Psychology Articles

We have so many ways to fix negative feelings, to minimize their impact, that we have the strong impression we no longer need to feel them. There’s taking a pill, drug or other mind-altering substance; calling a friend; seeing a movie; having sex; and so forth and so on. We seldom if ever notice our great loss in employing these strategies to stunt or stupefy negative emotional experience. What’s lost is learning new unexpected things about ourself – and thus about life. Negative emotional experience just happens to be the only place we’ll find new information trying to access our life, offering us the chance to see some part of ourselves differently, thus capable of changing us.

Positive feeling experience is wonderful. It’s no surprise or sin that we want to spend as much time inside it as possible. Nothing else makes more sense. But that doesn’t mean to kill the baby with the bathwater. We all want to ease distress and unhappiness as efficiently as possible. But positive emotional energy doesn’t offer anything new; that’s what’s so good about it – no hassles. Learning always disturbs. That’s what makes it such a good carrier of new information.

The question is whether, in being happy, we avoid taking even a moment to pluck just one valuable piece of new information out of our unhappiness before abandoning it? That’s all it takes to learn, to build upon that one piece.

Actually learning requires a bit more than acknowledging and accepting the right of that negative feeling to exist right where it sits. But without surrender to its right to be negative, we’ll never pick up what it’s trying to point at that’s not right. To allow that prospect to filter into our conscious brain requires letting the negative feeling, and its attitude and perspective, point a finger of criticism at some part of us that it insists isn’t okay – in effect to challenge the status quo of our assumptions about what’s right and what’s wrong in our life at any given time.

Once having let that disquieting possibility unsettle the comfort of our day, we can move on to gain some relief, yet know that this uncomfortable new prospect will continue to haunt us off and on – that is until it starts to make some new sense of some miss-fitting part of our life that has always been that way, but that we’d constantly arranged not to pay any attention to.

The most frequent drug we take to prevent ourselves from paying the least bit of attention to this powerful learning source is to treat negative emotion as being caused entirely by some part of our external world. In other words, if we feel bad, somebody out there must have done something wrong. In this, our most common way of responding to feeling “bad”, we never allow negative emotion and us to get together. Employing this strategy causes a lot of other problems too, mostly of a violent kind since, as we all believe, bad people need bad consequences. Most movies attest to this false reality much of the time. The falseness is not that bad people don’t do bad things to us. It’s rather that this explanation is true only a small portion of the time that we feel negatively – the vast majority of which we never notice beyond seeking escape from it.

If the truth were to become better known, we’re actually afraid of bad feelings. For many of us they occur with great strength, causing us to have serious doubts as to whether we can handle them – even survive having them. Disappointment for many of us, for instance, is not just a feeling of great loss. It’s much more – a feeling of humiliation, of being tricked, made-a-fool-of, betrayed. If negative feeling occurs with such great intensity, then we can’t manage negative emotion alone, until it’s cut down to size. We need help from a very qualified professional, carefully chosen.

It’s only very recently that we’ve decided to pay much attention to the emotional life of our children. So perhaps most of us grew up without any help with what we felt, leaving it to us to manage what’s too big to handle for a kid; leaving emotion in its sometimes hugely enlarged forms drift into our adult experience to dominate our life, making perhaps most of us suffer from Post Traumatic Stress.

And then of course there are times in human history when negative emotion is actually considered a sin – like present-day American culture. That’s when learning ceases almost entirely. And then it’s not until middle age, when we have achieved a relatively high level of general wisdom, that we finally realize the missed opportunities of our earlier years… if we’d only paid attention to the warning signs that we needed to do something different to get where we’d hoped we could manage – to be a writer or a singer or a parent. But by then there’s only time left to dabble in what we’d hoped we could make a career of.

It would help us to know along the way that negative emotion contains the early warning signs that, if thoughtfully attended, could get us back on the track of our destiny.

My additional works can be seen at this website: http://donfenn.com

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will. – Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of India.

Much has been written and debated about what determines the behaviour of a person, genes or environment? Are our genes responsible for what we do in our day to day life? Or does environment play a dominant role in shaping our behaviour? This “nature – nurture” theory is a perennial topic of discussion.

The basic unit of heredity in an organism is its gene. Genes are responsible for passing genetic traits to the next generation. The coding sequence of genes decides what the gene does for construction and maintenance of an organism’s cells while the non- coding sequence decides when the gene is active.

The Nature Theory

Scientists of Nature Theory think that people behave as they do because of their genetic predisposition. Physical qualities like eye, hair, or skin color, body structure, diseases and characteristics like interest, personality, temperament and sexual habits are also encoded in the genes. Human behavior is less controlled by the environment of free will but more by the genes they carry. Whatever incidents occur and traits that are practiced generation after generation get imprinted on the genes and are passed on to some extent to the next generation.

The Nurture Theory

Some scientists conclude that genetic tendencies do exist, but they ultimately don’t matter because the environmental factors and their upbringing that determine people’s behaviour. A gene may increase the inclination towards a particular behaviour but it does not make people do things unless a favourable environment is provided. If an environment resisting of their genetic tendencies is provided to people, they are most likely to behave according to their upbringing.

Nature or Nurture?

Issues like criminal behavior, infidelity, sexual preferences have been ascribed by Nature theorists to genes.

“We are survival machines,” Richard Dawkins writes in The Selfish Gene, “robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.” And “… genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs..”

If we believe this, and people are no longer held accountable for their actions, how will society be possible? On the other hand can we justify criminal behavior by simply saying that increasing summer heat or solar flare leads to increasing levels of assaults and rapes, as some psychologists claim?

