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Raghav Mohan

Exercising Benefits - 0 views

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    This site is another educational site i discovered during my TFAD assignment. It really digs deep into MANY benefits of exercise. If you are wondering what exercise can do for YOU then this is the site to go to for information. It gives you history, examples, the present. All the basic information.
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    *sticky note* Your muscles activate your brain receptors. So knowing that your brain is more active with your muscles, exercising them would be a huge benefit and aid to a better lifestyle
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    *sticky note* Mental exercise for the brain: on an everyday basis our brain is learning a new skill. This uses a lot of power from our brain which requires us EXERCISING our brain physically and mentally ***Example of an exercise you can do whenever you are on the computer: switch the hand you are using to move your mouse. It must feel pretty awkward but it's alright you are exercising movement AND learning a new skill at the same time.
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    *sticky note* If you think sitting behind your computer or TV screen is going to get you smarter... Think again! It really doesn't in fact it affects us in a bad way. Weakens our eyes, and uses so much energy from our brain. Where on the other hand, just walking can benefit us a ton. It helps our blood circulation and the oxygen/glucose that reaches our brain.
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    *sticky note* Exercise improves our memory, helps us remember our studies, wakes up our brain in the morning. Enhances our brain cells, creates higher brain functions. These are just the *few things that exercising does for us. It is quite amazing
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    *sticky note* Exercising also helps our aging process. Exercise fools our brain into thinking we are younger when we begin exercising on a daily basis which could be great for you. Who wouldn't want to feel 40 when they're really 50? I know i would
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    *sticky note* Physical exercise protects our brain as we age, it creates endurance and a motivated/confident mindset which obviously can aid us in a huge way in the future.
gillian baron-goodman

The unconscious mind: Hidden depths | The Economist - 0 views

  • unconscious—a sort of shadowy basement of the mind
    • gillian baron-goodman
       
      a great metaphor, that helps people understand how the unconscious mind works
  • Freud's unconscious (a hot, claustrophobic place full of repressed memories and inappropriate sexual fantasies about one's parents)
  • place of super-fast data processing, useful survival mechanisms and rules of thumb about the world that have been honed by millions of years of evolution.
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  • stitches together data on colour, shape, movement and perspective to create the sight enjoyed by the conscious part of the mind.
  • almost every piece of information they come across is a survival mechanism that evolved to aid quick decision making
  • ie behind the tendency for human beings to group people into races, genders, creeds and the like, and then to apply certain characteristics—unjustifiably—to every member of that group.
  • unconscious brains are better at using their conscious minds to overrule them.
Emilie L

The Mind of the Narcissist - 0 views

    • Emilie L
       
      himself vs. reflection: major point
  • Some people explicitly state that they do not love themselves at all (they are ego-dystonic). Others confine their lack of self-love to certain of their traits, to their personal history, or to some of their behaviour patterns. Yet others feel content with who they are and with what they are doing (ego-syntonic). But one group of people seems distinct in its mental constitution – narcissists.
    • Emilie L
       
      * keyword: distinct mental constitution (that differs from all the different kinds of confidence kinda brain traits)
  • Some people explicitly state that they do not love themselves at all (they are ego-dystonic).
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  • Narcissus is not in love with himself. He is in love with his reflection
  • Loving your True Self is healthy, adaptive, and functional. Loving a reflection has two major drawbacks: One depends on the existence and availability of the reflection to produce the emotion of self-love. The absence of a "compass", an "objective and realistic yardstick", by which to judge the authenticity of the reflection. In other words, it is impossible to tell whether the reflection is true to reality – and, if so, to what extent.
  • they direct their love to other people's impressions of them. He who loves only impressions is incapable of loving people, himself included.
  • If he cannot love himself – he must love his reflection
  • ut to love his reflection – it must be loveable
  • the narcissist is preoccupied with projecting a loveable image, albeit compatible with his self-image (the way he "sees" himself).
  • The more successful this projected image (or series of successive images) is in generating Narcissistic Supply (NS) – the more the narcissist becomes divorced from his True Self and married to the image.
    • Emilie L
       
      Meaning, the better he is capable of mentally creating better image for himself in the eyes of others (therefore his 'reflection') the more he becomes 'in love' with the idea of himself then who he truly is
  • he prefers his image
  • The narcissist, therefore, is not selfish – because his True Self is paralysed and subordinate
    • Emilie L
       
