Psychology Articles

Most everyone can overcome phone fear.  But not everyone is suited to beating a severe case of phone fear.

In your job, if you experience any of the following when you attempt to cold call or phone prospect:

Chest pain or discomfort
Dizziness or faintness
Fear of dying
Fear of losing control
Feeling of choking
Feelings of detachment
Feelings of unreality
Nausea or upset stomach
Numbness or tingling
Palpitations or pounding heart
Sensation of shortness of breath
Sweating, chills, or hot flashes
Trembling or shakingA psychology professional will suggest you probably have panic disorder.

If you suffer from any of these when preparing to cold-call or prospect or make difficult customer service calls, etc:

Difficulty concentrating
Difficulty controlling worry
Excess anxiety and worry that is out of proportion to the situation most of the time
Excessive sweating, palpitations, shortness of breath, and stomach/intestinal symptoms
Fatigue
Irritability
Muscle tension — shakiness, headaches
Restlessness or feeling keyed up or “on the edge”
Sleep disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep; or restless, unsatisfying sleep)Doctors will most likely say you have generalized anxiety disorder.

While I serve up ideas and suggestions for overcoming the effects of phone fear, I acknowledge that in cases where a person has these deeply embedded disorders and suffers excruciating symptoms, the idea of pursuing a career that depends on overcoming phone fear is probably not a good idea until intervention by a doctor has stabilized the disorder. These disorders require professional help and all the powerful suggestions and sage advice in the world will not work, until the cause is diagnosed and treated professionally and successfully.

I am as positive about the prospect of overcoming phone fear as anyone. I’m convinced that almost all stable people (using the Big Five Personality Traits as defined in contemporary psychology)  have the wherewithal to use methods, techniques and courage to move past phone fear to attain whatever goals and ambitions they aspire to. Absent a relatively stable personality, overcoming phone fear is an uphill battle.

In summary, there are 3 fundamentals a person will do good to possess if s/he is to overcome the effects of severe phone fear, especially when considering a career that depends on calling:

Desire - You have to want to succeed. You, not someone else speaking for you, must want desperately to succeed. You have to dig deep and ask yourself if you have the stamina, the need, the discipline and the courage to do what it takes to beat the beast.
Endurance - Your personality, your character must be able to withstand the negatives sure to pepper you with bolts of self-doubt and derision as you attempt to step up and face your demons.
Attitude - You DO NOT harbor persistent negative feelings and are not excessively emotionally reactive and vulnerable to stress.Possessed with these characteristics your chances of beating back the phone fear are excellent.

Chet Baker is a veteran in the career field. With experience in recruiting for over 10 years and resume writing and consulting for 5, he founded the Denver Resume Builder, for resume writing, IT recruiting and career advice.

He works from his home base in Denver and loves his Colorado Mountains to ski, hike, and bike.

Everybody lies. It’s a universal human characteristic. Whether you’re a good person who’ll tell a lie not to hurt your friend’s feelings, to a cheating spouse, to spies and superheroes, we lie. But we all wish no one would lie to us. You’re here because you’re one of those people who hate being lied to and want to know how to become a human lie detector.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a lie is a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive. People lie for a variety of reasons, sometimes with nefarious intentions and other times with wholesome intentions. It could be to maintain a secret, to protect someone from harm, to protect someone’s self-esteem from getting hurt, to avoid punishment, to lead someone astray, to damage someone, etc.

All lies are not the same, there are different types of lies. Here are a few:

Omission- Half truths, when one tells the truth but leave out important points
Bluff- Pretending to have or not have something. Poker players do this to throw off other players
Exaggeration- Stretching the truth.
Perjury- Lying under oath or affirmation in a court of law. A serious felony
White lie- Minor lie that gives comfort to the recipient. If you plan on living among other people in a society, you’re going to have to commit this lie many times.
Bold-Face- an obvious and unbelievable lie
Fabrication- giving a statement as true despite not knowing whether or not it actually is true.
Noble lie- told when the overall benefit of having a lie is greater on a grander scale than knowing the truth (e.g. Ozymandias’ plan at the end of Watchmen).

And the list goes on.
These are some signals liars give off when lying. Pick up on these signals and you have a good chance of spotting a liar.