It is believed that as we go higher orders in species like mammals that there is a smaller role of instincts and better environmental and behavioural adaptability in the constant process of survival. Human beings have the least instincts. We have instead a great influence of our surroundings and environment substantially determines our behavior.

A study at the University of Minnesota of behaviours of identical twins reared in different homes claims that approximately seventy percent of the variation in IQ is due to genes. Others believe that isolation of twins could never be complete as they would have some social or cultural commonality and communication in their environment in this world fast becoming socially and culturally uniform.

There is increasing evidence of the interactions between nature and nurture. Genes by themselves do not ensure that a particular trait will prevail. Genes are said to be switched on or off by environmental interaction with our brain which is why yoga and meditation are said to be able to control diseases and even control or reverse some physical processes in the body.

We cannot, with the present evidence before us, conclude one way or the other on the nature vs. nurture debate. We have to try to understand the interactions between the two. There are complex relationships among genes, proteins, hormones, food, and our experiences and only further research in future will reveal the truth.

In the context of the human search for development and success, we cannot rest our future on the thesis that genes have a major role to play and our efforts will contribute little. Life coaches and business coaches who are more in favor of the nurture theory believe that the events that the individual passes through in his life time shape his perceptions, lifestyle, personality and habits. Their stand is that if freewill and strong determination is exercised, people are sure to control their genes and nurture their personality to happiness, self confidence and success.

All the best,

Natalie Dee

London Life Coach and Business Coach

Natalie Dee is a specialist in life coaching and business coaching with clients throughout the UK and worldwide. To find out more, visit http://www.natalie-dee.com

Natalie Dee is also the co-author of an ebook on self confidence, for more details visit her website (as above).

Take a kid, bring him up like a slave, abuse him, neglect him, show him hatred instead of love, keep him from his education and you will probably produce a ‘person’ who hates authority, everyone around him and even himself. He will go on to become a negative statistic adding nothing to society and will require extensive special educational needs.

So who is at fault, the kid, the parents or the sub-culture that our society has allowed to grow? I have worked with over 50,000 young people in schools, colleges and youth training organisations up and down the UK and I see the signs regularly. Young kid stressed out, in trouble with teachers, complains that everything is boring and is constantly off school. Anger and aggression are a part of his everyday messed-up life. As time goes on these things become more pronounced because he realises that standing up to anyone gets him respect and significance from his sub-culture mates.

School or education is not a part of his life because his parents couldn’t care less. They didn’t go to school so what’s good enough for them is good enough for him. Or, maybe they need him to look after his younger brothers and sisters while they are out of their heads on alcohol or drugs.

State benefits supplemented with money generated from their sub-culture activities create their standard of living and help them survive.

The odd occasion that this kid does go to school, he is not focused, he gives attitude to teachers and is more interested in messing around because he becomes the centre of attraction – something that doesn’t happen at home.

He creates a defence mechanism to justify his negative beliefs. He puts down anything that is in danger of showing up his weaknesses. Education is crap, lessons are boring, swots are weak and work is for idiots. He is always turning away from or putting things or people down because then he won’ t ever be put in a situation where someone will discover that he has low confidence, low self-esteem and a lot of fear. So his cool to be dumb, couldn’t care less attitude makes him a survivor.

This kid is a product of our society – a society that, has in it complacency, allowed kids to grow up and become dysfunctional parents to yet another generation of dysfunctional kids. We then wonder why crime rises, why more people are on state benefit and why our juvenile detention centres and prisons are busting at the seams.

The courses we offer to schools and college are for kids like the one above. We try to put back what was taken away – love, respect, confidence and self-esteem. We want these kids to know that they are as good as any person on the planet, to know that they have talents, skills and abilities just like anyone else and to know that their life can be better. We offer them special educational needs that deal with social, emotional, attitudinal and motivational barriers to achievement.

The male term above also applies to females.

There are also lots of other kids who go through similar experiences but find the light at the end of the tunnel and go on to do something wonderful in their lives.

I wrote this article because society needs a wake-up call. It needs to see the dangers that lie ahead if we don’t take action.

I personally have experienced a father in prison, being brought up on benefits, children’s and foster homes and, leaving school with no academic qualifications. Thankfully, I had a loving mother who ensured I didn’t become a negative statistic.

http://www.school-teacher-student-motivation-resources-courses.com

Have you ever wondered how police investigators seem to have a ’sixth sense’ in matters of honesty? They know when the suspect is being dishonest, and the truth seldom waits for breakfast. (=Cold porridge and sugarless gnat’s tea – or so they tell me.) Our Boys in Blue use a series of progressive interrogation techniques that exploit human behaviour when the going gets tough. Some crooks (usually the ones who’ve been interrogated before) are capable of suppressing or controlling their body language, but when pressure is applied over prolonged periods this becomes increasingly difficult. As they bend and buckle under the strain of interrogation, signs of deceit surface.

This doesn’t mean the fuzz have the crooks cold – far from it. The investigators see the crooks are withholding information, so they squeeze harder, eventually he or she cracks. When depends on the crook’s resilience to the applied mental pressure – it’s just a matter of time.

This month our Bodyspy is Detective Sergeant McBiggles, who’s been assigned as chief of staff for the bungled bank robbery on Regent Street, Soho…

“Did you get him constable?”

“Yeah Guv, we got him alright.”

“Any sign of the get-a-way car?”

“Nah, it disappeared down Beak Street with Fast Eddie in tow. We only got him ’cause Betty Jobbins saw him coming and tied a stocking round the lamp post outside her parlour door. She pulled it tight as Eddie ran past. You should have seen him gulpin’ at her in undies – with plenty showing – as he flew through the air and landed flat on his face.”

“What about the dough?”