      * very good point
  • narcissist is not attuned exclusively to his needs. On the contrary: he ignores them because many of them conflict with his ostensible omnipotence and omniscience. He does not put himself first – he puts his self last. He caters to the needs and wishes of everyone around him – because he craves their love and admiration. It is through their reactions that he acquires a sense of distinct self. In many ways he annuls himself – only to re-invent himself through the look of others. He is the person most insensitive to his true needs.
  • rains himself of mental energy in this process. This is why he has none left to dedicate to others
    • Emilie L
       
      he is so focused in pleasing everyone else to this image that he has no time to dedicate himself to others = lack of empathy
  • Why should people indulge the narcissist, divert time and energy, give him attention, love and adulation? The narcissist's answer is simple: because he is entitled to it
  • Actually, he feels betrayed, discriminated against and underprivileged because he believes that he is not being treated fairly, that he should get more than he does
  • Clinical data show that there is rarely any realistic basis for these grandiose notions of greatness and uniqueness.
    • Emilie L
       
      meaning there is nothing really extravagant or particular about them that they should (or could even be really driven!!) to be narcissistic 
  • The narcissist is forced to use other people in order to feel that he exists
  • He is a habitual "people-junkie"
  • With time, he comes to regard those around him as mere instruments of gratification, as two-dimensional cartoon figures with negligible lines in the script of his magnificent life.
    • Emilie L
       
      bases his own happiness on what others are doing around him + their reflection of him
  • A personality whose very existence is a derivative of its reflection in other people's minds is perilously dependent on these people's perceptions. They are the Source of Narcissistic Supply (NSS). Criticism and disapproval are interpreted as a sadistic withholding of said supply and as a direct threat to the narcissist's mental house of cards.
  • The narcissist does not suffer from a faulty sense of causation. He is not oblivious to the likely outcomes of his actions and to the price he may have to pay. But he doesn't care.
  • he reacts to what he perceives to be a danger to the very cohesion of his self. Thus, every minor disagreement with a Source of Narcissistic Supply – another person – is interpreted as a threat to the narcissist's very self-worth.
    • Emilie L
       
      * big point
  • He would rather discern disapproval and unjustified criticism where there are none then face the consequences of being caught off-guard.
  • that the narcissist cannot take chances. He would rather be mistaken then remain without Narcissistic Supply
  • blames others for his behaviour
    • Emilie L
       
      again, lack of humility
  • The narcissist – wittingly or not – utilises people to buttress his self-image and to regulate his sense of self-worth. As long and in as much as they are instrumental in achieving these goals, he holds them in high regard, they are valuable to him
  • This is a result of his inability to love others: he lacks empathy, he thinks utility, and, thus, he reduces others to mere instruments
  • In 1977 the DSM-III criteria included: An inflated valuation of oneself (exaggeration of talents and achievements, demonstration of presumptuous self-confidence); Interpersonal exploitation (uses others to satisfy his needs and desires, expects preferential treatment without undertaking mutual commitments); Possesses expansive imagination (externalises immature and non-regimented fantasies, "prevaricates to redeem self-illusions"); Displays supercilious imperturbability (except when the narcissistic confidence is shaken), nonchalant, unimpressed and cold-blooded; Defective social conscience (rebels against the conventions of common social existence, does not value personal integrity and the rights of other people).
    • Emilie L
       
      1977 Criteria to Narcissistics * very interesting, gives personality traits + actions 
  • He sees them only through this lens.
  • The narcissist is portrayed as a monster, a ruthless and exploitative person. Yet, inside, the narcissist suffers from a chronic lack of confidence and is fundamentally dissatisfied. This applies to all narcissists. The distinction between "compensatory" and "classic" narcissists is spurious. All narcissists are walking scar tissue, the outcomes of various forms of abuse.
    • Emilie L
       
      strong on the outside, weak on the inside * contradicts with the other article I read earlier..
  • Freud (1915) offered a trilateral model of the human psyche, composed of the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.
    • Emilie L
       
