur, writer, and web content developer. He enjoys helping individuals, who are excited about self improvement and attaining personal success, to learn the simple steps to achieve their goals. To learn more about such system, please go to: http://www.wisdomgateway.com/6wlmover/life_makeover.htm . He is also the founder of WisdomGateway which helps internet users to obtain knowledge in the area of Business Matters, Healthy Living, Hobbies & Activities, Internet Marketing, and Real Estate. To visit the site, please go to http://www.wisdomgateway.com .

Obesity

2009-05-08T02:41:00.000-07:00

Obesity or the ordinary as we know obesity is a problem that is quite amongst troubled adolescents. On young girls, obesity is becoming a serious problem, because the desire to appear perfect is often defined with the body has a slim / slender and proportionately, is the craving for them. This is worsened by the many ads on television, newspapers and other mass media that always stick-figure women the slim figure and the various ad herb medicines, food and beverages to streamline the body. As a result, millions dollars to spend strict diet, medication, and treatment-treatment in order to lose weight.

Not different from the young girls, adolescent men are afraid to be fat. For them, men who have excess weight will be considered the problems serious enough to attract the type of opponent. Many adolescent males who expect to create the ideal body (a little muscular / stocky) and their desire for it on the part of the activities are channeled through youth sports, but unfortunately for those overweight sporting activities akan feel as punishment. This is often used by the seller of the products, drugs or food penurun weight and lightweight sports equipment.

View the phenomenon with which this happens now, is not excessive if it is said that Obesity is a complex problem often faced by adolescents and adults is also included. This is reflected in a lot of money spent to do the diet, buy drugs weight loss, sports equipment that aims to reduce body weight.

Obesity or overweight occurs when the body fat (obese) because of the cumulation adipose (adipocytes: a network of stored fat body-specific) excessive. Obesity is a condition so where someone has a weight heavier than the weight ideally occur because of the cumulation of fat in the body.

Obesity in the face, often a teenager react excessive. Not infrequently they were also frustrated because even if the strict diet is to consume and herb medicines or weight loss, the body weight does not decrease. What actually happened? To answer these questions we need to see the factors that caused Obesity. According to experts, is based on the results of research, Obesity can be affected by various factors. These factors are genetic factors, disfungsi a part of the brain, the pattern of excessive eating, lack of movement / sport, emotional, and environmental factors

Want to lose your Weight? do not Stress

2009-05-08T02:31:00.000-07:00

Lose weight often becomes a major problem and create stress. Various kinds of diet from the most simple to the most expensive have been tried, but the body weight down briefly, not long then increased again. What's wrong? So what diet is best?

Lose weight in fact closely related to the level of stress someone. If we see more people over the age of 100 years, most of them have the ideal body weight does not alias excess body weight. World modern psychology does not call this a sign of neurosisme. They successfully handle stress well, so in general they are more healthy so that most people's measure kortisol they are also more balanced, the body's immune function better and the ratio of metabolism maintained properly.

Indeed, life in this modern era, we often have to deal with things that can cause stress, ranging from congestion on the road, office affairs, domestic affairs and so forth. This is part of the dynamics of modern life. In the United States alone during the last 10 years the number of visits to the spa to remove the stress increased 71%.

Decrease in stress levels can reduce body weight - this is the result of several research studies in the United States is from Yale University, University of California and several other. If the stress level down someone, kortisol degree (major stress hormone in the body associated with a number of health problems - including Obesity) return to normal level so that it can reduce body fat content, control blood pressure, balance blood sugar and control appetite.

In addition, yoga, massage, exercise and eating the right also to provide benefits to control stress and anti kortisol. Stress causes increased body weight, because kortisol circulating and provide high signal to the brain to increase appetite. Kortisol also provide signals to fat cells for as much as we may hold fat, even when we are trying to reduce calories Feed to lose weight.

If your stress, reduce body weight is also more difficult, because of excessive kortisol slow body metabolism. That is why if you really want the weight of the body and the ideal body shape, you should not in a state of stress. In addition to regular sport, healthy living and eating the right way, manage your stress level, so that the lower body weight becomes easier.

Stress signaling from Skin and Hair

2009-05-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

Problems deadline work, couples who are cranky, the boss is always not satisfied until the child is sick. All these problems are common, but can result in stress if you can not mengkontrolnya. Stress can create emotional and physical changes, such as quickly tired, dizzy, or easy emotions. However, stress can also lead to changes in your condition dermatology. Dermatoligist Flor A. Mayoral, MD, FAAD, clinical consultant at the department of dermatology and skin surgery at the Medical Faculty of the University of Miami, Florida, due to the stress conditions that affect the skin, hair and nails, and to control the tip-gejela these symptoms.

Stress and Skin

When a stress, production of hormones (cortisol) rises. This hormone to increase production of excessive oil in the body. As a result, the pimple appears. A research note that the Archives of Dermatology, Psychological Stress Perturbs Epidermal Permeability Barrier Homeostasis, revealed that stress has a negative effect so that the skin can not function normally. One consequence is the emergence of even pustule on the person who does not even have a pimple problem.

Stress and hair

There are many reasons why hair may fall out. However, Dr. Flor more confident, stress is a major cause of Hair Loss suddenly. Explanation is when a stress, the hair entry in telogen phase (of hair fall out). Telogen effluvium is the phase normal hair fall that appears in the 3 months after an incident that makes someone stress. However, the hair will grow again within 6 - 9 months. Dr. Flor explained although this is normal, but should still be examined by dermatologist for more thorough examination. "I can not ask the patient to make a strict diet because of lack of nutrition and a decrease in body weight can make a drastic kerontokkan hair," said Dr. Flor.

Psychological Condition on Pregnancy

2009-05-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

Burden of physical and mental usually experienced by pregnant women because of hormonal and physical changes to it, such as a broad form of the body and emotional condition of the up and down. This burden is often worsened with the emergence of trauma pregnancy, so that the problems faced by mothers is more complex.

Trauma during pregnancy, can come from many factors. Trivial things such as watch horror movie can bring trauma when the previous problem if the mother does not witness any type of movie: Horror, fight, or thriller. However, when pregnant, the scene is horrific, chilling, or the imprint can be very distressing and culminate into trauma. Mother so afraid to go to the bathroom alone, afraid steer the car, worried that something will occur that threaten the life, the thrill alone in the night, and so forth. This fear became very abundant, so that it is the psychological condition.

Not all mothers to realize that physical and psychological aspects of the two things are related, the influence of mutual-influence, or almost inseparable. If less good physical condition, the process of thinking, mood, emotion and control the action in daily life will be affected by negative electrical current. Among other things, mood or emotions quickly changed circumstances, increased sensitivity, and changes in patterns or food choices that will also affect the self-concept of the mother.

Psychological conditions experienced by the mother during pregnancy, and will again affect the physiological activity in itself. The dark mood and emotions that explode-tap ledak can affect the heart, blood pressure, production of adrenalin, sweat gland activity, sekresi sour stomach, and others. Trauma, stress, or psychological stress can also create physical symptoms such as tired, listless, easy to anger, anxiety, dizziness, nausea, or feeling lazy.

Because the changes affect the physical and psychological aspects of it, so easy for pregnant women to experience the trauma. According to Shinto, this trauma that can be perceived by the fetus. In fact, embryo already showed reaction to the stimulation comes from outside the body of his mother. Meanwhile, in the development of the fetus, there are times that are considered critical to the establishment of a body organ. Therefore, would not want pregnant women should maintain the physical and psychological conditions so that the baby can grow healthy.

5 Tips of Destination Wedding

2009-05-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

Marriage is a form integrates its men and women to one in the same destination. And one of the goals of marriage is to reach eternal happiness that couples living together. However, the road to happiness is not always smooth. Many obstacles, challenges, and issues that sometimes thwart the road-house stairs. Well, how do we anticipate that house-ladder, we're not rocking? These are the 5 tips to a happy marriage.

Love
Love is a tremendous energy to develop and refine your personality, and her husband. Cinta akan help remove all the obstacles that appear in the middle of the household. Marriage that was built without a foundation of love is actually quite hot-empty. Although not the only condition, love is a role in building the eternal marriage. Thus, love in marriage is something absolute and must be.

Trust
Without a sense of mutual trust between the couple's family, the marriage will not necessarily run mulus. Mutual trust will deliver you the feeling of a secure and comfortable. The key, do not chase wasted belief that given your husband. Wife need not suspect the husband, and vice versa, the husband also should not suspect his wife. Build a sense of trust is also a manifestation of adult love.

Sex
Marriage without sex can be spelled like vegetables without salt. Trite. Yes, sex is necessary. Although sexual activity and actually aims to get children, but men also need to develop to achieve happiness sex couples life together. Principles of good sex is an openness and honesty in the needs of your own. Basically, sexual activity is to satisfy each other, but avoided the need to exploit the impression pair. Sex fun activities that will give positive impact for both of you.

The presence of children
Children are a gift of priceless. Marriage without the presence of children often trigger the problem itself. Many families or husband-wife pair that are difficult to get children and desperately trying, and have offspring tend to be. The presence of a child also makes the husband-wife bound and have responsibility for the rearing, caring and love together.

Keeping romantic
Sometimes, the husband-wife pair who have been long enough to build mahligai home is no longer a matter of concern on this one. No words of praise, have dinner together, even as attention is expensive goods. In fact, maintaining romantisme required by the husband-wife pair up anytime, not just when they are engaged. Just to give flowers, kissed cheeks, holding hands, praising each other, or walking through places romantic love dash back to the pair of your life.

Love, Wedding and The Consequence

2009-05-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

You often hear of certain people who get married because it was forced. Well, they certainly marry without love. They assumes, if it is habitual, future love will grow as well. Begitupun sure you frequently hear the existence of a forbidden love affair. Parents forbid girls will be engaged with the people who loved the girls as less promising rate. As a result, love the girls did not continue to the wedding.

Still very much the thought that the marriage will make people happy forever. 'Living happily ever after', so the term in English. Is it? Many scientists as a myth to say. Feeling happier certainly decrease the time and ride at the other. Furthermore there is no wedding without a problem a bit.

A national survey in the United States by the National Opinion Research Center, in 2001, showed that only 40% of adults are married, 23% who never married, 19% in the divorce, and 16% are living separately, to report experiencing feeling very happy in their lives. This is more or less the same found in Canada and Europe.

However, it is clear that those who marry more that happy feeling. Note that they are married are generally more happy than those who are not married. Married men and married women happier than those who never married, divorced or separated. On those who do not marry, the average suicide and depression is much higher compared with those who married. A survey conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States found that the average level of depression increased by two to four times greater in adults who do not marry.

Conceive Baby Girl

2009-05-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

Before USG facility to be very common, the sex of the baby is often based on the prospective mother's stomach and heart tap. Guess as mangosteen fruit, which is more fantasy than fact decorated.

However, without actually relying on any USG, often a young child who is not bothered ketulungan, is perhaps foreshadow the middle of baby girls. A number of studies from different countries confirm that suspicion.

Especially in the prospective mother is drunk on trisemester early pregnancy that often culminate in the hospital care. Condition called hyperemesis gravidarum was intensively examined by experts epidemiology from the University of Washington.

Research conducted on 2110 pregnant women who received treatment in the hospital on first three semester, and also of the 9783 pregnant women without any problems.

Researchers found that in fact the first group, most of the women delivered a baby. Even in the prospective mother is treated in the hospital no less than three days, as many as 80% of women delivered babies.

Similar research conducted by The Lancet published jurmal and Epidemiology, also confirmed the same.

Still ongoing research to further explore the causes. Most of the shows because of the influence of hormone production during the female fetus baby.

Baby Sign Language

2009-05-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Research has indicated that the brain development of infants more quickly than their vocabulary. Babies know what they want and whenever they want, before they are able to request it.

Is not this brisk, if you let your baby know when they are hungry, thirsty, tired or cold.

There are many advantages to use sign language with babies beckon you. Many studies of babies recently have produced some signs signaling and benefits such as below:

Benefits signaling baby sign language;

- Reduce stress signaling alerts for you and your baby.

- Baby you will rarely crying and cranky as a result of the reduced stress

- Sign of signaling does not prevent a pronunciation and language development. This will enhance and stimulate it.

- Sign of signaling can help you, as parents, know what you like a baby and not be loved, to tell you when your baby is tired, to tell you when your baby is hungry or thirsty, to help you identify if your baby is sick or injured, the baby you communicate using simple sign signaling (drinking, more eating, and can be more)

- You will spend less time playing "the guessing game" trying to guess what is actually a baby you want.

- Pregnancy or your child will be happy if they are able to communicate with their thoughts and desires.

- Baby you will increase the level self-confidence and sense of self-esteem to be higher.

Many people think that babies who are taught sign language akan signaling slower to learn to speak. Although this is not the problem. Which is of the truth. Research has shown that babies who are taught sign signaling akan more motivated and want to speak more quickly than a baby or child who did not communicate before.

View of Psychoanalysis against Violence

2009-05-04T01:02:00.000-07:00

Talk about violence from the point of view of psychology, it's not complete if no review of the theory of psychoanalysis is presented by Freud. Freud is one of the fathers of psychology's imagination in the field of psychology (and even in other sectors) is very large, irrespective of all the controversy in the field of religion.

According to the theory of psychoanalysis, the structure of the human soul is divided into three, the superego, ego and id. Superego work based on the principle ideal (that should). Fill in all the superego is the ban and dibatinkan (internalization) of the parents and figures of authority (and the teachings of religion) for the child. Ego work based on the principle of reality. Egolah a particularly conscious of the behavior of individuals. While en easement based on the principle of work / fun. Personal health is a private who has a strong ego, so that is able to control the impetus comes from the id and super ego is.

Basically, human behavior is driven by two primary stimulus, the encouragement to live (Eros) and the encouragement to die (Thanatos). Encouraged to live and then by Freud in a specific sex in the stimulus (Libido) as its core. This is because Freud saw practice based on experience, many patients who have experienced mental disturbances because they can not afford to express their sexual encouragement reasonably. Libido is the energy that fills in the id.