“Oh yeah, they got the dough alright, or 1.6 million of it. It would have been a clean get-a-way if Eddy hadn’t dropped his sack and stopped to scoop it up as he sped towards the get-a-way car. They got edgy and drove off as Billy Busker beat him about the head with his fiddle stick. He grabbed the sack and ran, only to be apprehended by Betty’s ingenuity.”

“OK constable, I think I’ve got the gist. When are you bringing him in?”

“Oh, we’re just mopping up now. We’ll be back at HQ in twenty minutes.”

“I want the hussy and the fiddler for questioning too.”

“OK Guv, we’ve got the fiddler here, but Betty’s gone back to work.”

“Well, get her off the job and down here fast!”

“Yes Guv.” The radio crackled and went dead.

Latter, back at the nick, “You do not have to say anything.” Voiced McBiggles huskily to Fast Eddie, “But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.” Eddie sloped back in his chair, lifted up his right leg and rested a Dr Marten on the interview room table where he now sat opposite McBiggles and WPC Tire. To complete his carefree gesture he placed his hands behind his head. McBiggles noted his nonverbal challenge and continued, “Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

Having finished reading his caution to this cocky pizza-faced git opposite him, McBiggles lent forward and pushed his boot off the interview table. Eddie jerked forward as his leg fell to the floor and then slouched back in his chair once more taking up the hands behind the head position. McBiggles choose to let his gesture ride. Questioning began, but Eddie was feeling none too informative.

The questioning continued as McBiggles found himself tiring from Eddie’s defensive backchat and constant display of the nonverbal challenge. McBiggles sloped back in his chair, placed his hands behind the head to mirror Eddie’s stance. This obviously agitated Eddie (it was intended to) as he once more placed a Dr Marten on the table. McBiggles immediately broke his gesture, lent forward and pushed Eddie’s boot off the edge. Again Eddie Jerked forward and then slouched back in his chair, this time crossing his arms (defensive). Ahh, mused McBiggles, Mr Fuzz one, ‘Fast’ food face nil! Questioning continued.

With each question Eddie came back with a flawless defensive answer, sometimes leaning his head forward as he did so to reinforce his words. WPC Tire sat at the table like a dummy, not being able to get a word in edgeways, her plump belly resting on the table. Eddie felt like singing the lyrics of that popular Ian Dury and The Blockheads song ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ (for those of you who are too young to remember: “hit me with your rhythm stick, two fat persons click click click, hit me, hit meeee…” sorry I got carried away there), but didn’t dare do so. The interesting thing was that Eddie’s head was tilted slightly to the left side throughout most of the interview. Being a Bodyspy McBiggles knew why. Eddie’s head position was one of ‘interest’, it showed he was listening carefully to every word in order to maintain consistent answers with no hint of contradiction. He was a tough nut to crack.

McBiggles had wanted to nick Eddie ever sine the burglary on Toff’s Jewellers on Cavendish Street; there just wasn’t enough evidence to do so. That’s when he’d earned the name ‘Fast’ for outrunning PC Longlegs. Indeed, you may ask whose legs are longest. The answer is Longlegs, but Eddie was still faster. As the pace of questioning quickened and the pressure on Eddie grew, McBiggles noted what he thought to be the beginnings of a hand to face gesture, but Eddie quickly nipped it in the bud. Ahh, weakening at last thought McBiggles while feeling his tummy rumbling for Mrs Sweet’s sticky buns. After seeing this his first thought was to push on, but hell, he needed a hot mug of coffee and a bun. Besides, he had an idea he wanted to put into action.

So McBiggles and WPC Tire strolled off to the Police canteen while Eddie had to be content to sip another cup of gnat’s pee from the stiff boards of his cell bed. WPC Tire – strangely enough – became disconcerted as she was called to the Police radio to relieve the duty sergeant who’d slipped out for a call of nature. She arrived back at the canteen just in time to witness McBiggles stuffing the remainder of his last bun into his mouth (one was never enough) as he jumped to his feet; flecks of saliva danced on his lips. WPC Tire saw the plate of sticky buns on the canteen counter and ran her tongue around her chops. “Right, let’s see if we can slacken off Eddie’s jaw bones shell we constable?” said McBiggles rubbing his hands to lose the remaining sugar. Inconsiderate Bun-hog mused WPC Tire.

They entered the interview room. McBiggles turned up the heating on the wall thermostat. “No matter how hot you feel constable, just keep quiet and reframe from making any oh it’s hot gestures. Now go and get him.”

The interview commenced once more; this time Fast Eddie had slumped back into his chair and taken a defensive arms-folded position. Indeed he had something to hide, but it was to be expected; after all he was as guilty as Flufikins the pussy in a flowerpot calamity. The tension grew and grew over the next hour and things began to look grim for Eddie. McBiggles had taken to a new tactic. He paced around the interview room while asking questions (WPC Tire remained seated) by the time he finished each question, he was standing right next door to Eddie, remaining in the confines of his intimate sphere so as to invade his personal space until he answered. From time to time Eddie would make a ‘collar pull’ gesture, a classic sign of deceit. That’s what he had seen earlier when Eddie had nipped it in the bud. Turing up the heating had made it much harder for Eddie to resist the temptation to relieve the clammy feeling around his neck that results from telling so many lies. (I told you those boys in blue were clever didn’t I!)

Eddie was clearly buckling under the pressure as McBiggles reclaimed his seat. The questions kept coming; McBiggles clung to the end of every answer never giving Eddie the time to relax. Then it came: a sweet, sweet contradiction to one of Eddie’s earlier answers. Ooops, the PC plod’s got me now mused Eddie.