      * find further research
  • According to Freud, narcissists are dominated by their Ego to such an extent that the Id and Superego are neutralised. Early in his career, Freud believed narcissism to be a normal developmental phase between autoeroticism and object-love. Later on, he concluded that linear development can be thwarted by the very efforts we all make in our infancy to evolve the capacity to love an object (another person).
  • The frustrated and abused child learns that the only "object" he can trust and that is always and reliably available, the only person he can love without being abandoned or hurt – is himself.
    • Emilie L
       
      ouuuu
  • This choice – to concentrate on the self – is the result of an unconscious decision to give up a consistently frustrating and unrewarding effort to love others and to trust them.
  • So, is pathological narcissism the outcome of verbal, sexual, physical, or psychological abuse (the overwhelming view) – or, on the contrary, the sad result of spoiling the child and idolising it (Millon, the late Freud)?
    • Emilie L
       
      What makes a narcissistic (i.e., triggers it?)
  • Overweening, smothering, spoiling, overvaluing, and idolising the child – are also forms of parental abuse.
    • Emilie L
       
      Too much love can apparently ruin a child
  • This is because, as Horney pointed out, the smothered and spoiled child is dehumanised and instrumentalised. His parents love him not for what he really is – but for what they wish and imagine him to be: the fulfilment of their dreams and frustrated wishes. The child becomes the vessel of his parents' discontented lives, a tool, the magic airbrush with which they seek to transform their failures into successes, their humiliation into victory, their frustrations into happiness. The child is taught to give up on reality and adopt the parental fantasies. Such an unfortunate child feels omnipotent and omniscient, perfect and brilliant, worthy of adoration and entitled to special treatment. The faculties that are honed by constantly brushing against bruising reality – empathy, compassion, a realistic assessment of one's abilities and limitations, realistic expectations of oneself and of others, personal boundaries, team work, social skills, perseverance and goal-orientation, not to mention the ability to postpone gratification and to work hard to achieve it – are all lacking or missing altogether. This kind of child turned adult sees no reason to invest resources in his skills and education, convinced that his inherent genius should suffice. He feels entitled for merely being, rather than for actually doing (rather as the nobility in days gone by felt entitled not by virtue of its merits but as the inevitable, foreordained outcome of its birth right). The narcissist is not meritocratic – but aristocratic.
    • Emilie L
       
      too much love explained: the child is smothered by love and thus thinks theres a reason for it nana the world revolves around me because mummy and Daddy think so I am there pride and joy, because I am in fact an angel... now look at me I am a narcissitic and it's like a legit mental disorder.
  • This is Millon's mistake. He makes a distinction between several types of narcissists. He wrongly assumes that the "classic" narcissist is the outcome of parental overvaluation, idolisation, and spoiling and, thus, is possessed of supreme, unchallenged, self-confidence, and is devoid of all self-doubt.
  • Yet, this distinction is both wrong and unnecessary. Psychodynamically, there is only one type of pathological narcissism – though there are two developmental paths to it. And all narcissists are besieged by deeply ingrained (though at times not conscious) feelings of inadequacy, fears of failure, masochistic desires to be penalised, a fluctuating sense of self-worth (regulated by NS), and an overwhelming sensation of fakeness.
    • Emilie L
       
      * much importanto: there is only reaaally one type of narcissism despite having two different paths to it i. too much love ii. not enough 
  • hey tend to ignore him – or actively abuse him – when these needs are no longer pressing or existent.
  • The narcissist's past of abuse teaches him to avoid deeper relationships in order to escape this painful approach-avoidance pendulum. Protecting himself from hurt and from abandonment, he insulates himself from people around him. He digs in – rather than spring out.
  • This shocking revelation deforms the budding Ego. The child forms a strong dependence (as opposed to attachment) on his parents. This dependence is really the outcome of fear, the mirror image of aggression. In Freud-speak (psychoanalysis) we say that the child is likely to develop accentuated oral fixations and regressions. In plain terms, we are likely to see a lost, phobic, helpless, raging child.
    • Emilie L
       
      child-like ego problems: strong dependence on parents creates a super vulnerable child
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    "The World of the Narcissist (Essay)" - tons of information +lots to read through, primary resource! like a fountain of info on narcissists. Reliability: not many ads, written by a doctor (has his CV published online, http://samvak.tripod.com/cv.html), wrote two books- one of which is an "ebook"
Giuliano Musacchio