On the other hand, the energy comes from the superego Thanatos. That is why people are strong and dominate superegonya virginity, easily surmounted worries and feeling guilty and ultimately create a covered individual feeling despair and depression (even the desire for suicide). This happens because the energy is directed to the Thanatos themselves. Meanwhile, when the energy is directed to the Thanatos, this will appear in the form of aggression that is destruktif including the various acts of violence.

Based on the view of psychoanalysis can be drawn the conclusion that basically encouraged to perform acts of violence that has become a basic human nature (the default). All human potential (without exception) to violence (either against themselves or to others).

Tips Holiday without Stress

2009-05-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

Calculate the travel, adapt to new weather, late re-employment or family created a headache? Holidays should be fun. This the tips. Do not let stress damage your vacation time. Stress during the holiday is often the case, but if you have a prophylactic his case can be solved easily.

1. Start the day with healthy food in the morning. Consumption is also multi-vitamins and protein and with a focus on complex carbohydrates that the body must be obtained. This means do not forget nuts, fruits and vegetables. Avoid consuming lots of sugar. If you start this habit eg consume its vitamin B complex or protein increased about 2 am. Vitamins in the right brain will make you make a good decision. This will also affect the stress and behavior.

2. If you consume the right food you should also drink less alcohol. Try also reduce the portion of food. Better to eat little but often but most of all.

3. Try to write down the schedule all of your holiday in an agenda. You design it efficiently without the behind. Write also about security and the weather is about you go. The most important thing is do not hurry to make decision-bur. Customize your vehicle with the agenda also bribe your holiday. Do not ignore the return to work.

4. If you travel by air should also note the pattern of meals and rest time in the aircraft. If will take more time, set the bed to eat. Avoid alcohol supply the body with enough tea. Do not leave your jet lag and a lot of time therefore discarded.

5. Exercise to control emotions and commitment to fulfill the schedule also play in the holiday rules. Happy holiday.

Psychological impact of domestic violence against wife

2009-05-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

Impact is the strong influence of the draw result (either negative or positive). Violence against wives, any form will result in the victim experiencing the impact of short-term and long-term. Impact of short-term, result in the victim as physical injury, a bruise on the body, the infection, and damage to reproductive organs.

From the psychological aspect, the victim was very angry, irritated, felt guilty, embarrassed and insulted. Long-term impact can occur if the violence does not get the service and adequate assistance. The impact can be negative attitudes towards men or towards sex can even experience trauma, as a matter outside the normal limits (according to the size of himself). Victims of violence against his wife will feel the impact or result in various forms, either medical, emotional and personal (personality) and professionalism.

Stark & Flitcraft (1996) states that violence against his wife will be followed by increased risk of women on the use of alcohol, drugs, business suicide, health problems and mental health. The statement also supported by the opinion of Strauss & Gelles (1999) that women who experienced violence reported worsened health condition three times more often, experience headaches twice, experiencing depression, four times more often and try to kill themselves five times more often half - compared with women who did not experience violence.

The impact of violence against his wife, among others:

1. Suffering a serious injury, broken bones, burned, black eyes, slice, bruise, headache, muscle pains and stomach, which can last for many years after the act of violence occurred.

2. Mental health problems, such as fear, stress, depression, difficulty sleeping or eating. As a way to confront a situation of violence, women can show behaviors such as drinking alcohol, smoking, drug abuse, has a pair or more suicide attempts.

10 "destiny's" the descendants of the Difficult prevented

2009-05-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

"Indeed it is from there," is a phrase we often hear comments about if the nature or behavior of someone. This means, that is its destiny. What if the fate of the scientific review? Clear, there are factors that can be a descendant of a person to experience the destiny of the same with his parents. Next there are 10 men on the condition that behave "destiny" offspring.

1. Alcoholism
Children could be targeted not alcoholic habitue alcohol also. But the latest studies reveal that approximately 50 percent of the children at risk alkoholik suffer a similar fate with his parents. 50 percent of them will be determined more by environment. This caused a number of genes in the parents declined to children, a kind of dependency gen.

2. Breast Cancer

It is still a mystery, but scientists have found that the mutation occurred some genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 is pemicunya. Women who inherit this mutation genes suffering breast cancer. While the men will experience cancer risk prostat.

3. Color blind

As many as 10 million U.S. men can not distinguish the red and green. Disturbances of vision are more men suffered. Why? For gen reseptor green and red are in the position near the chromosome X.

4. Violence

Minatory also if you like a father to do violence on children will decline. Aggressive behavior of male children are usually derived from his father's genes. Not only do habits of violence, but also, and antisocial behavior like stealing. Gen steal like this a lot more work on women.

5.Obesitas

Obesity is not necessarily due to the environment. Many cases where people are hard to keep militancy eat. This is because there are genes that create a barrier function of appetite does not work correctly. Gen, and this decrease. so do not wonder if you saw one family that all the fat well.

6. Heart Diseases

If you have family members suffering from diabetes or stroke, may simply be suffering from heart trouble. Children of parents of heart trouble and blood circulation will inherit the disease. More patients failed to reduce heart disease will also be similar.

7. Twin brothers

Want to have a twin brother? Check first if there are twin in our family. Twin cases this triggered by a genes that make a mother cells release multiple eggs during the evaluation. Twin offspring are not always decreasing directly to children, can jump to the grandchildren or cousin.

8. Whelk

Severe pustular you? Quite difficult to be cured if both parents are also our pimply. Studies show many school age children also have a history pustular pustular on his family.

9. Not fond Milk

There are some people who can not drink milk with animal substances laktosa womb. Indeed, their bodies can not afford to tolerate laktosa at all. For infants, usually provided with the venter susu soya laktosa low. Conditions like this are also decreased in the family.

10. Hair bald

Despite bald considered in the ordinary man, in fact it also triggered by descent. Genes that have been revealed by one party or both parents, which caused the child also suffered kebotakan. There are also people who suffer a permanent kebotakan certainly also caused by one type of genes.

Child Abuse

2009-05-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

Terry E. Lawson, psychiatrist international formulate the definition of violence against children, mentions four kinds of abuse there, the emotional abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. Emotional abuse occurs when parents / carers and children after the patron knew his son asks for attention, ignore the child. He let the child wet or hungry, because the mother is too busy or do not want to be disturbed at the time. He may ignore the needs of children to be embraced or protected. Children will remember all the emotional violence, if violence is emotional progress consistent. Parents who are emotionally valid indecency on children will continue to do the same throughout the life of the child.

Verbal abuse occurs when parents / guardians and child carers, after knowing his son asks for attention, the child is told to be silent or crying. If the child starts to speak, mothers continue to use verbal violence, such as, "you fool", "you choosy", etc.. Children will remember all the verbal violence if all the verbal violence that takes place in one period. Physical abuse, occurs when parents / carers and child protective beat children (when children actually need attention). Staggerer akan remember the child that if physical violence takes place in a certain period. Meanwhile, sexual abuse does not usually occur during the first eighteen months in the lives of children. Sexual exploitation of children is a dependence, the development of sexual activity that does not Matur in children and adults, where they are not fully komprenhensif and not able to give consent because incompatible with the taboo in the family.

forms of violence on children include; 1) The physical, Non Accidental "injury" from light "bruiser laserasi" to the weight of neurologic trauma and death. Physical injury resulting from the body outside the penalty limit, or severity of toxicity, 2) children who are displaced / negligence, the activity or behavior that can cause direct damage effects on the physical condition of children and the development of psikologisnya; 3) The emotional criticism that is marked with / word -words that demean a child, does not recognize as a child. Persecution such as this usually always followed by other forms of persecution; 4) The sexual abuse, persuasive approach to practice. Forcing someone to invite children to behave / conduct of real sexual activity, so it describes the activities such as: sexual activity (oral genital, genital, anal or sodomi) including incest.

The Antisocial Aspect Of Social Networking

2009-04-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

It's estimated that more than one-third (35 percent) of U.S. adults have a profile on a social networking site, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's daily tracking survey of 2,251 adults. A more practical survey can be done just by thinking of the number of people you know who use these sites - starting with yourself.

While many will legitimately use social networking sites for broadcasting, distribution, and communication purposes, more people are attempting to instigate and manage friendships online.

Therein lies the problem. I contend that if social networking sites contribute to the decline or decay of social skills, they inadvertently create an antisocial mindset for people as they navigate in the real world because they become more adept and comfortable at socializing in an online world.

If you were walking down the street, or sitting on a bus and someone tapped you on the shoulder and said, "I'd like to add you as a friend," you would look at them as though they were insane, or at the very least, with skepticism. Online, most people are not nearly as discriminate about their friend selections as they are in real life, but they should be.

Friends are afforded special privileges both online and offline. Offline you have to earn them. Online they are instantly granted. One such privilege is knowing who your other friends are and what you are up to. This comes in the form of "updates" which a surprising number of people use to post personal information and comments.

The shouting nature of MySpace (which is saturated with people who are eager to draw attention to themselves or their songs) makes it a favorite among a younger demographic of social network users.

Dr. Himanshu Tyagi, a psychiatrist at West London Mental Health Trust, stated in a recent report that people born after 1990, who were just five-years-old or younger when the use of Internet became mainstream in 1995, have grown up in a world dominated by online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. He states:

"This is the age group involved with the Bridgend suicides and what many of these young people had in common was their use of Internet to communicate. It's a world where everything moves fast and changes all the time, where relationships are quickly disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete your profile if you don't like it and swap an unacceptable identity in the blink of an eye for one that is more acceptable," said Dr. Tyagi. "People used to the quick pace of online social networking may soon find the real world boring and unstimulating, potentially leading to more extreme behavior to get that sense."

It's been my observation that most people don't know who they have among their "friends" on MySpace. More commonly, people amass hoards of friends strictly for the sake of appearance - the appearance of being popular. So friends can get used both offline and online in that regard.

The 80/20 rule teaches us a lot about friends and time invested in friendships (which is what really defines them). 80% of correspondence that you send to anyone on any given social networking site will be sent to only 20% of the people you have in your "friends list." Just as 80% of your time spent nurturing friendships will be with 20% of your friends. You are most likely to communicate with that 20% without the aid of a social network.

Facebook, for lack of a better if not more accurate description, has become the adult version of MySpace. As the real estate mantra goes: build it and they will come. But social networks have a saying all their own: build it and they will use it for illegitimate purposes.

B.J. Fogg, director of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University and editor of a book called The Psychology of Facebook has been studying the social networking phenomenon for years. He argues that what we are doing on Facebook and other social networking sites is a lot like "primate" grooming. We are building "social solidarity" by publicly flirting and socializing online.

Yes, your suspicions are correct: the most illegitimate use of social networks takes place among people who are married or in committed relationships who use them to locate old flames. Actually, that's not the illegitimate part. The illegitimacy stems from the resulting clandestine relationships that occur. There's a lot of rekindling taking place on social networks...probably right now as you read this article.

According to Nancy Kalish, a professor of psychology at Cal State Sacramento and author of the book Lost & Found Lovers: Facts and Fantasies of Rekindled Romance, many people try to reunite online because it's so easy," Kalish says. "Most people go looking for lost loves, initially, out of curiosity. First loves in particular are most often sought out online, she says, and they pose the most danger to real-world relationships for two reasons: biological and emotional.

First, she says, when two people meet in the adolescent years (between 16 and 22), they start to form their identity together and break away from family. In those formative years, "you define what love is and what you want from a partner, and when you lose that, you lose that piece of yourself." This combines with the hormones that are encoding in your brain at that age as "emotive memory" and creates a biological imprint of that person.

On top of all this chemistry, the adolescent years are typically the years when humans start to reach their reproductive maturity and look for biologically compatible mates. Kalish argues that this in turn causes problems because people are delaying marriage. She says, "we are so far away from marrying our first love because people are waiting until later in life to settle down. When they do settle down, oftentimes, the chemistry just isn't the same."

Perhaps this is the reason why in the Pew survey, of the adults who had removed their profile from a social networking site, 3 percent said they did it because their spouse or partner wanted it removed.

My favorite social networking site is LinkedIn. It's essentially an online portal for resumes. Like the others, it operates on a membership/sign-up basis, but is geared toward professionals and building professional networks. Unlike MySpace and Facebook, people lead with their credentials on LinkedIn and the site regulates, discourages, and prevents abuse of the system by blocking those who get repeated rejections for linking requests.

It's most distinctive feature are the recommendations that others make on your behalf to help you complete and promote your profile. The LinkedIn business premise is simple: you should know at least 5 people with whom you have real relationships who can endorse you to make you a more valuable connection to others.

LinkedIn is not a cozy, give-a-shot-out, tell you about my weekend, post a stupid comment about what I just saw on TV social network. It is for serious professionals who want to network with credentialed people without the levity and frivolity that is so commonplace on social networks. It's not designed for conviviality and making friends.

Another social network that's growing in popularity is Twitter. Twitter allows users to "follow" each other (i.e. keep up with each other's activities) and is predicated on the exchange of short updates that can be seen online via their website or sent to you via your cell phone. I suspect that many music artists and professionals who regularly calendar events that the public, their fans, or constituents need to be made aware of will utilize it more in the future.

Personally, I have yet to make a friend through any social networking site. Nor do I know of anyone who has. I'm sure it happens. I've even been contacted by "friends" from my past. I'm hesitant to call them "friends" because I believe it's extremely rare when you lose contact with a real friend.

Most of the time when we lose contact with each other it's because we lacked the motivation or commitment to maintain the friendship in the first place; therefore, I tend to keep past "friends" in my past because that's usually where they belong. Those who don't subscribe to this philosophy usually end up briefly re-uniting with their past friends and drifting apart once more.

For me, the social networks offer their greatest value from a professional capacity. They serve as a divide between my associates and my friends, while allowing me to communicate with both simultaneously. But in the end, they offer us a reminder of just how valuable real friends and friendships are, if we can take our faces away from the computers screens long enough to realize it.