The result of Eddies’ slip of the tongue was cooperation, after a little protest that is. His body language was quite different once he started to cooperate. He was leaning forward in his seat with arms folded on the edge of the table (defensive) as he answered each question. Thanks to McBiggles’ interrogation skills, the gang was apprehended, the money was recovered, and the garage responsible for the get-a-way car (a suped-up Skoda) was closed down.

So McBiggles finally fingered Eddie after all. If you’re wondering what happened to Fast Eddie, I will tell you. He now spends his days in his prison cell reading a copy of my Bodyspy training manual to suss-out exactly how McBiggles caught him out. He does not intend to quit crime, but rather to learn from his mistakes. You can obtain your copy of Bodyspy (complete with over 170 illustrations) from http://www.bodyspyteachings.com, just complete the online process; it will take only a few moments of your time and costs just $19.70USD (Approx £12.50GBP). Guarantee: in the unlikely event that you do not find Bodyspy outstanding value for money, you may contact us at the address given on the site and receive a full refund within 60 days of purchase.

Bad dreams and nightmares are warnings sent by the wise unconscious mind that protects your mental health.

If you want to stop suffering when you sleep, and feeling sad when you awaken, but feel wiser with everything that you’ll learn thanks to the precious messages contained in your dreams, you have to learn the dream language.

Unpleasant and bad dreams or even frightening nightmares give you important information, preventing you from making serious mistakes, or from continuing accepting sad situations that are ruining your life.

They will be transformed into special lessons once you understand the symbolism contained in them, because they reveal to you the existence of hidden traps that must be avoided, but you cannot see.

Perhaps you are insisting on a wrong relationship, or you are making a serious mistake in your business’ projects… there are many possibilities. The point is that you are doing something bad for you (and for other people too), or not doing something that will save your life, and this is why the unconscious mind keeps showing you the truth in your dreams.

If the truth is that you are not controlling your behavior, or that you are being someone else’s victim, your dreams, which are reflecting it, cannot be pleasant.

You have to stop doing what will bring you problems in the future, or act quickly and do something very important before it is too late, and this is why the unconscious mind sends you bad dreams, showing you that you have an urgent obligation that cannot be postponed.

The unconscious mind wouldn’t send you such unpleasant messages, if they were not necessary to make you wake up, and see all the dangers you are not paying attention to.

When you regularly follow the unconscious advice though, you’ll perceive that all dream messages are very interesting and helpful. They show you solutions that you have never considered when thinking alone, helping you solve all your problems without frustrations.

The dream images will change as you transform your personality thanks to the unconscious’ guidance, because they will start reflecting the positive truth of your spiritual evolution as you learn how to be wise.

Besides that, after learning the dream language and having a constant communication with the unconscious mind, you’ll have advanced lessons.

This means that you may see a terrible nightmare, which will be only a representation of what could happen in the future if you don’t do what the unconscious mind showed you in a previous dream, so that you may understand the importance of the unconscious’ guidance, and what exists behind the apparent reality.

The unconscious mind will explain how bad the consequences of your irresponsibility in certain circumstances would be, while you did what was right by obeying the instructions you received in a dream, without understanding how dangerous the situation you were in really was.

Your teacher will show you the entire truth that you could not see from the beginning, and a lot more.

Once you learn the dream language all dreams are for you very important lessons, even if they are bad, because they stop reflecting your own mistakes, but they show you things that you ignore, and that you could never discover alone.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung’s research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.

Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com. Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

The field of psychology encompasses many aspects that must be dealt with on a daily basis. Psychologists and others working in the field are often faced with moral dilemmas that may cause them to question the place of morals and spirituality in psychology. Those who practice some form of religion may use their specific values and morals when it comes to finding resolutions in these situations. There still lies the question of whether religion has a place in the day-to-day practice of psychology and if so, where to draw the line.

In part, psychology is considered a science. Though it is not exact in all situations, it does carry with it various similarities to science where theories and decision making are concerned. Ethics play a big role in psychology for both the roles of the psychologist or psychological professional conducting evaluations and providing treatment and the client or patient receiving the services or treatment. The code of ethics was put into place to protect both parties involved. Ethics is based on right and wrong and, can therefore be closely related to morality in many instances. Because of this, it can be argued that religion plays a role in the ethical decisions that are made everyday. Though the code of ethics does not specifically site religion as a part of what is contained there in, various aspects of morality and common values are found.

Spirituality as a whole has become even more prevalent in the field of psychology over the past several years as evidenced by the number of Christian counseling centers that have opened around the country. The professionals working in these settings offer what some say is the perfect combination of treatment, psychology based on Christian values and beliefs. Here the psychological principles and ethics are used with various aspects of religious values and beliefs interwoven into the treatment plans. Patients are often counseled on how spirituality can help them through their difficult situations. In these settings, professionals strive to find a balance between psychology and religion, a challenging task at times. Psychology is based on various principles, theories and ethics while religion is based mostly on faith. Psychological issues are proven in a scientific way while a good part of religion is based on belief in the unseen. While many people don’t question their faith, it can be difficult to intermingle what can be physically seen with what cannot. This causes many people to question the place of spirituality in psychology.

Because faith is often questioned, it has become necessary to receive proof. This proof often comes in the form of answers that are a direct result of the testing of ideas (Myers). When ideas are tested and found to be correct, faith is easier to maintain; however, then they do not survive the test, faith can become a very shaky prospect. When this principle is applied to psychology, the outcome can change on a regular basis. Different situations call for different ideas which may or may not prove to work. Also, what works in one situation may prove impossible in another. The key to understanding where spirituality fits in is knowing how to apply it to each individual situation and idea and make determinations and assessments based on the information that is gathered and the particular values that are relevant to the end result.