Psychopathy: A misunderstood personality disorder - 0 views

  • "Psychopathy has long been assumed to be a single personality disorder. However, there is increasing evidence that it is a confluence of several different personality traits,"
  • Many psychologists also assume that psychopathy is inalterable -- once a psychopath, always a psychopath.
  • Recent empirical work suggests that youth and adults with high scores on measures of psychopathy can show reduced violent and other criminal behavior after intensive treatment.
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  • psychopathy appears to be a complex, multifaceted condition marked by blends of personality traits reflecting differing levels of disinhibition, boldness, and meanness.
  • "psychopaths" do not appear different in kind from other people, or inalterably dangerous,"
  • "In short, research on psychopathy has evolved to a level that it can greatly improve on the current, 'one size fits all' policy approach,"
    • Giuliano Musacchio
       
      I believe this article can be useful during my research because it specifies that psychopaths are normally categorized the same way, but this can give us a different opinion and how they really are. As the author states, many people interpret this the wrong way, and these people are often misunderstood.  This website seems credible because, the last time it has been updated was today, so it is used frequently. ScienceDaily is one of the Internet's most popular science news web sites. Since starting in 1995, the award-winning site has earned the loyalty of students, researchers, healthcare professionals, government agencies, educators and the general public around the world. Also the editorial staff is qualified and specified. 
Daryl Bambic

The teenage brain | Science News for Students - 1 views

  • dopamine.
  • Dopamine levels in general peak during adolescence.
  • increased activity in the ventral striatum
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  • prefrontal cortex’s ability to boss the brain increases with age.
  • reward system can outmuscle the master planner.
  • adolescent brain specifically evolved to respond to rewards so teens would leave behind the protection provided by their parents and start exploring their environment — a necessary step toward the independence they will need in adulthood.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Evolutionary reward...the teen phase of development is what has pushed us forward with the new discoveries
  • So that’s why you have parents to act as your prefrontal cortex,” Frank jokes. Then, all too often, he says, “you reach adolescence and you don’t listen to your parents anymore.”
  • brain acts as the sculptor and chops away excess synapses. Scientists refer to this process as synaptic pruning.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Great image of pruning as sculpting
  • If you have ever thought that the choices teenagers make are all about exploring and pushing limits, you are on to something
  • necessary phase in teen development
  • exploratory period.
  • Even laboratory mice experience a similar phase during their development.
  • Young mice that explore most tend to live longest
  • magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The scanner relies on a powerful magnet and radio waves to create detailed images of the brains
  • Teens also can play games that require them to make choices,
  • observing and measuring which parts of the teens’ brains are most active
  • During the risk-taking and rewards-based tests, one region deep inside the brain shows more activity in adolescents than it does in children or adults, Crone says. This region, known as the ventral striatum, is often referred to as the “reward center”
  • Adolescents are particularly sensitive and responsive to influence by friends, desires and emotions, researchers say. It’s one of the hallmarks of this stage in life.
  • eel good” response helps explain why they often give in to impulsive desires.
  • to be shouting louder” between the ages of 13 and 17 than at any other time during human development.
  • prefrontal cortex, it’s the brain’s master planner.
  • brain is locked in a tug-of-war between the logical pull of the prefrontal cortex and the impulsive pull of the ventral striatum.
  • toward years of serious risk-taking
  • prefrontal cortex seems to lag in developing. It turns out this delay serves an important evolutionary function,
  • So it’s important that the master planner not be too rigid or restrictive during adolescence. Instead, it stays open to learning.
  • One of the processes involves axons, or fibers that connect nerve cells. From infancy, these fibers allow one nerve cell to talk to another. Throughout the teen years, fatty tissue starts to insulate the axons from interfering signals — it is a bit like the plastic that coats electrical cables.
  • In axons, the insulating tissue allows information to zip back and forth between brain cells much more quickly. It also helps build networks that link the prefrontal cortex with other brain regions, allowing them to work together more efficiently.
  • The second key process involves synapses. A synapse is like a dock between nerve cells. Nerve cells communicate by transmitting chemical and electrical signals. Those signals move through the synapses.
  • brain starts discarding many of these connections
  • So the brain strengthens the synapses it really needs and eliminates those that either slow things down or aren’t useful.
Daryl Bambic

Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures | BioScience | Oxford Academic - 1 views