Source: Gian Fiero

File Under Psychology Journal

Relationship Psychology

2009-04-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been transferred from your work place or schooled far away from home? Such experiences break your social and family ties, and you may feel isolated or become a loner. You face dynamic changes and sometimes it takes long for you to adapt. Relationship psychology explains how our relationships affect our psychological well-being. When you are separated from your family and social friends, the ties tend to weaken hence you invest in other relationships.

You will agree with me that when your relationships are not working, you are unstable health wise because your psychology needs are not fulfilled. This is because your health is determined by the quality of your relationships. There are themes studied in relationship psychology that explain how relationships orient you in other fields. Most of the time you cannot judge the outcome of a relationship but the basic information you get gives you a rough idea about the other person.

We all like different music. When you meet someone you can guess his personality if he tells you the kind of music he listens to. Studies show that our cholesterol levels are different. To save your relationship from effects of cholesterol you should write down affectionate thoughts about close friends and family members. If your partner is unfaithful how do view him? The conclusions you make can break or re-build your relationships.

Relationship Psychology explains parental relationships after divorce. Children are likely to suffer psychologically in cases of divorce therefore they are the major concern. The parents should devise ways of ensuring that the children have basic necessities and are psychologically stable. Communication and understanding is very vital in a relationship as bring it determines compatibility.

Your Emotions Determine your Health

2009-03-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

Every thought and emotion you have constantly contributes to the state of your overall health. Scientists have now proven that being kind boosts your immune system. Can you believe it, isn’t that amazing? But of course we already knew that didn’t we? The body mirrors the mind perfectly; so what takes place in the mind, takes place in the body, thus the mind- body connection.

When we experience an emotion, a chemical reaction takes place within our body. An emotion is felt and a corresponding hormone is released. For example when we feel stressed our body releases adrenaline into our system to help cope with it. Alternatively when we feel joyous our body releases endorphins which provide a sense of satisfaction and well being. It is this chemical release that connects the mind to the body and impacts our health.

The chemicals released into our system attach to our cells by way of receptors. All cells have receptors and are therefore capable of connecting with the hormones from every emotion we feel. When the chemical attaches to the cell, it sends a signal into the cell that in turn creates a biochemical event inside the cell. Enough of the heavy stuff though, basically what that means is it changes the state of the cell and therefore changes you internally.

We as human beings have an enormous array of emotions we feel continuously, whether we are aware of it on a conscious level or not. All emotions have a charge that we feel as positive or negative. Moment by moment we are releasing emotional charges into our bodies and most often unaware that we are feeling anything at all. In society as a whole, we have become so totally disconnected from our emotions.

When we experience any of the positive emotions such as happiness, joy, passion, inspiration, harmony, trust, optimism, freedom, appreciation, empowerment, peace, enthusiasm, jubilation or love, our bodies are in a state of homeostasis which is physiological equilibrium within our bodies involving a balance of functions and chemical composition. Basically our whole body is in balance and we feel amazing.

However reoccurrence of negative emotions such as boredom, anger, frustration, grief, disappointment, blame, worry, stress, loneliness, abandonment, sadness, fear, hate, rage, disillusionment, depression, anguish, resentment or guilt leave our body in a state of ill-health because of the way the cell is altered. From negative emotions comes a decline in our health.

Negative emotions are toxic to our cells and therefore our whole body. For example when we suffer from too much stress in our body, we experience an enormous amount of cortisol which has a detrimental consequence on how we feel physically. We may encounter such symptoms as muscle tightness, back/head aches, liver dysfunction, sluggish bowels, fatigue, inadequate kidney performance and eventually may be a casualty of heart attack or stroke. Then we feel miserable physically, and consequently we feel negative emotionally and so you can see how the cycle can escalate. This is how dis-ease originates in the body.

In a nutshell, the more you feel positive emotions, the healthier you will be! Your emotions determine your health and that is the bottom line. Think of a time you felt a negative emotion, how did your body react? Slumped shoulders, head down, tears, a sense of heaviness, shaking, tension, heart palpitations. This is how your body reflects your mind. What happens in the mind, happens in the body. I love what Louise Hay says in regard to skeptics of the mind-body connection; “Anyone who does not believe in the mind-body connection has never had a sexual fantasy.” Oh how she has the ability to get her point across.

Think of how your body reacts to positive emotions; a sense of lightness, smiles all round, shoulders back, posture straight, glowing face, a full state of relaxation. Positive emotions allow us to feel good physically, mentally and emotionally. The more we feel good, the more we feel good. So here is a perfect reason why we would endeavour to live our life from a place of happiness.

Yes, I know what you are thinking; we all encounter events and situations that provoke us to feel bad and I acknowledge it is all part of our human evolution. But this is where the desire for positive emotions is derived; us experiencing the polarity of the negative. To have the desire to be happy comes from knowing what it feels like to be unhappy. Having the desire for safety is from the feeling of being unsafe and scared. I am not saying you never have a negative emotion ever again, I am saying that we have the ability to take control and not fall victim to our emotions.

When you feel a negative emotion there are a couple of ways to change how you feel. Firstly, acknowledging how you feel and being in acceptance of it will take the power away from it; and you will begin to feel it dissipate. Don’t ignore it or try to make it go away, this gives more power to it. So when you are feeling angry, acknowledge it and allow yourself to be angry rather than trying to push the anger away. Don’t punish yourself by thinking you shouldn’t feel a certain way, that will lead to repression of emotions.

Acceptance of what emotion you are experiencing, frees you from feeling that way anymore and allows the emotion to move through you instead of being stuck in you; therefore allowing room for more positive emotions to enter. The acceptance of the emotion is already exchanging a positive emotion instead of the anger. Now your anger is gone, you can put your attention into a more positive effect. You can choose to feel positive about the same situation because you are seeing it through the eyes of a different emotion.

Secondly, if you are still feeling powerless to negative emotions, it is vital that you release them by expressing yourself. Expression can be in the form of talking to someone about it or writing it down in a journal, either way, the emotion is leaving your body and that is what is needed here. Rid your body of the harmful emotion by expressing it fully by words or pen. Unexpressed negative emotions cause sickness in the body. They block the flow of energy and cause a buildup of toxic cells creating incessant fatigue problems, illness and disease.

Long term emotional trauma stored in the body can cause serious disease such as cancer and the like. We repress our uncomfortable emotions in many ways including masking them by taking drugs (legal and illegal) or alcohol, overeating, excessive working, spending money (commonly known as retail therapy), obsessive sexual habits or even extreme exercising. These habits can turn into addictions and only serve to disguise the emotions within. These addictions enable you to numb the pain of the emotion so you don’t feel anymore.

So many times we see an obese person lose weight only to regain it again because the core issue of why the weight was there in the first place has not been resolved. In some instances they may lose weight, keep it off, but will fall prey to a new addiction to seek the same numbness until they are willing to look within for the cause. This process is known as being detached from your emotions, although just because you are ignoring their presence, doesn’t mean they do not exist. They are still causing major toxicity from within. The sooner you attend to hurt in the past, the healthier you will be.

If you are unsure of how to resolve past issues, seek advice from the experts. You may decide to leave bygones be bygones or sweep past hurt under the carpet so you don’t feel the pain of it again, but for the sake of your long term health and freedom of mind, resolution of emotional trauma is absolutely essential. Releasing past hurts is such a feeling of freedom and as I said before, it allows much more room to fill yourself up with the ‘feel good’ stuff.

In my practice I have found that those who choose resolution of deep- rooted emotional pain are able to move forward with a new passion and vigor for life. They have the ability to paint their future with the brush of freedom because they have released what it is that has been holding them back. They are able to step forward with newly recreated dreams on a bigger and more abundant scale.

Removing these self-sabotaging blocks allows processing on a physical, mental and emotional level all at once. It can also transpire at a subconscious level so you may not even be aware of what is being accomplished behind the scenes. So much can be achieved in a small amount of time. Years of cycling through the same patterns can be modified in a moment. Emotional potentiality is not a new concept for humanity to embrace; however being disconnected from it is the cause of the decline in our health.

So how do we strengthen our immune system by being kind? When I heard Dr. Wayne Dyer state this, I was absolutely blown away because scientists have now proven what I have always felt in my heart. Whenever you give an act of kindness to another, the recipient encounters a strong emotion within. This emotion, as stated earlier, causes a chemical reaction inside the body by way of serotonin. Serotonin is the hormone that makes us feel phenomenal. So when someone gives you a gift, that welling up of emotion you feel inside is from the serotonin. It is this hormone that strengthens our immune system and therefore our state of health.

But not only does the recipient increase their levels of serotonin, so does the giver because when you give in kindness, you also feel the emotional connection between the two of you and therefore release your serotonin accordingly. So you are both boosting your immune system at the same time. In this moment of kindness, the connection you feel is on a heart level, it is a connection of love between two souls. This is grace!

But if that isn’t amazing enough, when an individual simply observes this act of kindness, they also feel the act of love and it boosts their immune system as well. So if you don’t want to be kind yourself, you can always just watch someone else do it and get the same result. So you can see where this is all going. Just by being kind, everyone around you benefits and gets a stronger, healthier mind and body. Wow, how awesome is that? So being kind and feeling good makes you healthy!

So what you can do on a daily basis from a conscious perspective is to declare that you are the controlling factor in your health by seeing the positive instead of the negative; seeing the good instead of the bad. It is possible, but it is a choice, you can perceive things in a ‘feel good’ way. Tar you brush with the paint of love. Every single thing you encounter has an emotional reading to it. As the powerful human being that you are, you can override and change the way you think and feel about everything.

Choose to see the endless beauty in situations, rather than the ugliness; face each day with passion instead of dreading what is in store. Embrace the opportunity to spend time alone and be out in nature rather than dwelling on the fact you have to mow the lawn, notice the beauty in the snake rather than feel the fear. See the love in everyone and know we are all connected by the Divine, infinite intelligence that we all embody within. ‘When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’ – Dr Wayne Dyer.

Permanent change means we need to abandon an old way of doing something and recreate a new and more effective way. Our common misconception is in believing all things happen automatically within our body. Now we have the understanding, knowledge and therefore the power to realise we are all in total control of creating our health. We now know how to give birth to optimal health. It originates from our state of mind and our wondrous emotions are the key. It doesn’t matter how well you eat, exercise and look after your body physically, if your cells can’t receive the nutrients and benefits because of emotional blockages, you will not become healthy for long.

As you think, so shall you be. Mind becomes matter. So when you change your thought, you change the way you feel about any given situation. Thinking a positive thought enables a corresponding ‘feel good’ emotion. Raising your consciousness allows you to think and feel positively more of the time, naturally creating a healthy mind, body and soul. When your health is in an optimum state, the possibilities you create for yourself are endless. Change your thought, change your emotion and create the life you desire. Change your emotion, change your cells and be the complete and utter picture of health. Source; http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/

Emotional Intelligence: a Tool for Success

2009-03-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

Do you know what emotional intelligence (EI or EQ) is and how it can benefit your life? Do you know how to manage your emotion so you can propel yourself to the next level?

In short, do you have the EQ edge for success?

There’s so much talk about emotional intelligence and how it can promote personal and business success. Many corporations that prioritize productivity and profit spend thousands to make EQ seminars available to their employees.

Why is this so? What is emotional intelligence?

Technically, emotional intelligence is the capacity to recognize, understand, and manage one’s emotions and those of others. But in practical terms, EQ simply refers to emotional and social skills.

Regardless of how you define it, this concept focuses on the role of emotion in our daily lives, how it affects our reasoning and behavior, and how we can manage it to our advantage.

As you know, emotion is pervasive in our daily existence. Whatever we do or wherever we are, we experience it. A typical day consists of situations that evoke varying degrees of happiness, anger, anxiety, or excitement. We always feel something when we — have a date with a loved one, share our thoughts with a friend, receive greeting cards on our birthdays, smile to a shy neighbor, shower our homes with laughter, or drive around a scenic national park.

Even in our sleep, our dreams trigger various emotions — from anger and fear to excitement and joy.

Like the setting of the sun, emotion exists in our natural midst and without it, life can be boring. So we should get to know it. We should use it to advance our cause. If we don’t, it will simply overpower our resolve.

Anger for instance is normal and everyone feels angry for different reasons. When your child goes home with a poor mark, you get upset because you realize he spends more time playing video games than reading his school text. When a speeding car cuts you off in a highway, you will not only feel angry, you’ll get “MAD”!

However, uncontrolled anger can be destructive. If you grab your son and hit him with a right hook because of his poor grade; or if you chase and bump another car for cutting you off, then you allow anger to schedule your vacation in jail. Also, you let your emotion dictate the outcome of your life.

How many families have broken up simply because couples can’t control their emotions? They exchange blows more often than they go to church. Some bicker more often than they eat meals together. How many kids grow up with low self-esteem just because parents can’t stop their untamed tongue from unwarranted ridicule — putting their kids down, calling them unprintable names?

When you let unrestrained emotion guide your destiny and life decisions, then you may be in a big trouble along the way. However, when you recognize and manage your emotions and those of others appropriately, then you guarantee your personal and professional growth.

Developing emotional intelligence should be prioritized at home and at work. Through its four basic principles of self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions), self-management (controlling one’s emotions), social awareness (recognizing the emotions of others), and relationship management (honing social skills), people can make use of their emotion to enhance relationships and to pursue success.

Emotion not only serves a special purpose in our lives, it also sets us apart from other creatures and makes us human with unlimited possibilities. So tame it, befriend it, lead it, and love it. Very soon, emotion will be your ally.

Source; http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/

Development Of Psychology

2009-03-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

Psychology as a science is developing with close connection with other sciences, but the greatest influence it suffers from is in sociological science.

A person is product of his self and the manner by which his environment affects him. In all theoretical models regarding the development of a personality, the conscious person is supposed to be motivated by internal interactions within his person. These two levels of personality interact with his environment and affect him individualistically developing his unique personality and psychological identity.