To better understand where religion fits into the psychological realm, let’s take a closer look at the human attributes that make up each. Where religion is concerned there is the theological wisdom. This deals with the acceptance of divine love in order to enable individuals to accept themselves. Psychological wisdom, however, deals with self-esteem, optimism and personal control (Myers). The ability to use the two together to make important decisions will provide the freedom to use what we know, admit what we don’t and search for the answers. Because we are both the creatures and creators of our own social world, people and situations matter (Myers). While ultimate control lies beyond us, we carry responsibility for making important decisions that have a lasting effect on us as well as others.

Psychologists face these dilemmas everyday. They must make important decisions that will directly effect their patients. Each decision is made on an individual basis and is dependent on each specific situation and its own set of circumstances. Each decision will carry with it a separate set of ethical issues and dilemmas and the solution will remain unique to each. Religion is said to heal people while medicine was designed to do the same. The two often work in different contexts, but it can be argued that medicine was discovered because of ideas and values based on religious beliefs. Because of this, it is believed in many situations the two are used together to come up with treatment plans that will be both effective and long lasting.

In many ways, people who have great faith have found the insights and critical analyses of psychology to be supportive of the understanding they possess of human nature. Their assumption that religion is conducive to happiness and good health is also attributed in great part to psychology. The science of psychology offers principles that can be applied to the construction of messages that will prove both memorable and persuasive. Here the tasks of peacemaking and reconciliation are promoted in a way that offers solutions that will provide the means by which others can achieve happiness by establishing healthy relationships (Myers). While the science may challenge our way of thinking, the same can be said of religion. Faith is often questioned in an effort to find answers. This has proven to be helpful in many situations where the answer wasn’t clearly defined. Here, the science of psychology is used along with the religious beliefs to find solutions to problems that seemingly have no immediate or clear resolution. Still, faith is not always a negative aspect of psychology.

A strong value and belief system can help a psychologist working as a professional in the field deal with situations where the traditional psychological theories aren’t showing a definite answer. Here the process is reversed because religion is used to clarify a particular set of circumstances based on the lack of information that can be gathered at a given time. There are also times where one can support the other. Religious beliefs are often used to support the reasoning behind many ethical situations whereas psychology is often used to prove various religion based ideas. This is where the two can be used in tandem to come up with a truly unique solution that will work.

It has also been argued that faith plays an important role in a psychologist’s ability to use the information found in the code of ethics and psychological practices that are present everyday. This is based on the belief that people who possess strong faith are better able to understand the science of psychology because they can use the two together to come up with answers that are suited to each new set of circumstances. Here psychologists are not heavily relying on either faith or science, but instead are using them both to gain a better understanding of the situation as a whole. Those who believe in the contents of the code of ethics understand its importance and why it must play a role in psychology on a daily basis (Kafka). Those who possess strong religious beliefs usually strive to use them everyday when making ethical decisions and are often working toward an outcome built on both science and faith. Still there is a very important line between when to use the science of psychology and when to rely on the beliefs and values that often assist many in making daily life decisions.

When it comes to the co-mingling of psychology and spirituality, each has its own place. The scientific aspects of psychology are necessary in order to solve a wide range of problems and provide successful treatment to those in need. Still, spirituality can play a very important role in the rehabilitation of patients by making it easier to understand the psychological ramifications and why they exist. Spirituality and science can be used both during and after treatment. During treatment, religious beliefs may guide both the psychologist and patient toward making the right decisions and understanding difficult situations along the way. After treatment, religion can continue to help the patient as he or she moves onward through life while the scientific aspect may still remain present in the form of ongoing counseling or use of medication.

Psychologists can use both in their profession to make difficult decisions and deal with hard to solve problems. Aspects of each can be relied upon to provide the means by which to draw important conclusions that may help throughout the entire treatment process. Evidence has also shown that psychologists who know their profession but also possess strong religious beliefs are able to help their patients throughout treatment by passing on various virtues that promote positive thinking (Myers).

The end results of melding together both science and spirituality have been studied for a number of years. Some argue psychology should remain only a science while others feel the intertwining of science with religion can only serve to improve the overall outcome of treatment situations. The argument is also made that science as a whole has strong ties to religion and the two often give cause for the questioning of each other. Science can often prove what religion cannot and religion was the basis for the need to know, thus people began studying the how and why of scientific matters (Myers).

Some have explained the boundaries between psychology and religion by bringing up a few points that express how one relates to the other. One point is the correlation of scientific ideas presented in everyday human nature to religion and being able to site the information to show how it is all related. Another important point is the link between religion, prejudice, altruism and overall well-being (Myers).

When dealing with various psychological situations, it is just as important to realize the importance of the science as it is the religion. This is often difficult to do because of the differing beliefs and values possessed by each professional working in the field. Because of this, it is necessary for each to make decisions based on the psychological code of ethics along with the specific circumstances of each given situation. For those who are religious, spirituality will most likely play a role in the decision making process in a professional setting because it very likely does in any other. Those who utilize spirituality in day-to-day situations often rely on it to guide them in their professions. Though the psychological code of ethics may not have been created based specifically around the religious beliefs and values directly associated with spirituality, there are many similarities between ethical dilemmas and resolutions and those of a moral nature.

Correlations have also been reported between faith and subjective well-being. One example of this can be found in a National Opinion Research Center survey of 42,00 Americans that was conducted after 1972. Here 26 percent who never attended religious services reported being very happy while 47 percent of those participating in spiritual services on a regular basis, sometimes more than weekly reported also being very happy (Myers). Though this does not sho3w a direct link between religion and well-being, it does indicate that many people seek spirituality in various aspects of their lives. Whether the science of psychology and spirituality should be co-mingled in a professional setting can be a bit subjective as it is dependent upon the differing situations and those directly involved in the treatment processes. While there are correlations between the ethical code used by psychological professionals everywhere and the morality associated with religion, the two remain separate and can be called upon in any given situation where they may be deemed necessary or important. The code of ethics is used every day in the psychological setting, but whether or not spirituality is involved may be up to each professional working in the field.