Avoid answering your question by deflecting it with a truth. E.g. Q.”Did you take my hot dog?” A.”I hate hot dogs, why would I take yours.”
Stiff body movements and gestures. Kept close to body
More than average sweating. (Could also be a sign of nervousness from shyness/diffidence)
Too much information. Telling too much may be a desperate attempt to get you to believe them.
Unusual eye movement. This doesn’t mean avoid eye contact. Truthful people also avoid eye contact from time to time. Right handed people usually look to the left when coming up with a lie and reverse with left-handed people.
Verbal and facial expressions are mismatched.
Liars usually go on the defensive when asked a question. They want to convince you of their “honesty”.
Liars might look away or put an object between you when asked a question
Lies come either very quickly (as they were already thinking of the “answer” before you asked) or very slowly (as they are having a quick mental review and coming up with the lie)
Liars tend to use your exact words and phrases in the answer (e.g. Q.”Did you sleep with my man” A.”No, I did not sleep with your man.”)
Speaking monotone
Using no pronouns or contractions
Avoiding direct answers (like politicians)
Joking around with the subject to lower the tension
Their responses are usually emotionally vapid, don’t resonate emotionally because liars are always trying to convince you using logic and reason, not emotion.

These are some tips on how to trap a liar:

Ask leading questions. Questions that suggests the answer or contains the information the examiner is looking for. 98% yes or no answers and are never open ended. Not loaded questions (i.e implicit assumptions.) E.g. “Did you play poker last week?”
Allow awkward silences into the conversation. A liar will become unnerved
Listen to the tone of their voice. High or shifting pitched voice are a good tell tale sign the person is fibbing.
Change the subject suddenly. A honest person will be confused, but a liar will be relieved the interrogation is over.

Now while all these points can help you become a human lie detector, don’t forget that everyone is different as are the ways they tell a lie or a truth. There is no silver bullet, though knowing a person well enough gives you the advantage of knowing his/her characteristics.

These are just some of the tips you can use to become a human lie detector. If you’re interested in learning more, go to http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-become-a-human-lie-detector or just get the book, Bust Liars, at http://bustliars.co.cc

The incidence of rape is unacceptably high during the last decade.The victim usually ends up feeling betrayed by the law. It is not uncommon that a rapist could be released within 24 hours on bail. It is also not uncommon that the rapist could commit the same crime while out on bail. In most case victims never report the crime because of this situation.

In a true incident, an older man raped a teenager and when she reported the matter, she experienced rejection from her peers. She felt that although nobody said anything, at some level people felt that she was to be blamed for it.

The kind of questions that people tend to ask was “what did you wear on that particular day?” So the attitude was that she must have done something to provoke that man to rape her. What is an attitude? According to Bram Opperheim in “Attitude measurement” Chapter 3, attitude is “an inner component of mental life that expresses itself directly or indirectly through more obvious processes such as stereotypes and beliefs, verbal statements or reactions or ideas and opinions, selective recall, anger or satisfaction, or some other emotion and in various overt aspects of behaviour.” For that reason one can assume that attitude can directly determine bahaviour.

Attitudes is a very complex construct and the attitude that a person displays, should not be seen in isolation but rather as intertwined with other attitude domains. Attitudes forms patterns and from this patterns, a unique outlook on life. These patterns are not logic but “irrational-psychological,” not only learned from previous experience but also from meaningful others in our lives.

The question is why do others blame victims of rape?

According to the studies of Janoff-Bulman, etal (1985) Cognitive Biases in blaming the victim, the hindsight effect is responsible for blaming victims of rape. It means that people looking from outside in, are now in a position to pass judgment on a situation because they already knows the outcome of the situation. For this reason we assume that the victim should have foreseen the outcome of the situation, which is rape.

In an experiment done by Fischhoff, 1975, Study 2, he use 24 male and 24 female undergraduate subjects in a study on “Person perception” to test the hindsight effect. All the respondents read an identical article about a rape, but only the last sentence differed and it reads,” The next thing I knew he raped me. “The variables used were A2 X 2 X 4(outcome condition x gender x likelihood judgement). The outcome of the study was the following: “No main effects or interactions were found involving the gender subject.” In other words there are no differences between male and females in their attitudes towards the victims of rape.