Social theories are used to understand and explain the tendencies, patterns or movement of both individuals and society based on the context of the social order they occur in. Socials only are able to explain aspects of behavior and may be difficult to apply in a universally. A person’s psychological development may follow psychological models or social behavior models but will vary greatly based on the history, anthropology, economics, politics, theology and biology of the person.

The common factor of all theories regarding psychological development is that the person is central figure. The key elements that are prevalent along all the theories are the importance of cognitive development and perceptions and behavioral orientation. Critical periods for psychological developmental have been identified as early childhood and adolescence. However, there has been recent debate regarding the development of the psychology of a person into stages. Like the concept of normalcy, the stages of psychological development are now being studied whether they are to be used as standards or guidelines.

One contention is that psychological development which encompasses the person: his biology, orientation and perception; and the world he moves in: the social structure, norms, traditions, perceptions and environments.

Symptoms Of Depression

2009-03-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

Depression is a complex disease that can remain hidden unless someone who knows the signs looks. Many people don't even know they're suffering from depression, and 15 million of those people are in America. 2/3 of those never seek help. Why is depression hard to spot? The answer is easy. Occasional issues like sadness are common and have nothing to do with depression . This makes it hard to tell the difference between a normal mood and depression.

Sadness is part of living. The mid life crisis at about 40 is common. There are many who see this as some milestone of reflection that causes us to ponder and evaluate our lives. This may be depressing. That's not depression. Depression isn't a short term feeling. Depression is consistent and constant and will progress if not treated. It may require years to get a handle on this illness.

Typical symptoms of depression can be irregular sleeping or eating habits. This isn't to say a sleepless night or a day of over eating are symptoms, rather it would be an ongoing pattern. People suffering from depression become loners. Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness aren't unusual. They feel upset the more lonely they become. They may want to reach out for help but cannot bring themselves to do so. They may find it hard to relate to those around them. Where they once may have been the life of the party they may now be barely noticeable. These are symptoms of the early stages.

Depression in later stages creates a seeming incompatibility between the victim and other people. School and work are impacted because they stop taking part in discussions and activities. Dealing with others, even dealing with themselves becomes nearly impossible. Life loses purpose and any light at the end of the tunnel so they begin to think about death. Early detection is a key to avoiding this terrible end. There is help available for those who suffer depression. The proper care and treatment can return the victims from suffering to normalcy. Ongoing symptoms of depression should prompt you to look for help. It's a matter of life or death.

What really is depression and how can you spot it? If you suspect a person close to you may be suffering from classical depression, it is important to have an idea as to what kind of symptoms to look for.

Source; http://www.articlebiz.com/

Carl Jung’s Dream Theories

2009-03-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

Jung believed that the human psyche was divided in two parts—the conscious and the unconscious mind.

According to Jung, the center of the human psyche should not be considered the person’s ego. Instead, the center is the Self, which contains more than the conscious content. The Self is the completion of the human psyche, after someone has developed all of his or her psychological functions.

The unconscious mind is divided in personal and collective distinctions. The personal part contains someone’s individual experiences, while the collective part has general content existent in all human beings. The collective part is represented in dreams by the archetypes, which are symbols that appear in everyone’s dreams, in all historical times and civilizations.

The main dream symbols that appear in everyone’s dreams according to Jung’s statements are:

1. The Persona—This is the image that the individual presents to the world, like a social mask. The persona would reflect the person’s social position, profession, and status quo.

2. The Shadow—This is the part of the human psyche that is not developed yet. The shadow contains positive and negative characteristics, depending on someone’s personal evolution.

3. The Animus or Anima—This is the image of the ideal type of man for a woman, or the ideal type of woman for a man. The animus, or anima, is an idol, but could represent a real person of the person’s environment.

Carl Jung concluded that each dreamer who decides to discover the content existent in his or her own psyche through the interpretation of dreams would make a trip to the Self.

Jung managed to prove to the world that our dreams follow a sequence, helping everyone evolve as they learn more about the content of their psyche. This is how people are transformed and start to accept other aspects of life, which they were not able to absorb before the dream analysis.

We have four psychological functions—thoughts, feelings, sensations, and intuition. The more developed of the functions in someone’s psyche will determine his or her psychological type.

In addition to the four functions, everyone has a certain attitude that will characterize them as extroverted or introverted. The extroverted psychological types will always agree with the general opinion about reality, while the introverted psychological types will always have their personal opinion, which will usually be totally different from the general consensus.

Continuing Jung’s research in the unknown region of the human psyche, I can verify that his theories are correct with the exception of his belief that the unconscious mind does not contain the negative aspects that he asserted. Instead, another part of the human psyche, the primitive side of the human conscience, concentrates all the negative characteristics of someone’s personality. Therefore, the part of Jung’s theory is absurd because the primitive side was not developed like the human part of our conscience and provokes all existent mental illnesses to the human side of our conscience.

Everyone can transform the negative and dangerous part of their psyche in a positive part of their human side by translating their dreams according to the scientific method, and following the directions of the wise unconscious mind that produces our dreams.

Source; http://www.ArticleBiz.com

Psychology of Dating: Little-known Dating Secrets

2009-03-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Dating is not just about socialization. Believe it or not, there is a science behind it. Understanding the psychology of dating can be pretty handy, especially if you don’t want to waste your time on bad blind dates.

If you’re a dating expert, then you probably know what indicators to look for. However, if you find yourself striking out date after date after date, then you’re going to love reading about the psychology of dating.

Eye Contact

It’s all about the eye contact. When you’re in a bar, try to be more observant of the person you’re trying to attract.

If one of them initiates eye contact with you, smiles and then looks down, then that individual is definitely interested.

However, if he or she looks at you and then turns away while their head is still at normal level, basic psychology of dating is saying you have very little or no chance, and he or she is looking for a better offer.

This method will allow you to know who is most willing to go out on a date with you.

Body Language

Around 60% to 75% of communication is non-verbal, so your action speaks volumes about you. And sometimes, it doesn’t even matter if you have very few things to say, as long as you’re able to convey the right gestures and body movements.

If you’re nervous, your body will give you away. For example, you might experience trembling of hands or find yourself unable to smile genuinely.

If you’re confident, your body will surely let the other person know too. According to the psychology of dating, your voice will probably be the first to give you away.

So use this to your advantage and try becoming more conscious of the signals you send to your partner. Or you can be more observant of their body language.

These are just some components of the psychology of dating. Try to evaluate yourself and see where you stand. Maybe next time, you can use your knowledge of dating and avoid the constant hit and miss strategies many people use.

Source; http://www.articlesbase.com/dating-articles/

Looking At Pursuing A Career In Psychology?

2009-03-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Think of major subject of study that is only 125 years young and is taking the world by storm! This is how one can probably describe psychology. Psychology is a subject of study that shouldn't be taken lightly. Psychology is a science that deals with human behavior as well as non humans - animals. Its study finds its roots in biology and touches on many areas in sociology, trying to seek a relationship between the brain functions and the behavior or the relationship between the environment and the behavior generators. There are many areas in which one can specialize since the subject is so vast and nowadays, more and more areas of life need the application of psychology.

The importance of the psychology and why one is secure by building a career in the subject can be seen from the fact that since 1960, there has been a big increase in the students who pursue psychology and have become a part of the competition on jobs that are psychology related. To be precise, the number of students opting for a masters in psychology has gone up 6 folds, a trend that was not observed earlier. It has also been observed that more than two thirds of the students graduating with masters in psychology get jobs in fields which are outside psychology and only about a third are employed in jobs which are directly related to psychology. A large number of those employed after graduating with masters in psychology work on data collection and analysis in various firms and institutions, both in the government circles and the private sector.

When we look at the trend of job projections and growth the area of psychology, there has been a great percentage increase in demand for people with psychology degrees. According to a survey conducted in 2001 by APA Center for Psychology Workforce Analysis and Research (CPWAR), 73% of the people who graduated with degrees in psychology were able to be employed in the areas they first chose to work in, and 75% were able to get jobs within 3 months of graduation. The trend has gone up since then and there are many more areas where psychology gradates are much needed. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for psychology-based jobs will keep on increasing at a high rate in the next decade.

One can build a career in the subfields of psychology. For example, one can take on Evolutionary psychology where you can study how human thought, feeling, and behavior are affected by evolutionary aspects like mutation, selective fitness and adaptation. You can also study Clinical Psychology where to will get knowledge to be able to deal with emotional and behavioral disorders. You can also go for Cognitive and perceptual psychology, Developmental psychology, Educational psychology and many other subfields.

What Is Clinical Psychology?

2009-03-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

Approximately 91% of those employed in the clinical psychology field engage in psychological assessments aimed at diagnosis and treatment. Tests may include intelligence/achievement tests like IQ tests or WISC-IV tests, which measure knowledge, verbal skills, memory, reasoning, attention span and spatial perception.

Personality tests try to categorize behavioral and logical patterns. The MMPI, Rorschach Inkblot test or the Myers-Briggs test all try to reveal the psychological dynamics. Furthermore, neuropsychological tests examine structures and brain pathways in a more "scientific" manner. Clinical observation includes studying a control group and a variable group for differences in behavior, mood, perception, understanding, memory, communication and affect.

There are four main perspectives of clinical psychology: psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral and systems/family therapy. First, psychodynamic psychotherapy developed out of the works of Sigmund Freud and sought to make the unconscious desires come to the surface, rather than remain suppressed. Popular interventions include free association and the examination of transference and defenses. The history of mental illness is examined through the exploration of childhood memories.

The humanistic perspective of psychology was based around the work of Carol Rogers, Victor Frankl and Rollo May. Rogers argued that people needed congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathetic understanding as mental health treatment. The humanist perspective seeks to help the person towards self-actualization and connecting with their natural born potential.

The cognitive behavioral perspective looks at the interaction between how we think, feel and act. Psychology experts believe that we interpret the world through schemas (set patterns of thinking and categorizing information) that sometimes results in behavioral problems. To uncover irrational thinking, professionals try desensitization, Socratic questioning, relational dialectics therapy or note taking.

In systems or family therapy, psychology therapists focus on the interaction of the family and their interpersonal dynamics. Interventions include a spouse, parent, sibling or close friend. While some of the intervention involves a group discussion, homework assignments are often given to help patients keep working, thinking and assessing outside of their therapy sessions.

There are many areas of specialization within clinical psychology, like: health, neuropsychology (focus: the brain), geropsychology (focus: the elderly), counseling and social behavior therapy. Neuropsychologists study things like the medical symptoms behind schizophrenia, dementias or other mental disorders. No matter what form of psychology is focused upon, the main intent is to promote mental health, design new programs and help families deal with mental illness.

There has been some criticism in recent years that clinical psychology is "too subjective" and difficult to prove with empirical evidence. A major problem is that health insurance companies refuse to cover therapy costs, which limits many lower income individual's mental health treatment options.

Since clinical psychologists receive less schooling than psychiatrists, many medical doctors downplay the importance of therapy. However, one need only pick up a journal of psychiatry to see that psychotherapy is still a valid profession and one that can supplement medication for unbelievable results.

http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/what-is-clinical-psychology--372880.html

Sport Psychology

2009-03-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

Before you settle in a career, you have to achieve the right qualifications to show you are capable. There are many fields you can choose to work in depending on interest and this exposes you to all advantages and challenges of that area. Sport psychology is no exception; you will face both encouraging and discouraging situations but you should be persistent in order to succeed.

Sport psychology is a field that allows you to assist others to achieve their goals. It gives you joy to see your clients motivated and able to hit their target. We all have different personalities and when you join a team and are able to help them solve their problems, you will enjoy teamwork and their company. Besides this, the field is broad and offers you a chance to learn more.

However, there are frustrating situations that you can face in sport psychology. To qualify to be a sport psychologist, you must study for many years. Sometimes you are forced to work for long hours depending on demands of your clients. This can cause strain especially if you are facing stressful situations. Unlike other fields, you interact with limited people who are sports oriented.

Despite all this, with time the career can be rewarding. This is when your clients are able to perform to their level best and they are proud of your work. Psychology deals with human behavior and you will be able to interact with athletes of all social levels. In addition, you can learn how to play various games as you train your clients. If you are interested go ahead and study to fulfill your dream. Sport psychology.

Source : http://www.articlesbase.com/psychology-articles/sport-psychology-723653.html

Social Psychology: The Psychological Explanations of Social Phenomena

2009-03-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

The various aspects of social psychology could be examined within the wide concepts of intelligence, gender, advertising, consumer culture, stress and psychological issues that define society. Considering consumer behaviour, social psychology uses convincing theories to explain addictive consumption, the influence of advertising and the phenomenon of purchasing. Advertising is seen as a subtle psychological manipulation as it creates desires and anxiety in the potential consumers (Papers4you.com, 2006). Advertising can have both psychological and commercial aspects including misattribution, bias, suggestibility, and could be studied from global or local perspectives. Organisational consumption is seen as different from individual consumption although generic psychological theories of human motivation such as that of Maslow and Freud can explain consumer behaviour. However consumer behaviour can also be studied in terms of the notion of quality and its relation to customer satisfaction (Silva et al, 2005). The objective measures of customer needs, pricing and expectations of the customers may have to be analysed within Service Quality or Expectations models. Hogg and Garrow (2003) highlighted on the psychological aspects of gender and the influence on consumption of advertising. Advertising has been found to be processed and interpreted differently according to gender schemas and perceptions. This would in turn relate to psychological theories of gender such as the theory of biological determinism, Freudian theory of personality development, cognitive-developmental theory, and feminist theories. Bridging the gap between gender studies and gender differences in consumption could provide us with new insights on social and psychological aspects of consumer behavior. Orth (2005) indicated that consumer behaviour largely depends on consumer personality and susceptibility to interpersonal influence, consumer situational disposition such as risk taking and curiosity, purchasing behaviour and purchasing frequency and demographic variables such as age and gender. Contemporary consumer culture could be studied in relation to an excessive emphasis on beauty and appearance and an obsession with youth, a phenomenon that has seen an increased dependence on cosmetic surgery. The increased importance of the body in the consumer culture could be studied along with the significance of appearance in modern society, the role of marketing and advertising images, and the psychological need for self-expression (Papers4you.com, 2006).