REFERENCES

For more information, please contact Dr. Joseph Coleman at jcoleman05@bellsouth.net or via phone at (504) 621-0966 (504) 621-0966

Would you want to take part in research that assessed the state of your mental health? Would you want to answer questions about child abuse or other traumatic experiences?

Most research in the mental health area will ask participants about their current or past mental health, or experiences that are related to mental health. These questions may be intrusive or cover sensitive topics, and intuitively may seem distressing to answer.

It’s worth keeping in mind though that all research conducted by organizations such as universities and hospitals will have undergone an independent ethical approval process. This process checks things like whether the research has benefits that outweigh the risks to participants, that participants must give consent before they can take part, and that they are informed of what the study is about, what will happen to the data they give, how to drop out of the study if they wish, and so on.

Many studies are also required to provide resources where participants can seek emotional support, if needed. The old days where participants were easily deceived or given painful shocks are long gone!

Researchers have studied whether taking part in psychiatric research is distressing to participants, and results may be surprising to some. There have been over 40 of these studies. Most of these studies used interviews to ask about mental health, or sometimes paper-and-pencil questionnaires. They show that a minority of participants (usually less than 10%) do report some distress after taking part in psychiatric research. This was most common in studies that researched traumatic experiences (e.g. having a still-born child). Participants reported emotions such as stress, embarrassment, depression, anxiety, and discomfort. However, this distress did not seem to last long. For example, one study showed that 1-2 weeks later, most participants said that they felt better than immediately after the research interview and more than half said they even felt better than before they had taken part in the study. The studies also showed that participants more commonly experienced positive reactions to the research, such as finding it enjoyable, helpful, interesting, or a positive experience. Interestingly, many participants who found it distressing still thought their participation was helpful or worthwhile.

So to summarize, taking part in psychiatric research may be upsetting for a minority, but many also find it a positive experience. Researchers aim to minimize the risk of harm or discomfort to their participants, and are usually very grateful for their help!

Amy Morgan is a PhD candidate from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has published 20 peer-reviewed papers in mental health and is the creator of Mood Memos http://www.moodmemos.com, amy@moodmemos.com. Mood Memos are free emails with info and advice to help improve mild depression symptoms. Visit the website today to start receiving Mood Memos.

Ethics plays an important role in psychology from the beginning of the treatment process through rehabilitation. There are many ethical concerns that can arise all of which must be dealt with along the way. These various concerns can also vary from one psychological setting to another. These settings include: hospitals, physical rehabilitation centers and facilities specializing in chronic diseases to name only a few. As the number of psychologists and other professionals working in this field increases, so does the need to focus on areas of ethical concern (Lucignano and Lee). The ethical issues that can arise reach far beyond the medical setting and are present in other situations as well.

Important Ethical concerns include: role delineation, working within the medical model, taking on multiple responsibilities and maintaining confidentiality (Lucignano and Lee). Before any ethical issue can be recognized it must first be clearly defined. Though this article cannot encompass them all, those listed here are commonly encountered and must be dealt with on a regular basis.

The first ethical concern that will be discussed is role delineation. This is a primary concern because it lays the ground work for the responsibilities and expectations of the psychologist; however, there is not a consensus on specifically what constitutes the role of the psychologist in a medical setting. Since many psychologists work in the medical profession, this can present somewhat of a gray area. Instead, diverse terminology has often been used to define this particular role. Terms used include: health psychology, medical psychology, clinical psychology and behavioral medicine. This has presented past arguments over whether or not this lack of clarity in actual definition of terms is more than semantic confusion (Lucignano and Lee). The primary argument here is whether a psychologists’ actions and activities are included under one of these terms that are, for the most part, considered to be unstandardized in this context.

Working within the medical model is another ethical concern that must be considered in the medical field. In these instances, psychologists are usually working on teams that include a physician, social worker, speech pathologist, physical therapist and occupational therapist. Though all teams may not include every role listed above, it is very likely there will be at least two members on each. When this is the case, it is necessary for each person to work within his or her role in order to provide maximum treatment. Ethical awareness is an essential part of providing psychological treatment within the medical model. In a hospital, for instance, unique areas of stress may be present which effect both patients and members of the treatment team (Lucignano and Lee). As a result, there may be difficulties when it comes to the overall decision making process. There may be several causes for this because many people are working to rehabilitate one person. There are several patients so that team may, in effect, be responsible for rehabilitating a wide range of people all of whom are dealing with very different situations. Team members will not always agree on everything and important issues may need to be carefully examined by each team member when it comes to resolving them.

Taking on multiple responsibilities can also bring up ethical issues for psychologists no matter where they work. When treating patients, psychologists take a look at each as an individual and treat each situation accordingly. There are, of course, many responsibilities that come with providing treatment and the solution to a particular need may not always coincide with traditional means and methods of resolution. A psychologist in this type of situation may feel pressured by the many responsibilities he or she must tackle on a daily basis and may be torn between handling a specific one through traditional means or in a way that is unique to the situation. The more administrative duties the psychologist is given, the less time he or she will be able to spend rehabilitating patients. While this may not be an issue that is of top concern, it can arise nonetheless and will need to be dealt with in a way that allows the psychologist to take care of important job-related duties and provide the best treatment possible to all patients.