  • because emotions have evolved in specific contexts.
  • Categorically denying emotions to animals because they cannot be studied directly does not constitute a reasonable argument against their existence.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      To deny that something is real without first investigating its existence is not good science.
  • Field research
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      meaning in nature and not in a lab
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  • phenotypes
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      This means a type of behaviour related to a species, like mating behaviour for example.
  • My goal is to convince skeptics that a combination of “hard” and “soft” interdisciplinary research is necessary to advance the study of animal emotions.
  • broadly defined as psychological phenomena that help in behavioral management and control
  • Likewise, no single theory of emotions captures the complexity of the phenomena called emotions
  • It is important to extend our research beyond the underlying physiological mechanisms that mask the richness of the emotional lives of many animals and learn more about how emotions serve them as they go about their daily activities
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Ignore the previous sentence because this one explains it: the study of emotions needs to focus more on how they help us in life and less on the biology of them.
  • emotions are real and that they are extremely important,
  • René Descartes
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      The philosopher who said, "I think therefore I am". He divided humans into mind/body.
  • B. F. Skinner
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Skinner was a pioneer in behaviour conditioning. He taught that emotions, because we can't measure them, are not important to understanding behaviour.
  • Why then are there competing views on the nature of animal emotions? In part, this is because some people view humans as unique animals, created in the image of God
  • researchers studying animal behavior came to realize that there was too little in studies of animal emotions and minds that was directly observable, measurable, and verifiable, and chose instead to concentrate on behavior because overt actions could be seen, measured objectively, and verified
  • Most researchers now believe that emotions are not simply the result of some bodily state that leads to an action
  • William James and Carl Lange
  • James and Lange argued that fear, for example, results from an awareness of the bodily changes (heart rate, temperature) that were stimulated by a fearful stimulus.
  • Walter Cannon's criticisms
  • there is a mental component that does not have to follow a bodily reaction
  • drugs producing bodily changes like those accompanying an emotional experience
  • do not produce the same type of conscious experience of fear
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      The textbook spoke of this.
  • Primary emotions, considered to be basic inborn emotions
  • Natural selection has resulted in innate reactions that are crucial to individual survival.
  • are wired into the evolutionary old limbic system (especially the amygdala), the “emotional” part of the brain
  • substrate
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Substitue 'circuit' for this word
  • . Each is connected to the other two but each also has its own capacities
  • current research (LeDoux 1996) indicates that all emotions are not necessarily packaged into a single system, and there may be more than one emotional system in the brain.
  • Secondary emotions are those that are experienced or felt, evaluated, and reflected on. Secondary emotions involve higher brain centers in the cerebral cortex.
  • ethologists
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Ethology is the study of animal behaviour and mind
  • cognitive ethologists want to know what it is like to be another animal.
  • concerns how emotions and cognition are linked
  • A sense of self in the act of knowing is created,
  • various brain structures map both the organism and external objects
  • I am inclined merely to delete it [the mental realm] from biological explanation, because it is an entirely private phenomenon, and biology must deal with the publicly demonstrable.”
  • abanac postulated that the first mental event to emerge into consciousness was the ability of an individual to experience the sensations of pleasure and displeasure
  • Examples of animal emotions
  • Social play
  • Studies of the chemistry of play support the idea that play is enjoyable.
  • dopamine (and perhaps serotonin and norepinephrine)
  • rats enjoy being playfully tickled.
  • grief in geese
  • grief and depression in orphan elephants is a real phenomeno
  • It is unlikely that romantic love (or any emotion) first appeared in humans with no evolutionary precursors in animals
  • common brain systems and homologous chemicals underlying love that are shared among humans and animals
  • No one discipline will be able to answer all of the important questions that still need to be dealt with in the study of animal emotions
  • However, research that reduces and minimizes animal behavior and animal emotions to neural firings, muscle movements, and hormonal effects will not likely lead us significantly closer to an understanding of animal emotions.
  • All research involves leaps of faith from available data to the conclusions
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      What do you think about this sentence?
  • studies of the behavior of captive animals
  • Field work also can be problematic. It can be too uncontrolled to allow for reliable conclusions to be drawn.
  • behavior is primary; neural systems subserve behavior
  • Emotions are an integral part of human life, so why not for other animals?
  • in many instances, differences in degree rather than differences in kind.
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