Social psychology is however focused not just on consumption and public attitudes on advertising, but also on group behaviour, general individual and collective attitudes towards various social issues including war, work, violence and quality of life. This would in turn explain how individuals deal with stress, and focus on the psychological consequences of stress. Although psychological disorders may in some cases be a direct result of social stress, deviant behaviour in society could be explained with the help of several theories such as the theory of subcultures by Parker, the structural strain theory by Merton, or the theory of conformity. Social psychology is thus focused on explaining a wide range of issues from advertising and consumer behavior to public attitudes on social issues and antisocial behaviour.

Bibliography

Hogg M.K.; Garrow J. (2003) Gender, identity and the consumption of advertising Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, June, pp. 160-174(15)

Orth, Ulrich R.(2005) Consumer personality and other factors in situational brand choice variation The Journal of Brand Management, Volume 13, Number 2, November, pp. 115-133(19)

Papers For You (2006) "P/M/510. Advertising: means of psychological manipulation", Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtpsy3.htm [22/06/2006]

Papers For You (2006) "P/M/646. Causes of addictive consumption in modern society", Available from Papers4you.com [21/06/2006]

Silva Jr, Nelson da; Lírio, Daniel Rodrigues (2005) The postmodern re-codification of perversion: On the production of consumer behavior and its libidinal grammar International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Volume 14, Numbers 3-4, Number 3-4/December, pp. 217-223(7)

Positive Organizational Psychology

2009-03-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Since the early 90s, a charged-up group of writers, researchers and educators has been deconstructing the psychological profession's focus on pathology and rebuilding it with the study of what can go right with people and institutions. They call themselves positive psychologists. These thinkers don't claim to have invented anything new or created a new profession. They distinguish themselves by their perspective. The value of positive psychology"lies in its uniting of what had been scattered and disparate lines of theory and research about what makes life most worth living," writes Martin Seligman, a leading "positive" psychologist.

Leading Lights in Positive Psychology: Dr. Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania, is one of the most visible thought leaders on positivepsychology. Seligman's work on depression, "learned pessimism" and "learned optimism" earned him a solid reputation long before he became a proponent of positive psychology. Since the early 1990s, he has focused on the study of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. During his term as president of the American Psychological Association Seligman promoted the study of positive psychology. Seligman's Authentic Happiness Web site (http://www.authentichappiness.org) is a treasure trove of resources and news on the topic. Dr. Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi, Claremont Graduate University, is another keythought leader. Csikszentmihalyi is the author of the best selling "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience," as well as numerous scholarly and popularbooks and articles. He led the establishment of the first positive organizational psychology degree programs at Claremont Graduate Universityand runs the university's Quality of Life Institute. The refreshing perspective offered by this field has a great deal of appeal and we expect that its messages will make continuous inroads in the practices of our profession. Books to Read: For a general introduction to positive psychology, "A Primer in Positive Psychology" by Christopher Peterson is an excellent general introduction written in conversational style. Peterson and Seligman coauthored "Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification," offering the positive psychologist' s answer to the Diagnostic andStatistical Manual (a.k.a. DSMIII), a book widely used by psychologists and psychiatrists to classify mental pathologies. "Positive Psychological Assessment: A Handbook of Models and Measures" by C. R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez addresses the subject of testing and metrics that assess positive psychological characteristics.

Since 2000, authors and researchers have placed quite a bit of emphasis on positive organizational psychology as an application of this new perspective. University of Michigan professor Kim S. Cameron, a major voice on positive psychology in the workplace, predicts that "...positive organizational scholarship will become embedded in the questions asked and the approaches used in a wide variety of organizational studies..." There are institutes, degree programs, conferences, blogs, journals, and Web sites developing around this topic. For anyone with an interest in human resources assessment and development, this list is worth review:

Books on Positive Organizational Psychology: Perhaps the most widely cited book on this topic in academic literature is "Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline" by Kim S. Cameron. Another work that promotes this perspective is titled "Positive Organizational Behavior," which is edited by Debra Nelson and Cary Cooper. Other titles that develop this perspective include "Positive Psychology In Business Ethics And Corporate Responsibility," which focuses on positive environmental ethics in business. The "Handbook of Positive Psychology" by C. R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez has a chapter on organizational behavior.

"Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Competitive Edge" by Luthans, Youssef, and Avolio explores the concept of an organization's psychological capital, as distinguished from the more widely known idea of human capital. Fred Luthans is one of the most prolific authors on this topic. "Work, Happiness and Unhappiness" by Peter Warr examines the problems of measuring happiness at work. In addition to the books mentioned above, other resources are shown below: Videos on Positive Psychology: If video is your information M. O., no problem. Visit the University of Pennsylvania Web site for a current listing. (http:// www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/publications.htm) Online Assessments: Visit Martin Seligman's Authentic Happiness site to chose from almost 20 free online assessments that relate to positive psychology.

Perhaps the most famous of these for organizational applications is the Values in Action Signature Strengths, which measures 24 character strengths in action. The Work-Life Questionnaire on the site measures Work-Life Satisfaction. Please note: you must create a log-in to use any of the surveys, but they are all free of charge. Degree Programs: Claremont Graduate University has just launched degree programs in positive organizational scholarship in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences. (http://www.cgu.edu/pages/4573.asp) In addition, the Master of Applied Positive Psychology is offered at the University of Pennsylvania and the MSc in Applied Positive Psychology is offered at the University of East London, UK. Institutes: The Drucker School of Management at the Claremont Graduate University started the Quality of Life Research Center in 1999 under the direction of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The Values in Action (VIA) Institute provides information on positive psychology, as well as the classification system and measurement tools of character strengths that serve as the backbone of this developing scientific discipline.

The Centre for Applied Positive Psychology is an independent, not-for-profit organization affiliated with the University of East London and located at the University of Warwick campus in the UK. The European Network for Positive Psychology is a collective of European researchers and practitioners with shared interests in the science and practice of positive psychology. The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship is located at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. The American Psychological Association has a Psychologically Healthy Workplace Practice and award program. There is a great deal of energy in this burgeoning field, and we expect its influence on the world of industrial psychology to be very ... positive!

Author: Kathleen Groll Connolly.

http://www.performanceprograms.com

Beware! Bad television its Impact On Your Child Psychology

2009-03-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

Television media of the many social aspects as seen as a media in the community since the first time found. Some research shows when someone watching television, then a part of the brain becomes very active and produced hormone dopamine. Some scientists believe, with the amount of dopamine that will reduce high neurotransmitter that sedianya be used for other purposes. Other research on children and adults find the relationship between the many hours spent watching television with Obesity. A study also found that the activity of television watching can reduce metabolic rate of children up to the level below the average metabolism during sleep.

The influence of television on children has been assessed quite worrisome and need to receive serious attention from the parents, because in addition to reducing the hours of sleep result in health also affect children's mental psychology.

Bureau counselors Positive Psychologie Medan, Indah Kemala Hasibuan, say, 83% in Indonesia, of school-age children under six years old has been watching television. Even children pre-school children spend at least four hours each day to see the impressions of television, DVD player, video games and computers.

The influence and development of children after witnessing the media with the impression of violence during the pre-school child psychology will lead to a loud in the association.

"The media to give exposure to the risk of the child is not sensitive to the violence and anti-social," he said.

He said, one of the companies in the United States in 2005 successfully selling video games as much as 10.5 billion units, the estimated amount of increase will continue to reach 46.5 billion by 2010.

"Here is charged roles and responsibilities of parents to guide and help each child see the impressions in the media, so that children can understand the context of a more correct from child watching," he said.

To limit the children witnessed the impression through the media, he said a few tips. Among others, do not put television in the bedroom, avoid television in the morning, should be firm when no television impressions and act before losing control due to the influence of these impressions.

Insomnia Causes

2009-03-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

Insomnia Causes on Psychology Journal

International Classification of Sleep Disorder-Revised (ICSD-R), said that the cause of the occurrence of insomnia are psychological problems, such as experiencing stress, fear, fear, anxiety, depression caused by job stress factor, because the trauma of disaster, experiencing violence or domestic violence, traumatis the experience, etc.. Insomnia can become chronic if not treated immediately. How the occurrence of insomnia cycle at the level of chronic?

Cycle Chronic Insomnia
If someone has insomnia because of the psychological factors (experience difficulty with sleep soundly during the night more than one and less than four weeks) but can not adapt to the causes of insomnia (not able to manage stress are healthy) will result in someone experiencing a short-term insomnia ( difficulty sleeping soundly sunday for four to six months). If this short-term insomnia can not be fixed by the sufferer will then lead to chronic insomnia. If there is chronic insomnia it will take longer for it.

Insomnia Causes on Psychology Journal

What is Insomnia? and the Symptoms

2009-03-03T00:05:00.000-08:00

Insomnia on Psychology Journal

Are you or your family, including people who are experiencing insomnia? Insomnia or difficulty sleeping, for some people regarded as a normal thing, but if the insomnia is left it will lead to various consequences of the psychological and physical condition, and even death. In fact, what is insomnia? If insomnia is caused by factors such as psychological stress in a certain time because of the social situation, personal problems that are not finished, domestic violence issues, crisis household economists, the crisis in the business, and so the insomnia is classified as insomnia due to psychological factors. However, if you only have insomnia only 1 or 2 days and this is because the environment where you live a noisy then you only need to move residence to cure your insomnia. In addition, if you experience insomnia because they were experiencing physical pain and insomnia will disappear after you recover. On this occasion, we will discuss about the insomnia caused by psychological factors, because it can cause various harmful effects on people with insomnia, can even cause death. Therefore, you first need to know what the definition of insomnia.

Is Insomnia?
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders-IV (DSM-IV) defines insomnia as difficulty sleeping launch, maintaining sleep, does not feel fresh in the morning and wake up the poor quality of sleep. Once you know the definition of insomnia, whether you are considering starting up, what you are experiencing insomnia or not. For more details, you need to know what symptoms of insomnia. However, please note that here we are discussing insomnia because psychological factors, not the other factors

Insomnia Symptoms
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders-IV (DSM-IV), showed some symptoms may be diagnosed where someone is suffering insomnia due to psychological factors, namely:

1. Difficult to start, maintaining sleep, and can not improve sleep for at least one month is the most keluahan occur.
2. Insomnia is a cause of stress so that it can disrupt the function of social, work area or the other important functions.
3. Insomnia due to psychological factors, this is not including narkolepsi, sleep disturbances related to respiratory, sirkadian rhythm disturbances or parasomnia.
4. Insomnia due to psychological factors do not occur due to interference, such as mental disturbances depression, delirium.
5. Insomnia due to psychological factors do not occur due to the direct physiological effects of a substance such as drug abuse or a general medical condition.

With the symptoms mentioned by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders-IV (DSM-IV), and insomnia due to psychological factors can disrupt the various social functions.

Insomnia on Psychology Journal

What is self disclosure?

2009-03-02T23:54:00.000-08:00

Self-disclosure is a simple (at least on the surface) approach to communication that involves sharing information about yourself, history, present, emotions and thoughts. Originated and explained by Sidney Jourard, a Humanistic Psychologist, this simple approach, at least used skillfully, can improve intimacy, rapport in face to face communication, and even improve public speaking and connecting with groups.

The concept is very simple. When you share information about yourself, you allow yourself to be "seen", and it's easier for people to relate to you as a real human being, with faults and strengths, and with thoughts and emotions. And, when people see you as human (and not someone easily depersonalized) communication, and relationships improve.

It's important to know that self-disclosure doesn't involve "dumping" everything about yourself on everyone from close friends to complete strangers. Obviously self-disclosure needs to happen in context, be appropriate for the particular relationships. While self-disclosure is important, remember that communication means sharing of information from both sides, and if you are inundating the other person with too much information about yourself, or information they really have no interest in, then the whole thing is going to backfire, because you will appear selfish and self-centered.

When speaking to groups (keynotes, meetings, speeches, public speaking), it's always a good tactic to share a little of yourself as a person, so you can overcome depersonalization barriers to group communication. Often the best way to self-disclose in groups is to tell a real personal story that is relevant to the reason why the group is meeting. That's much better than opening up with a stale joke.

source ; http://www.work911.com/
self disclosure on Psychology Journal

Self-Disclosures that are difficult

2009-03-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

Self-Disclosures that are difficult on Psychology Journal

Although recognized that self-disclosure is very important for the development of the individual, but some people are still reluctant to do so. Basically the difficulty or reluctance to reveal the individual in a lot of self-based risk factors that will be received in the future, on the side because there is no sense of security and trust in yourself. Risk is damage information can be given to someone to third parties when the information is considered highly by the instructors of private information, or information can be presented thus offend other people so that they can disrupt interpersonal relationships that previously have been involved with both. In addition to the disclosure or the conditions are not right, there would be a boomerang for the granting of information. In addition to risk factors, pattern of care also factor plays an important role. In the family or environment that does not support the spirit of openness and information sharing practices so individuals can be difficult to reveal themselves appropriately. That is why some people are very difficult to share information with other people, once the information is also very positive for themselves and others.

Although the self-risk for the perpetrator (our information), but experts assume that the psychology of self-importance. This is the base that says that self-disclosure (which is done properly) is an indication of someone's mental health care. Research shows that individuals are able to reveal the exact self-evidently more able to adapt (adaptive), the more self-confident, more competent, extrovert, reliable, able to be more positive and confident person to another, more objective and open (David Johnson , 1981; in mentalhelp.net). In addition, experts also believe that the psychology share information with others can improve mental health, prevent disease and reduce the psychological issues related to the interpersonal relationship. In terms of communication and provision of assistance to others, one of the ways that it deems most appropriate in helping other people to reveal themselves is to reveal ourselves to the first. Without the courage to self disclosure then other people will act the same, so that is not achieved effective communication.