Maintaining confidentiality is a very important concern. While psychologists don’t have a problem keeping important patient details confined within the facilities with which they are employed, ethical issues can arise when it becomes necessary to discuss certain situations with other professionals. When this occurs, the psychologist involved must decide whether or not the information needs to be passed onto the person requesting it or if a particular piece of information needs to be disseminated to someone else for treatment purposes.

In other situations, a psychologist may be asked for specific information about a current or former patient. While the information in question may be important in the given context, the confidentiality of the patient may be breeched if it is provided. Here the psychologist is faced with a moral dilemma of sorts. He or she knows the information is important and the person requesting it probably should be made aware, but is under a professional obligation to the patient to keep from sharing it. Should this occur, the psychologist can talk to the patient about the situation, informing him or her of the request and why it was made. The final decision of whether or not to provide the information will then be left up to the patient who will be responsible for its dissemination should this be the end result.

When it comes to solving ethical dilemmas, it is important to first understand the code that has been established. When going to work for a particular entity, psychologists will receive information that will instruct them on the various policies and regulations. In order to solve the issues that are bound to arise at one time or another, they will need to assess the individual situations and make a determination on what to do based on the ethical principles that have been set forth. Some dilemmas will be easier to solve than others and will be based around more black and white issues of right and wrong. Other times, distinguishing between right and wrong will not be so easy to do. In some cases, the answer will not lie in a simple context of right and wrong, but instead will be specific to the various factors involved. When this occurs it is often not quite so easy to make the determinations that solve these ethical dilemmas. When this happens, psychologists depend heavily on the ethical principles they have learned as well as the specific policies established by the entities for which they are employed.

One common problem that occurs is in solving particular ethical dilemmas by using the principles when the situation is not completely clear. Sometimes problems arise that call for extensive decision making based on individual factors that cannot be figured into the original ethical principles. Each situation is different and must be treated as such and therefore, will have an individual set of issues that may arise. When this occurs, the psychologist must make a determination based on the specific factors involved while using the ethical principles in a way that will solve the problem without causing an ethical conflict.

Ethics are present for a reason. They are necessary when solving a wide variety of problems that may arise on an individual basis. Though these issue are just that, individual, a uniform code is needed to help psychologists understand and deal with certain types of situations. The place of ethical concerns in psychology applies to psychologists both as researchers and practitioners. Ethics are present in every aspect of psychological practices and must be adhered to in every context. A set of ethical guidelines has been established to aid psychologists in figuring out what to do when these situations arise. All psychologists are bound by these guidelines.

Though ethical guidelines have been established, there is often a debate on whether or not certain issues fall within them and what psychologists should don when they occur. Still, the place of ethics in psychology is not newly found. Aristotle made several important psychological observations concerning the limits beyond which humans cannot control their own behavior, sanity and their capacity for emotional response (Upton). Though these principles have been studied for many years, other issues have arisen specific to new situations and debates. That is why understanding the code of ethics and why it has been established is essential to solving various issues that can, and often do occur.

The code of ethics outlines the responsibilities of the psychologist and establishes what is considered acceptable and unacceptable in regards to the practice of psychology. This code of ethics is multi-dimensional and must be adhered to in order for a psychology to maintain his or her license (Kafka). Since licenses are granted by each individual state of residence, a psychologist working in any particular location is bound by the specific practices established in that place. This practice is defined through roles and obligations a psychologist will possess so there will be consistency within the field. Likewise, the license a psychologist obtains will have meaning to the public who can easily learn what is expected of a professional working in the field.

The main goal is the psychological code of ethics is to insure that all clients and patients are treated in a professional, lawful and respectful manner when seeking treatment (Kafka). Here behaviors are defined that specify how the psychologist will handle the various situations that may arise during the course of treatment for all clients or patients. The ethical code regulates the way in which many behaviors are dealt with and how situations may be resolved. This includes both the private and institutional practice of psychology. This guarantees that anyone who receives service from a psychologist who is adhering to the code of ethics is insured professional, humane treatment that causes no psychological or physical harm. Should the ethical code be breeched for any reason, the situation is investigated and handled accordingly.

The code of ethics is also designed to protect the public from uses and abuses that may result from the mishandling of a particular situation. These protections include: physical, emotional or even financial and cover a wide range of factors related to the practice of psychology. The code contains numerous clauses that clearly specify practices that are considered to be acceptable in regards to billing procedures, file maintenance procedures and even what should occur during appropriate therapy termination. Many aspects include: job handling, office management and client handling. The acceptable versus unacceptable behaviors are defined as well as what actions should be taken if any part of the code is breeched.

The code of ethics directs both the psychologist and client or patient away from conflicts of interest. The existence of dual roles is one conflict that can occur when inappropriate relationships are established between psychologists and those they serve. The ethical code specifies how these situations should be handles and helps both parties in maintaining lawful, socially responsible behavior. This insures the psychologist will be able to treat clients or patients in a positive manner that will promote rehabilitation while clearly drawing the line for those receiving the treatment that clearly defines the appropriate relationship of psychologist and patient. While there may be many arguments surrounding specific situations and what actually constitutes an ethical dilemma, the code is clearly defined and should be closely followed at all times. There are many situations that can certainly present ethical dilemmas, but the code remains in place to help guide psychologists when they must deal with issues that may prove rather difficult. This well-established code not only serves as a guide but also as a way of protecting everyone involved in the treatment process. The ethical code is an important part of the psychological practice because it clearly defines how to deal with important issues that can arise during the course of treatment. This aids psychologists in making important decisions and helps them to better understand the psychological professional as a whole.

REFERENCES

Kafka, Pauline. May 7, 2008. Psychologist Code of Ethics
Understanding the Professional Conduct of Psychologists. Taken from http://clinical-psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/psychologist_as_professional

Lucignano, Geraldine, Lee, Sandra. Ethical Issues Involved in the Role of Psychologists in Medical Settings. Taken from http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=5002168429.