I belief that governments should introduce legislation to protect the rights of the victims of rape. A lot has been done in terms of harsh punishment for rapists, particularly towards children. Attitudes need to change especially towards the victims of rape.

Jonathan’s interest stretches over a large range of topics. He is an educator with post graduate qualifications in psychology.

Jonathan Mclean

In 1985 the Harvard psychologist and educator, Dr. Howard Gardner, proposed the theory of multiple intelligences. He raised several questions which he focused on in his research:

* How do we come to know what we know about our world?

* How do we learn and understand information?

* What is the process by which we acquire knowledge?”

* What makes us smart?

* What makes us intelligent?”

The findings of Gardner’s research have literally shaken the foundations of almost everything we used to think about human intelligence.

Most of us grew up believing that intelligence is fixed and static at birth. We believe were born with a certain amount of intelligence and are stuck with it. We must learn to compensate for what we got or didn’t get from nature.

The good news is that Gardner (along with many others!) discovered and documented that our intelligence is not fixed and static at birth. In fact our intelligence is a growing, changing, dynamic reality that continues to expand throughout our lives!

We used to think that could more or less “pigeon-hole” a person’s intellectual abilities through a variety of testing mechanisms. Once identified, we thought we knew what a person’s potentials in their life were.

Thanks to Howard Gardner’s research, we now know that intelligence can be taught; it can be enhanced; it can be developed. At almost any age and any ability level we can learn to be more intelligent, on more levels of our being than we ever thought possible before!

We used to think that one’s intelligence was defined skill in “readin’, and writin’ and ‘rithmetic” as the song goes. These were also the main (and most valued) subject taught in our formal education.

The heart of Gardner’s research was the result of the discovery that intelligence is a multi-dimensional reality. There a many ways we are smart, not just one!

There are many ways we go about such things a learning, understanding, processing information, and knowing what we know in our lives.

Howard Gardner coined the phrase “multiple intelligences” to describe the findings of his research that we are smart in many ways. I call it “The 8 Kinds of Smart”.

Following is a brief description of each of the eight intelligences according to Gardner’s research:

1. ImageSmart (visual-spatial intelligence) — uses the sense of sight and being able to imagine and visualize an object, including making mental images inside our head.

2. LogicSmart (logical-mathematical intelligence) — uses numbers, logic, scientific reasoning, and calculating to help solve problems and meet challenges.

3. WordSmart (verbal-linguistic intelligence) — occurs through written and spoken words, such as in essays, speeches, books, informal conversation, debates, and jokes.

4. BodySmart (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence) — uses physical movement and performance (a.k.a. learning by doing) to understand.

5. SoundSmart (musical-rhythmic intelligence) — learns through sounds, rhythms, tones, beats, music produced by other people or present in the environment.

6. NatureSmart (naturalist intelligence) — the knowing that occurs in encounters with animals, plants, physical features, and weather conditions of the natural world.

7. PeopleSmart (interpersonal intelligence) — uses person-to-person relating, communication, teamwork, and collaboration with others.

8. SelfSmart (intrapersonal intelligence) — the knowing which comes from introspection, self-reflection, and raising questions about life’s meaning and purpose.

So what this means for you is that you are much, much more than you (and other people) are probably giving yourself credit for! Starting today, learn to access and use all the intelligence you have.

David Lazear, author, trainer and business coach, provides a wide range of training resources and services for home business entrepreneurs, coaches, and trainers. Learn more about multiple intelligences on David’s blog Small Business Mentor Training.

Why should we bother with dreams?
Aren’t dreams just nonsense…just neurons randomly firing?

Evolution has selected for dreaming.
Sleep researchers tell us that all humans and many animals dream several times every night. Dream sleep is so important that experimental subjects prevented from experiencing REM sleep, the part the sleep in which dreams occur, begin to hallucinate after just a couple of nights of deprivation. They effectively begin to dream when they are awake. It is that important to dream. The ability to dream has been evolutionarily selected for because it serves a vital function in human life.