Self-Disclosures that are difficult on Psychology Journal

Self Disclosure

2009-03-02T23:43:00.000-08:00

Self Disclosure on Psychology Journal

In social life in the community, individuals are often suspicious dirundung feeling confident and not so strong that does not dare to deliver a variety of emotional shock or that is in itself to others, especially when the things that deems not good to know other people. As a result, the individual keeps a lot more variety of life issues that often end too heavy to be alone, giving rise to various psychological and physiological problems. In the counseling room in this website, many readers who say that they are very difficult to reveal the self (the opinions, feelings, ideals, feeling angry, irritated, etc.) to other people, did not even share the information if not required / asked. It is interesting that they recognize that the condition is very uncomfortable and tend to make their dijauhi by colleagues or family members own. While on the one hand they feel unsure and afraid to reveal themselves, but on the other hand, they feel that it is necessary to alleviate the burden themselves.

self disclosure can be defined as the provision of information about themselves to others. The information provided can include things such as life experiences, feelings, emotions, opinions, ideals, and so forth. Disclosure must be based themselves with honesty and openness in providing information, or in other words what is presented to other people, let not a private or a mask of lies so pure that only show the good side only.

To answer the question why someone needs to inform other people about themselves, then it should be seen as a cycle that involves three (3) the self-disclosure, namely, relations of friendship and acceptance of self. The explanation Self Disclosure is as follows:

- It is a very good thing if you say to friends or others who interact with you how they can affect you. With the feeling of sharing experiences and then will be able to strengthen the relations of friendship.

- Acceptance of a friend or someone else will be easier for you to be able to accept the condition yourself.

- Because you can accept yourself and feel comfortable with the conditions, then you are easier to reveal themselves so that the relationship with your friend feel more comfortable.

- With input from various other people, a high sense of security, and acceptance of self, then you will be able to see themselves in more depth and able to complete the various problems of life.

Self Disclosure on Psychology Journal

Frailty Syndrome

2009-02-28T05:21:00.000-08:00

Frailty syndrome is, to some extent still be foreign. This is not a disease but a collection of symptoms that describe the decline in function and the limited run day-to-day activities. This problem is related to aging, disability, and komorbid (of 2 or more diseases in one individual).

It's from the Greek myth about Titonus and Aurora, as submitted by John E. Morley, geriatrics specialist knowledge of Saint Louis University. Let's scrutinize story.

Aurora is a beautiful goddess with the two lovers lovers lovers morning and night. Titonus is his boyfriend in the morning. Aurora Titonus very loved, so he does not want to loss. Aurora at the request of the god Zeus his father, to his father to give eternal life to Titonus. Zeus also fulfill the desire daughter. Woe to the Aurora, while aware that there are things you forgot, he forgot to request eternal life to stay young. Although Titonus will not die, but he experienced the life of the elderly, age 50 years decreased muscle strength, age 70 years he became impotent, the age of 80 years must be running with a stick and is very slow, cognitive interference occurs, he began to babble all. Aurora no longer love, he condemns Titonus a grasshopper. Since then, the locust terdengarlah voice chirp, that is the Titonus-titonus no stopping the chatter.

Although it is not, in fact many disease conditions that contribute to cause Frailty syndrome, as anoreksia (appetite decreased dramatically), kaheksia (emaciated), immobility, aterosklerosis, imbalance, depression, and cognitive interference. According to John E. Morley in the study, frailty experienced by many women than men. Besides socio demographic factors, education, mental / psychological, and nutrition is also a subject where berperanan Feed with a high vitamin E tend to be less experienced frailty.

Treat frailty to recover things that are not possible, because every person born in the world surely the old age and experience symptoms of frailty. But perhaps that can be done is to apply preventative steps to slow the emergence and impact.

Some of these steps:

* Increase number of meals

* Sports with the burden (resistance exercise)

* Prevention aterosklerosis

* Not isolated

* Tai Chi exercises or balance

* Check the doctor each year

Physical exercise provides many benefits, including increased mobility in daily activities, improvement of walking patterns, injury risk is smaller, and increased bone mineral.

Resistance exercise is a physical exercise that is done against the detainees. Physical exercise in the simple and cheap but it is useful for the elderly Tai Chi (originating from China) and cobblestone walking (running over the stones). Impact of the main risk falling down almost 40%.

All steps of prevention before the business is to optimize health and improve quality of life for the elderly, so that lie in the hospital is not spectral for elderly utuk but hope a better life.

Frailty Syndrome on Psychology Journal

The narrow, clinical psychology

2009-02-21T05:31:00.000-08:00

Clinical Psychology on Psychology Journal

Clinical psychology is one of the areas of applied psychology in addition to Education Psychology, Industrial Psychology, and others. Clinical Psychology uses concepts of Abnormal Psychology, Development Psychology, Personality and Psychology Psikopatologi, and principles in assessment and intervention, in order to understand the issue-psychological problems, interference and adjustment behavior anormal.

View from the scope, clinical psychology can be defined narrowly or broadly. The narrow, clinical psychology is to learn the duties of the abnormal or subnormal. Main task is to use clinical psychology test which is an integral part of a clinical examination is usually done in the hospital. In a broader scope, clinical psychology is the field of psychology who discuss and learn the difficulties and obstacles on the emotional man, he does not look abnormal or subnormal. Clinical Psychology sustain the symptoms that can reduce the possibility for human happiness. Blissfulness close emotional relationship with life-sensitive and must be satisfied with a more-related to the terms of rational and intellectual terms (Hien Yap Kie, 1968).

Clinical Psychology on Psychology Journal

Forensic Psychologist

2009-02-21T05:20:00.000-08:00

Forensic Psychology on Psychology Journal

A forensic psychologist is any psychologist who offers an expert psychological opinion in a way that it impacts one of the adversarial arenas, typically the courts. Many people think of forensic psychologists as focussing on criminal matters. This is certainly not always the case.

A forensic psychologist is any psychologist who by virtue of training or experience may assist a court or other fact finder in arriving at a just or correct decision. For example a forensic psychologist may assist in a wide variety of civil matters. Civil matters include but are not limited to lawsuits or insurance claims where emotional suffering is a part of the claim, determination of competency of an aged or ill person to make decisions, whether a death was an accident or a "disguised suicide" in an insurance claim case, or in a wide variety of other areas.

Becoming a forensic psychologist will first require you to get a doctorate in psychology, often (but not necessarily) in clinical or counseling psychology. It will probably take you about seven years after the undergraduate degree to get this doctorate, though some people may take a little less time. Competition is stiff to enter these doctoral programs, so study hard!

One way the person who is already a psychologist becomes a forensic psychologist is by doing additional informal study after receiving the doctoral degree. She or he does this by attending seminars, consulting with senior colleagues, or returning to the university to take additional course work.

Simultaneously, psychologists often undertake their first cases in the forensic area. When done well the ethical psychologist takes care to consult closely with colleagues in the early years.

After getting considerable experience and continuing education, some forensic psychologists will go on to become 'Board Certified' in the forensic psychology specialty. But not all forensic psychologists do become board certified.

Forensic Psychology on Psychology Journal

Signs and Symptoms ; Social Disorder

2009-01-17T02:23:00.000-08:00

Some of the signs and symptoms include:

1. An extreme fear of a situation in which you have to meet new people or you may be scrutinized by others.
2. The feared social situations are experienced with intense anxiety or avoided entirely.
3. The anxiety-provoking social situation causes physical symptoms like blushing, sweating, shaking, trembling, tense muscles, shaky voice, dry mouth or a pounding heart.

The basic symptom of social anxiety disorder is of being very anxious in the presence of others. If you suffer from social anxiety disorder, you may think that other people are very confident in public and you are not. Just blushing may feel horribly embarrassing to you, and you may feel like everyone's eyes are always on you. You may feel anxious about giving a speech, talking to a boss or dating.

Some people with social anxiety disorder are afraid of public speaking or parties. Others feel terrible anxiety about using a public restroom, eating out, talking on the phone or writing in front of others.

Almost everyone experiences some social anxiety now and then; it's normal. However, social anxiety disorder consistently limits the lifestyle of those with the illness, in some cases causing them to not participate in school, avoid making friends or miss important opportunities at work. Some people with social anxiety disorder avoid all socially related situations, severely limiting their life, work and social relationships.

Social Disorder on Psychology Journal

Clinical Psychology; the scientific study

2009-01-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

Clinical Psychology on Psychology Journal

Clinical psychology is the scientific study, diagnosis, and treatment of people who have psychological problems adjusting to themselves and the environment. Clinical psychologists deal with both normal and abnormal behaviour. They administer and interpret psychological tests, and assist in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. They also study the structure and development of personality.

Clinical psychology is a scientific and applied field of psychology. That is, it puts into practice the theories developed in the different fields of psychology. For example, clinical psychologists apply many findings of abnormal psychology when they diagnose and treat mental disorders. They also draw knowledge from the fields of learning, motivation, perception, personality, developmental psychology, physiological psychology, and social psychology. Clinical psychologists work in government, hospitals, clinics, universities, and private practice. Their chief activities are (1) testing and diagnosis, (2) psychotherapy and consultation, and (3) research.

Testing and diagnosis.

Clinical psychologists develop, administer, and interpret tests that measure aptitude, intelligence, and personality. These tests can be used in diagnosing mental disorders. They are also used to help determine proper placements for people in schools and jobs.

Psychotherapy and consultation.

Clinical psychologists treat mental disorders that result in disturbed human relationships or individual anxiety or unhappiness. They deal with brief, minor disturbances such as stress resulting from a school failure or grief due to the loss of a loved one. They also try to solve the prolonged problems of internal emotional conflicts often called neuroses and of psychoses. Psychoses are problems in which a person's thoughts, feelings, words, or perceptions are severely unrealistic.

Psychotherapy is the clinical psychologist's chief tool in treating mental disorders. In most kinds of psychotherapy, the psychologist talks with the patient in a series of informal interviews. In most cases, the psychologist tries to help the patient understand the cause of the patient's personality disturbance.

Understanding and preventing mental disorders is an important goal of clinical psychologists. They develop and take part in consultation programmes to educate the public in methods of improving child care and relationships and expanding mental health facilities. They also work with the clergy, teachers, and others who deal with children to help identify and solve psychological problems that develop at an early stage.

Research.

Clinical psychologists are trained to design and conduct scientific experiments. Through their knowledge and use of research techniques, they improve various methods of diagnosing and treating mental disorders. They propose and test new theories on the structure and development of personality. They also develop and evaluate new testing and treatment methods.

Clinical Psychology on Psychology Journal

School Psychology

2009-01-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

School Psychology on Psychology Journal

School psychology as a career option has been a popular choice among students in the U.S. and in Europe. The content and nature of the practice of school psychology has been variously defined and the origins are not entirely clear. I was a school psychologist from 1971 to 1994. In fact, I was one of the first three school psychologists in the state of Texas. The profession was very young then, since it was only in 1968 that the National Association of School Psychology (NASP) was formed and the discipline was formally recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA) as a doctoral speciality; it was later recognized by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). During these formative years, the educational orientation of school psychologists has varied and changed. The changes in the profession reflect the character of the individual departments and programs as well as the various regions of the country and diverse populations in the communities and schools where professionals work.

How are school psychologists' roles defined?
The role and functions of everyday practice are dictated by the employment setting and other demographic features of the area. Other major influences have been special and regular education rules and standards; federal and state laws governing public schools; and all employees of the setting. With the passage of 94-142, The Education of All Handicapped Children's Act (U.S. Congress, 1975), school psychologists have been primarily involved in assessment of and intervention with handicapped children, offering counseling and consultation to their teachers and families. Other important federal laws have mandated service delivery to a variety of school populations. The development of the profession has been called random by some writers. Now, school psychology is a recognized speciality within psychology, with requisite standards for training, credentialing, and service delivery.
Societal and educational contexts, education reform, and school effectiveness literature have had significant effects on the training and practice of school psychologists. In addition, the evolution of the National Association of School Psychology has had a profound impact on the profession. This organization is made up of nondoctoral professionals (80%) and is a visible, strong, and feasible professional representative for the school psychologist today. At the doctoral level, Division 16, the Division of School Psychology, is a much smaller organization with approximately 2,000 members. It is made up of doctoral professionals, most of whom are trainers in universities and colleges. Most states have state associations of school psychology that have an impact on school psychologists' role and function within their respective states through active lobbying.

What are the actual job functions?
School psychologists, at all levels, work as applied scientists and interventionists, descriptionists, rational empiricists, and systems managers. Their expertise varies according to their level of training and practice, but generally, school psychologists provide assessments and diagnoses, oversee interventions ranging from individual counseling to group and family work, and provide consultation to teachers, administrators, community agencies, parent groups, and youth. They also provide supervision, pre-services, and in-service training to teachers, administrators, and professional groups. In addition, school psychologists perform program evaluations, develop case studies, and use applied research methods to solve school problems and professional practice questions. In response to the growing numbers of children referred for either educational or mental health difficulties, school psychologists also focus on primary prevention in schools and communities.
School psychology has finally laid claim to its expertise in dealing with children in a wide variety of settings. Regardless of where these professionals work, they provide a wide variety of services to the populations they serve. School psychologists share functions with clinical, counseling, organizational, and experimental psychology. In a sense, school psychology is a hybrid of several specialities and continues to evolve in its practice and service delivery techniques. Doctoral school psychologists bring additional supervisory and program evaluation skills. They also possess research knowledge beyond that which nondoctoral school psychologists can provide. However, the bottom line with regard to job role development is the social context and individual creativity of the professional.