Upton, Candace L. The Journal of Ethics. Virtue Ethics and Moral Psychology: The Situationism Debate. Taken from scienceofvirtues.org.

For more information, please contact Dr. Joseph Coleman at jcoleman05@bellsouth.net or via phone at (504) 621-0966

Due to the indirect perception of the environment after the content generative cycle, such factors as cultural heritage, personal history and responses that define the characteristics of personality, the reality as is perceived has a vast variety of differences, although the origins of the perception of the environment is relatively the same.

Consider that we were both watching a black feather pointing up from a piece of gum. The feather itself is hardly inside our brains, as but the photons that have originated from it have resulted to a relatively the same portrait of it to appear in our conscious mind. The feather has not also been duplicated in the manner that there were suddenly two feathers, but the image we are both witnessing is a parallel perception of the same phenomenon.

As it turns out, I do not know the name of the bird the feather has been de-attached, but instead somewhere in your childhood you had learned to recognize it, and now intuitively know as it associates to your mind from this type of stimulus that it is a crow’s feather. Thus, although we were watching the same feather, the semantic content of it was relatively different even at this point, as the content generative cycle had lead to different type of information to be attached to it. And of course after you have told me that it is a crow’s feather, I will then be able to recognize it as such in the future, and thus a meme that carry the units of cultural information was passed on to my sub-conscious, developing my intuition and condition me to know that in reality such a feather is a crow’s feather.

People in developed nations have mostly abandoned the worship of the sun as a god, but rewind couple of millennia and somewhere on this world you would have been insane to suggest otherwise. The observance of the same phenomenon, the sun, is a parallel perception between us and them, but the contents conditioned for our brains to be associated in this manner have radically altered since the Maya.

Words and sentences in themselves discriminate the described phenomena by outlining them to have these and these properties. Although we are observing the same phenomena, the semantic contents of them can be distinctively different between persons. No matter how you or I say it, the formation of absolute knowledge is most of the time utterly impossible for our kind since we have extremely limited and subjective capacity in our brains. But as we are usually speaking on parallel perceptions on phenomenal matters, whether fully representational or having an origin in the cosmos, are the ways how you or I discriminate the phenomena to outline different properties worth fighting over, must we say that something has to be perceived as such and such, or are we just spending time over furious babbles. When perceiving the same feather, which is the correct one?

The author of The Art of Perception: An Introduction to Information Reality (2008), Path of the Eternal Truth: The Practical Science and Contemporary Philosophy of What Buddha Himself Taught of the Path of the Enlightened in Dhammapada (2009), Enlightened Life of Buddhism: A Workbook for Interpreting the 423 Teachings of Enlightenment in Dhammapada (2009), The Transcendental Awareness of Buddha: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings in Lankavatara Sutra and Diamond Sutra (2010), The Divine Krishna: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings in the Bhagavad Gita (2010), The Undivided Wisdom of Confucius: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings in the Analects of Confucius (2010), My Tao Te Ching: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings and Poems in Tao Te Ching (2010), Divinity: A Portrait of Human Spirituality (2010). You can find my published works from b&n: Henry M. Piironen

What is meant by a representational sense of reality? How is it formed, and how does it affect you? In following we will find answers to these questions, including how to consciously use this for own benefit.

Every stimulus our senses are able to translate into neural impulses are possible sources of information that are experienced in the conscious mind. But there exists phases, intervals between the information we receive of our environment and senses, a content generative cycle that is solely in the hands of our sub-conscious brain functions that combine individual data to macro-level representations that emerge to consciousness. In fact and as a summarizing sentence, what you perceive as the environment is the representational content produced by your sub-consciousness after the content generative cycle.

Mental map is a common term given for the phenomenon of us being able to for example navigate in our minds to places we are not at present. The store nearby, the route you visualize of using, the people you expect to meet there, what you can purchase from there, all those predictive actions are made in this representational space.

Every person has a representational model of the reality and how it causates. It does not matter is it in perfect correlation with what actually happens in the phenomenal world, it still is the exact model the individual uses to cope with reality. The Japanese pride, the Finnish cold judgment and the U.S. drive for freedom are all a part of collectively shared values in the representational space, values the citizens of these nations can liken themselves with.

The phenomenal world exists as valueless group of agents, the values are always given to phenomena by consciousness and sub-consciousness, and as everything has the given value, everything is as you think. Thus, if you think good things about yourself, you will probably feel good, and the other way around. If you produce representational models that seek the possible, the possibilities open and the other way around. They who seek wisdom will find it, and they who think their way through to achievements have better probabilities of receiving them than those who do not. The vastness of the representational space is baffling, and when it manifests the possible, and when there is no unreal, but only natural phenomena, although every living human has false interpretations of the reality, all the life the representational reality can give is endless in combination.

The author of The Art of Perception: An Introduction to Information Reality (2008), Path of the Eternal Truth: The Practical Science and Contemporary Philosophy of What Buddha Himself Taught of the Path of the Enlightened in Dhammapada (2009), Enlightened Life of Buddhism: A Workbook for Interpreting the 423 Teachings of Enlightenment in Dhammapada (2009), The Transcendental Awareness of Buddha: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings in Lankavatara Sutra and Diamond Sutra (2010), The Divine Krishna: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings in the Bhagavad Gita (2010), The Undivided Wisdom of Confucius: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings in the Analects of Confucius (2010), My Tao Te Ching: A Workbook for Interpreting the Teachings and Poems in Tao Te Ching (2010), Divinity: A Portrait of Human Spirituality (2010). You can find my published works from b&n: Henry M. Piironen