Where do school psychologists work?
The primary places of employment for professionals with master's or specialist-level degrees are public and private schools. School psychologists work with diverse ages, from infant programs to high school, and you will find a great variety of services provided by each professional. In many states master's- and specialist-level professionals also have private practice options as well as career paths with clinics or state institutions. School psychologists also work with other professionals in human services and mental health clinics. Those at this level are guided by the National Association of School Psychology Standards of Professional Training as well as state certification and licensing standards for training and functioning.
Doctoral school psychologists have a variety of career options as well. Many doctoral professionals work in private and public schools or at universities and colleges. Others, as recipients of PhD, PsyD, or EdD degrees, have options of public or private practice if they hold the appropriate licenses for the state in which they live. Doctoral-level school psychologists, when employed by school systems, are often in administrative roles as well as service delivery roles. The roles and functions of doctoral psychologists are guided by professional standards set forth by the American Psychological Association (1981) and the National Association of School Psychology (1984).

How do you find training programs?
The two best guides to training programs are APA's Guide to Graduate Programs in Psychology (1996) and NASP's Directory of School Psychology Training Programs (1984). The APA guide gives descriptions of programs at the doctoral level, while the NASP guide has descriptions of master's, specialist, and doctoral programs.
Training programs can be found in every state at the specialist, master's, and doctoral levels. These programs are equally housed in education departments, in educational psychology departments, and in psychology departments. Your state psychology board should have a list of training programs in your area, and your state's school psychology association should also maintain lists of the programs in the NASP Directory.

What do these training programs entail?
Programs range in hours and training from 40 hours at the master's level to 124 hours at the doctoral level. NASP-approved programs include practicum and internship requirements. APA programs have similar requirements for all doctoral programs, which are more diverse in training than the NASP programs. The NASP programs lead to students becoming qualified to take the National School Psychology Certification Examination. This specialist certification is often connected to the state certification and licensure laws and rules. You need to check with your state board of psychology and your state education agency for local requirements.
Doctoral programs will also have a specific model of training, either the scientist-practitioner model or the applied professional model. In the past it was more common to find a scientist- researcher model program whose graduates were primarily trained to take academic positions and be researchers. Few such programs exist today.
The scientist-practitioner model assumes that all psychologists receive basic training in core areas of psychology, such as quantitative methods, personality theory, history and systems of psychology, developmental psychology, learning, motivation, cognition, social psychology, and the biological basis of behavior. Programs based on this model are similar to those offered in other fields of psychology.
The applied professional model also is currently employed in a number of programs. This model focuses more on applied course work rather than on core theoretical courses. Typical course work for programs espousing this model include intelligence assessment, learning problems assessment, consultation, social problems assessment, general educational theory, special education, behavioral interventions and assessment, history and systems of psychology, developmental and learning theories, neuropsychology, and abnormal psychology. Current trends are shifting away from the scientist-practitioner model and toward the applied professional model. New programs in school psychology at the doctoral level tend to be PsyD rather than PhD programs.

What about salary, flexibility, job satisfaction, demographics?
If you work in the public service sector, you can expect slightly lower salaries than if you work in private business. Salaries are competitive with all other school or clinic professionals, and if you work in the schools, your work contract will follow the school calendar. It is an especially excellent choice for both men and women who want to marry and raise a family. The close ties of the employment contract with the school work day and school terms can be a great advantage in your family life.
Reschly and Wilson (1995) reported on the characteristics of practitioners and faculty from 1986 to 1992. These authors suggest that there have been some changes in demographics, in that women are more likely to be practitioners and men are more likely to hold faculty positions. High job satisfaction was reported in both settings with some concern about advancement opportunities among the practitioners. Salaries were good, but there was a difference between faculty and practitioners. Faculty reported more outside employment income than practitioners and differed by $9,000 on the average salary. Average faculty income was $57,000; doctoral practitioners, $51,000; and nondoctoral, $40,000. These are not entry-level salaries, as the mean years of experience was about 15. Also, this study did not consider gender, age, or geographic area. Overall changes from two earlier studies suggest a graying of the school psychologists and significant degree changes from fewer master's degrees to more specialist-level degrees. Eighty percent of the graduates in school psychology training programs are at the specialist level as reported in 1991 in a study by Reschly and McMaster-Beyer.
After 24 years, I can say with confidence that school psychology is a promising field, and there are many job opportunities in a variety of settings. You can work at the nondoctoral level or at the doctoral level, in traditional or nontraditional settings. As you narrow your career choices, take some time to consider school psychology!

References

American Psychological Association. (1996). Graduate study in psychology. Washington, DC: Author.

American Psychological Association. (1981). Speciality guidelines for the delivery of services by school psychologists. Washington, DC: Author.

Batsche, G. (1995). Best practices in credentialing and continuing professional development. In Best Practices (5). Washington, DC: NASP.

Brown, T., & Minke, K. (Eds.). (1984). Directory of school psychology training programs. Washington, DC.

National Association of School Psychology. (1984a). Standards for the provision of school psychological services. Washington, DC: Author.

National Association of School Psychology. (1984b). Standards for training and field placement programs in school psychology. Washington, DC: Author.

Prus, J., White, G., & Pendleton, A. (1988). Handbook of certification/licensure requirements for school psychologists (4th ed.). Washington, DC: NASP.

Reschly, D., & McMaster-Beyer, M. D. (1991). Influences of degree level, institutional orientation, college affiliation, and accreditation status on school psychology graduate education. Pro-fessional Psychology: Research and Practice, 22(5), 368-74.

Reschly, D. & Wilson, M. (1995). School psychology practitioners and faculty: 1986 to 1991-92 trends in demographics, roles, satisfaction, and system reform. School Psychology Review, 24(1), 62-80.

School Psychology on Psychology Journal

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND MODERNITY

2009-01-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

Johansson's volume is an excellent critique of the more psychologistic social psychology in the United States. It nicely examines what I suggest is the emergence of a post-modern, rather than modern, assertion of paradigms in social psychology set out by Simmel and the Chicago school. Johansson provides an in-depth analysis of three seminal projects: Wirth's examination of the (Jewish) ghetto and the stranger, the discussion of authoritarian personality by Adorno and colleagues, and Giddens' reflection on relationships and intimacy.

Johansson's work should be spoken of as post-modern and not modern. This titling is only a slight misnomer which needs some clarification for the reader, but substantively the volume offers an alternative humanistic paradigm in social psychology. It also puts forward a trenchant challenge to social psychology's American hegemony haplessly confessing a (modern) Enlightenment positivist bias. Johansson's text emerges comfortably as a post-modern response to the psychologistic (modern) paradigm of the un-reflexive, de-contextualized self as a 'tabula rasa' in social psychology. Both Adorno and Wirth's reflexive and contextualized self challenges the modern (or Enlightenment) ideas of the psychologistic person. Given these sentiments I think Johansson's book comfortably fits within the postmodern theoretical paradigm. So, us sociologists should stop the winter of our discontent in the conflict between postmodern and modern definitions of society, and should rather look to the theoretical influences that apply these terms more antiseptically.

To return to the volume, Johansson discusses Giddens with attention to intimacy and returns to flesh out the significance of his contribution later in the volume, reflecting on the implications of increased communication and multiculturalism in globalization. I thought Johansson should also consider the American psychologist (influenced by the Chicago school) Kenneth Gergen and his seminal work, The Saturated Self, to uncover the dimensions of personhood in an age of multiculturalism, what Gergen defines as 'multiphrenia,' or multiple selfhoods.

Johansson more or less abandons his discussion of Adorno and Wirth after the introductory chapter, which is a pity to this reader who thinks that more detailed reflections on these two seminal authors would be productive to the overall argument. Nevertheless Johansson concludes the introductory chapter with further analysis of Wirth, Adorno and Giddens' reflexive self contra positive science.

The remaining content of chapter one highlights Simmel's contributions as a scholar of the 'emotionology' of modernity. Johansson sees Simmel as first and foremost 'psychologist' of social life, beginning as he does with the interacting individual as the unit of analysis and the tension between the subjective and objective experience. He also offers a postlude to Simmel, discussing his influence within the Chicago school.

The second chapter of the first part describes psychoanalysis' grip over social psychology. Johansson mentions Benjamin's discussion of dreams and utopia, Elias' meditation on the repression of desires in social change, and Marcuse's fusion of Freud and Marx.

The third chapter in Part I refines commentary on the Chicago School, looking more specifically at the contribution of Goffman who, according to Johansson, holistically explores the effects of narcissism in late modernity. Impression management, identity, and stigmatization are all results of this problem.

Part II of the volume explores empirical supports to these theoretical observations in thematic discussions of identity, 'the stranger,' narcissism, the body, 'mediaziation,' multiculturalism and gender. The book concludes with reflections on the future of social psychology into the twenty-first century. Johansson asks that social psychology be considered not as a separate discipline, but as a 'meta-theoretical field' within other perspectives. Social psychology should serve as a 'seismograph' sensitive to changes in the relationship between society and the individual. Overall, the volume offers a dazzling trip through an alternative paradigm in humanistic social psychology, albeit with a few significant lacunae. It lucidly discusses empirical applications of what to some might be 'abstract' post-modern concepts. This volume would best fit in a post-graduate seminar on contemporary theory or social psychology. Those with interests in psychoanalytic and Chicago school traditions within and outside sociology will also find it enriching.

Social Psychology on Psychology Journal

Social Psychology; branch of psychology

2009-01-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

Social Psychology on Psychology Journal

Social psychology is a branch of psychology which examines the impact of social influences on human behavior. This field is vast, encompassing a wide range of fields of study and several disciplines. Social psychology is also used in a range of disciplines and industries; many people utilize the principles of social psychology without even being aware of it when they try to control a group, influence someone's opinion, or explain why someone behaves in a particular way.

The roots of social psychology were laid in the late 1800s, when psychology as a discipline was thriving in Europe. As the First World War drove many psychologists to the United States, social psychology began to arise as a distinct discipline in the 1920s. One of the major influences on the field was Kurt Lewin, who is called the “father” of social psychology by some people; other famous social psychologists include Zimbardo, Asch, Milgram, Festinger, Ross, and Mischel.

A social psychologist looks at the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of both individuals and groups. The field also examines interpersonal interaction, analyzing the way in which someone interacts with other people, whether on a singular basis or in the form of a large group. Social psychology also examines cultural influences like advertisements, books, films, television, and radio, looking at the ways in which these influences impact human behavior.

Like many scientists, social psychologists like to use empirical methods to conduct studies in their fields. These methods often involve experiments which can bring up complex ethical issues. One of the most infamous social psychology experiments was the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was ultimately shut down because it got out of control. Social psychologists rely on the efforts of ethics committees and review panels to ensure that their work is ethically allowable, in the hopes of avoiding a repeat of questionable experiments.

The study of social psychology can explain why people form mobs, how groups make decisions, which social conditions can lead to aberrant behavior, and a wide range of other things. Social psychologists are constantly learning more about human behavior and the science behind human interactions, looking at everything from why people fail to help people in need to what leads people to conform, even in ethically dubious situations.

If you want to learn more about this field of psychology, you may be able to take an introductory course at a local college in your area. You can also consult your library for a number of published texts on the subject, but beware; once you start studying social psych, it can be hard to stop!

Social Psychology on Psychology Journal

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

2009-01-01T08:41:00.000-08:00

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY on Psychology Journal

The social sciences are dedicated to understanding the human condition, ideally to the extent that the singular and collective behaviors of human beings can be understood and even predicted. Though their goals are identical in the abstract, these "sciences" differ in terms of their way of looking at things, the questions they ask, the methods they use in addressing these questions, and what they do with this information once they obtain it.

Amid this multitude of social science disciplines is social psychology which, as can be inferred from its label, involves the ways in which both social and mental processes determine action. What, precisely, this means research-wise, however, remains a matter of historic debate both between and within the disciplines of psychology and sociology. What weight is to be given to the social, the psychological, and the interaction between the two? What does the interaction between psychological and sociological processes even mean?

In approaching the problem of why some people do certain things, psychologists (see Wesleyan's Social Psychology Network) are inclined to give greater attention to the bearing of thought processes, personality characteristics, and their changes across the life-cycle. The closed, stereotypic thinking of authoritarians, for instance, make them more likely to be prejudiced and to join extreme right-wing political groups.

Sociologists, on the other hand, being more interested in understanding the relationships between group structures and processes (typologizing groups much like psychologists classify selves as the first step toward predicting their activities), are inclined to give greater attention to the social settings and individuals' roles therewithin. As opposed to psychology's atomization of the human condition, focusing on the self and its inner workings, sociologists' attention is directed toward human connections. Connectedness with others is an overarching personal drive, and the bonds produced comprise the social fabric of interrelationships. The strength of this social fabric is determined by the multiplicity and quality of connections individuals and groups (both large and small) have with each other. Further, from this sociological perspective of the human condition, these groups have dynamics of their own (often distinct from members' intentions and desires) that cannot be reduced down to the psychology of individuals. Like differing board games, these social orders have their own rules, roles, styles of play, traditions, cultures, and rates of change over time. Change the "game" and you change the style of thinking, the language, motivations, activities, alliances, and identities of the players.

It is for these reasons that sociologically-inclined social psychologists are more likely to examine how individuals' perceptions, belief systems, moralities, identities, and behaviors are determined by their positions in social space:

* the culture of their primary socializations;
* the slice of social history intersecting their biographies, such as coming of age during a time of depression or war;
* their locations within the stratification orders of gender, age, race, and social class;
* their roles within the institutional orders of religion, work, community, and family;
* the geographic context of their childhoods, such as region of the country or the size of cities wherein they lived;
* and their memberships in and relative identifications with various social groups.
* For other illustrations, check out Alan Reifman's SPIDER (Social Psychology of Information Diffusion -Educational Resources), Psych-Net UK, Jeremy Dean's Psyblog, Jon Mueller's Resources for the Teaching of Social Psychology, and the online resources from the Social Science Information Gateway. The American Psychology Association's Monitor on Psychology and the Social Psychology section of the American Sociological Association are also worth occasional visits.

Not surprisingly, evolving in this hybrid discipline is a perspective that more explicitly focuses on the interactions between the sociological and the psychological, producing new connections and new questions. Change the social connections and you change the essence of the self and its cognitive, emotive, and bonding capacities. Change the way social reality is psychologically parsed and processed and you ultimately change the nature and course of group dynamics. For instance, what kind of personality type might come to predominate in a capitalistic, secular, gerontophobic, death-denying, sex- obsessed culture where the young are socialized in single-parent families, with sports stars as role models, and whose lessons of adult life primarily come from commercially-based electronic messages? This emergent perspective integrates developments in such related social sciences as anthropology, linguistics, economics, political science, religion, history, communication studies, and sociobiology. These interactions are the subject of a text that I co-authored with Chad Gordon, Social Psychology: Shaping Identity, Thought, and Conduct (Allyn and Bacon, 1993). Though this page was created as a companion piece for this work, its links should complement most social psychology courses.

Social Psychology on Psychology Journal

Clinical psychology

2008-12-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

Clinical Psychology on Psychology Journal

Clinical psychologists aim to reduce psychological distress and to enhance and promote psychological well-being.

They work with people with mental or physical health problems - which might include anxiety and depression, serious and enduring mental illness, adjustment to physical illness, neurological disorders, addictive behaviours, childhood behaviour disorders, personal and family relationships. They work with people throughout the life-span and with those with learning disabilities.

Clinical psychologists work largely in health and social care settings including hospitals, health centres, community mental health teams, child and adolescent mental health services and social services, also they will often work alongside other professionals including doctors, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

To assess a client, a clinical psychologist may undertake a clinical assessment using a variety of methods including psychometric tests, interviews and direct observation of behaviour. Assessment may lead to therapy, counselling or advice.

Due to their high level of research skills clinical psychologists undertake the role of scientist-practitioner as an innovator and applied researcher adding to the evidence base of practice in a variety of health care settings.

Clinical Psychology on Psychology Journal

Colic - Prevention Is Better Than Cure

2008-12-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

The main symptom of colic is usually constant crying for no apparent reason. For example your baby won't be hungry, need their nappy changed or have a temperature, they will not want to be laid down, sat up, played with or left alone. Nothing you do will ease their crying. Most babies have a colicky time of day, which is usually in the afternoon or early evening. The good news is that colic normally passes by the age of 3-4 months.

Below you will find some top tips which we as a family have utilised to great effect.

Don't shake your baby's bottles. When making your baby's bottles swill the bottle gently to mix the milk and powder instead of shaking it. Shaking the bottle just causes more bubbles, which may lead to colic later.

Get the best bottles you can afford. There are companies that make bottles that claim to ease or prevent colic in babies. If you can afford to, try many different bottles to see which ones work better for you and then use them religiously.

Get a good colic treatment. There are many colic treatments out there. All babies are different and what one parent recommends may not work for your baby. Just keep trying different remedies and see which one works best with your infant.

Feed your baby in an upright position. Most parents' position their baby lying on their backs with their heads propped up on their arm for their bottle-feeds. Try to keep your baby as upright as possible without making them uncomfortable. You are aiming for their back and head to be in a straight line with an imaginary ping-pong ball between their chin and chest. If you picture a long necked bottle and now imagine a kink in the neck of the bottle you can see how easy it is to trap wind inside.

Patting is better than rubbing. If you picture your long necked bottle full of a fizzy drink with bubbles attached to the insides then begin to rub the bottle on the outside, what happens to the bubbles on the inside? Nothing? Exactly. We have a tendency to rub our babies backs to bring up wind rather that patting them. Rubbing their backs is soothing for mother and baby but does little to bring up their wind. Patting will help to move the air bubbles and will eventually release their wind.

Hold on to your baby. Once the feeding and winding is over and done with and your baby looks content you may be tempted to lay them down. Don't! Try to keep your baby in an upright position for around 20 minutes after a feed, even if they are asleep. This will help them release wind naturally without any intervention.

Don't lay them flat. When you do lay your baby down to sleep try to ensure they don't lay flat. If they sleep in a cot, put something under the head end of the cot mattress to raise it slightly. Make sure you don't raise it too much as your baby may slide down the mattress and disappear under the covers. A baby bouncer with an adjustable seat angle is ideal for sleeping in during the day.

Give them water. Babies that are fed on formula milk often suffer with constipation. Prior to their colicky time try to give your baby 1 -- 2 ounces of cooled boiled water. This should not be given in one go, spread it out throughout the day. The ideal time is when they are impatient for a feed but they have a little while to go, give them a little water, but don't fill them up. This will ease their constipation, meaning they won't get a stomachache and it also helps to ease their wind. Keep an eye on their nappies for the next couple of days, too much water will result in runny number two's.

If you try all the above it should have an impact on you and your baby, reducing the amount of time spent crying and trying to soothe him. If it doesn't work, help to soothe your baby during its colicky time by giving him a warm bath, put on a lullaby CD (it really works) and gently rock them side-to-side.

By; Lisa Mills, website; http://www.newbabygiftboxes.co.uk/

Developmental psychology

2008-12-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

Developmental Psychology on Psychology Journal

Developmental psychology is the study of changes in behaviour during a lifetime. Many developmental psychologists study only a part of the lifespan. Most are chiefly interested in childhood and adolescence, the period of a person's life between birth and the early 20's.

There are four main theories of child development that psychologists use in research on the behaviour of children: (1) maturational theory, (2) psychoanalytical theory, (3) learning theory, and (4) cognitive theory.

Maturational theory states that the chief principle of developmental change is maturation, which means physiological "ripening," especially of the nervous system. Arnold L. Gesell, the leading American supporter of this theory, found that the growing child's behaviour seems to follow a set developmental pattern. He described in detail the ways in which behaviour changes with age. Gesell believed that differences among people result more from heredity than from environment.

Psychoanalytical theory is based on Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis. According to Freud, children are driven by impulses of sex and aggression. Children develop through a complicated interaction between their needs, based on sexual impulses, and the demands of their environment. Environmental demands are represented first by loving and restricting parents, and later by the children's own version of their parents' demands.

Anna Freud, Erik Erikson, and others have modified Freud's theory and applied it to child behaviour. In the psychoanalytical view of development, children change through conflict, chiefly between their own impulses and the demands of reality. A successful solution of this conflict brings normal development, and an unsuccessful solution may lead to mental illness.

Learning theory says a child's development depends mainly on experience with reward and punishment. The child must learn certain responses--such as speech, manners, and attitudes--to adults. Children learn these responses through their association with reinforcement (any condition that makes learning occur). If a mother smiles at her child each time the child is polite to adults, her smile reinforces the learning of manners. The task of the adult is to arrange the environment so that it provides suitable and effective reinforcements for desired behaviour.

Learning theorists base their ideas on two basic learning experiments--studies of classical conditioning by Ivan P. Pavlov and studies of instrumental conditioning by E. L. Thorndike and B. F. Skinner. Maturation and heredity have relatively little importance in the learning theory of development.

Cognitive theory regards the child as an active solver of problems. Cognitive theorists emphasize the role of a child's natural motivation as the key factor in development. This motivation can include the desire of children to satisfy their curiosity, master challenging tasks, or reduce the inconsistencies and ambiguities they find in the world about them. According to cognitive theory, children form their own theories about the world and the relationships among its different aspects. The theories are primitive at first, but become more realistic after they have been tested against the child's experience.

Comprehensive cognitive theories of development have been proposed by a number of authorities, including the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget described in detail how growing children change their ideas about number, cause, time, space, and morality. First, the children represent the world in terms of their own activities. Then they move to a limited set of generalizations based on their knowledge of specific cases. Finally, the children gain the ability to make valid and abstract generalizations about reality.

Maturity and old age.

In general, the study of psychology in maturity and old age has been based on observation. There have been no clear theoretical principles to guide the search for consistent patterns of development.

Scientists have established that sensory acuity (keenness), speed of response, productivity in art and science, and the ability to process new information decline with age, particularly after the late 50's. Less well documented are declines in memory and in the ability to solve familiar kinds of problems. Psychologists know little about the most remarkable fact of old age--that some people go through a degrading decline with the passage of years, and others remain capable and active until the end of their lives.

Developmental Psychology on Psychology Journal

Social Influence - Change How People See You

2008-12-23T11:03:00.000-08:00

A program in the UK does social experiments. Their aim is to see how susceptible the public are to being conned and hustled.

For example, one of the cons was to take a car from a car park- in daylight. Cars nowadays are more sophisticated in their locking systems, so the only way to get it is to ask for the keys.

If you walk up to a regular person and ask for their keys- chances are you'll get them . . . but in your eye.

To get the keys from an unsuspecting person is to influence the conditions. Instead of walking up in regular clothes, they walked up with one simple article of clothing- a fluorescent security coat.

All he did then was come up with some about needing to run the car through the system again and bring it back. Sure enough, they handed him the keys. I mean, who would argue with authority?

One simple change managed to INFLUENCE their responses.

UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL PERCEPTION

Ever looked at a homeless person dressed in rags? Ever seen a big guy with bulldog tattoos and "I love mum" walking down the street? You automatically have perceptions of these people before they even open their mouth.

If you look at the typical CLICHE characteristics of, a successful person- things like the way they walk, the way they move, the way they talk, the way they dress- and you MODEL those attributes, then people will begin to react to you as a successful person.

In the same way as you could easily turn away from a bum in the street, but you would pay attention to a policeman.

You can manipulate the external factors to create a perception about you- and people react to that perception.

ANOTHER SOCIAL EXAMPLE

It all seems like it is about what you wear. That's true to an extent, but there was another experiment which suggests you can change your body language to influence people.

The experiment was gambling. People were asked to go into a room and gamble as they were being observed.

Scenario #1: They entered a room and saw a guy waiting at the table. He looked shy and nervous.

Scenario #2: Different individuals came in to do the test. It was with the same guy- the only difference was he had changed his attitude. He was laid back relaxed in his chair, he gave strong eye contact and didn't rush up to greet.

The results: they found that the people in scenario #1 with the shy guy gambled MORE money than in scenario #2.

When you realise it was the SAME guy- and the only thing that changed was how he displayed his attitude, then you understand how just a few small changes influenced complete strangers.

When he was confident, it made the others feel insecure in gambling all of their money. With the shy guy, they felt a bit more relaxed in being able to win over such "A loser".

HOW TO USE SOCIAL PERCEPTION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

By wearing a fluorescent coat, and exhibiting confident and relaxed characteristics- you can influence people to hand you some keys and lose money!

Both examples illustrate one thing, and that is:

You can influence social behaviour just by displaying the right attributes and characteristics.

You want to avoid displaying WEAK characteristics because people unconsciously respond to you as LOW STATUS. This means you probably won't be listened to or respected as much as you would like. You probably find yourself being overruled the majority of the time. Your opinions are not carried by enough value.

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS SHOULD YOU TAKE ON?

I've always believed your external always reflects your internal mindset. But if you do not have a cool, calm and confident persona- then this social experiment doesn't need it. You are doing these to test and see how people respond to you.

But the typical cliché characteristics are:

* Walk slower and take your time. A cool mind is never in a rush. He can handle it * Slow your speech down and pause. People will listen to you no matter how long you take. * Stand up straight and look out to the world. You're ready for what comes your way. * Spread out when you sit down. Lean back and appear relaxed. * Don't lean in so much. It's too eager. Let people enter your reality. * Don't laugh as much. People will treat you as the boss- "Make him laugh to win him over" * Look at people when you talk. Your gaze plus confident body language is money baby.

Model people who exhibit the qualities you like. People may not know you from Adam, so they have to go on how you present yourself.

By; Sean Adams, website; http://www.modernmanliving.com/

Top 10 Relaxation Tips

2008-12-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

Modern life is stressful - extra hours at the office, added studies, juggling a career and kids. Before you get to the point of exhaustion it's essential that you recharge. Here are our top 10 tips for just letting go.

1.Take a yoga class

Improve your flexibility, core strength, muscle tone and circulation as life's stresses fade into the background. Your yoga instructor will teach you mental, physical and spiritual relaxation that you can practice at home. Try the Life Centre in Notting Hill for beginners or advanced classes.

2.Experience nature

Whether it's the beach, a lake, a mountain range or even just your local park, take the time to notice the serenity and beauty of nature and you will immediately feel relaxed.

3.Spend time in the garden

Have you ever seen a stressed-out gardener? You might not be a natural green thumb, but planting a few bulbs, pruning roses and just trimming the hedges will provide great satisfaction and relaxation.

4.Have an aromatherapy bath

The warm water and the scent of the aromatherapy oils will have you relaxed in no time. Try lavender and valerian oils for a truly calming experience.

5.Meditate

Meditation is conscious relaxation. By focusing on breathing and repeating simple mantras we can block out ‘mind-clutter' and find inner peace and calm. Switching off conscious thoughts is not easy, but you will benefit from renewed clarity and energy by taking the time to meditate. The Meditate in London website - www.meditateinlondon.org.uk -- can locate meditation classes close to you.

6.Catch up with friends

Laughter is the best medicine, so invite a group of friends out for drinks or coffee and let them entertain you with their mirth and humour. Make sure you invite friends you can be yourself with and those who appreciate you for who you are.

7.Read a book

Reading is the best form of escapism. Grab yourself a fiction book that will lift your mood and let your imagination take you on a journey away from your everyday life. Try books by Jodi Picoult, John Irving or Nick Hornby, just to name a few. You can browse Amazon and have next day delivery.

8.Write your thoughts down

Writing your thoughts down can help clarify the issues you are facings and make sense of the emotions you are feeling. It's a form of self-therapy that actually lightens the burden you're feeling whilst processing your thoughts until you arrive at suitable solutions.

9.Take up a hobby

Put your concentration into a new hobby such as painting, stamp collecting, genealogy or pottery and you will notice your stress fade away. Why not take up a recreation involving others and take the opportunity to socialize at the same time.

10.Treat yourself to a relaxing spa experience.

For the ultimate spa experience try Center Parcs' one or two day pamper packages. You can enjoy an overnight stay in an executive twin-bedded apartment, complimentary breakfast, a Decleor facial and a back, shoulder and neck massage. A Center Parcs' spa break is the perfect way to leave the world behind.