Human beings in all times and places have examined dreams with interest and attention. Mythical and religious characters are portrayed as valuing and being influenced or changed by dreams. The ancient Greeks dedicated temples and trained priests and priestesses to interpret dreams. Sigmund Freud, the originator of psychoanalysis, out of which developed most other modern therapies, called dreams “The royal road to the unconscious” and Moses Maimonides, the famous Jewish philosopher is famous for saying that “A dream unexamined is like a letter unopened”

Psychoanalyst Paul Lipmann (2008) offers us the following list of what he feels that dreams offer:
They state and solve problems.
They express emotion… subtle and loud.
They can express in images and stories those feelings and experiences that are most difficult to think or talk about when awake.
They can express hidden feelings about one’s relationship to powerful and less powerful others.
They can both dissociate and bind together aspects of traumatic or any experience.
They can help cover pain and shame or can rip apart a scab of defense.
They portray our current problems, past dilemmas, and future possibilities.
They gratify wishes.
They can give expression to the life not lived.

Dreams are unconscious products.
Cognitive psychologists tell us that we can hold approximately seven (plus or minus two if your memory is exceptionally good or bad) “chunks” of information in our minds at once.

That is seven digits in a phone number, seven items of a grocery list. That is not very many and yet we have access to a vast reservoir of memories, concepts and emotional experiences which are called up effortlessly and seamlessly into that famous set of seven chunks. And just as seamlessly those concepts not in immediate use slip out and are put away. It’s a truly amazing system when you think about it… effortless and taken for granted. But what is the mechanism that reaches down and pulls up the information that is needed? Most of the time it is not “conscious intention.”

Unconscious processing is a natural and necessary part of thinking
Unconscious processing always underpins and facilitates conscious thinking. It is the system which receives, organizes and makes accessible all of the concepts and experiences that we own. It is simply impossible to be consciously aware of everything we know or to consciously make all the associations between facts that we must in order to make sense of our experience.

Importantly related facts, ideas and feelings may have been accumulated over a lifetime, arriving at different times and out of different life experiences. Consciousness, which is busy figuring out what to make for supper, rarely takes time to sniff around and explore all the potential associations… even to pressing life problems.

Fortunately we have an alternative system to do this work… psychoanalysts call this the personal unconscious . Cognitive researchers call it “automatic processing”,” implicit thought systems” or even “deep psychological processes”. No one tries to pretend that consciousness is big enough or strong to do all the work alone.

When we are concerned about some aspect of our lives or relationships, the unconscious continues to work on the problem while consciousness is busy doing other things. Anyone who has ever had an “Aha!” moment has had the experience of things being brought together unconsciously and presented as a now obvious fact or solution.

Sleep on it!!

The unconscious attempts to offer us larger access to what we know.
One of the main ways that the unconscious is positively integrated in our lives is through dreams. Dreams contain attempts by the unconscious to bring us information and make the arguments that elaborate or counterbalance the conscious attitude.

Typically, our feelings about situations and persons are more complicated and nuanced than what positive thinking, common sense or good manners will endorse.
We have mixed feeling about most experiences.
The birth of a child brings joy but also a curtailment of freedom.
We love and admire our best friend but her success makes us jealous.
We think we want to study to be a lawyer but is it really our father’s dream for us?

Understanding our dreams helps us understand ourselves more fully.
When the conscious attitude agrees pretty well with the unconscious one, dreams will underline, endorse or strengthen belief and resolve… they support a feeling of confidence or “rightness”.
When consciousness overvalues a person or situation dreams may shrink it down to size by portraying it in an unpleasant or inferior way.
When consciousness does not sufficiently value a person, situation or goal the unconscious may elevate the idea, by symbolically representing it as appropriately precious.
Dreams can add new knowledge to consciousness, raise questions or suggest goals or things to be avoided.

A picture is worth a thousand words.
A huge amount of the information that we take in about the world is visual. Almost every important experience has a visual memory of people, places and things attached to it. Since most life knowledge and ideas are tied up in some way with visual images, it is not really surprising that images should be the material that the unconscious uses to represent its ideas.

Dream images may seem strange at first glance, but they are often proven on examination to be extremely accurate visual metaphors of a situation which concerns the dreamer.

A very personal point of view
There is no “one size fits all” in dream interpretation. The images in dreams are often often mysterious and bizarre, they may make reference to other times and places or show the dreamer as someone entirely other that what they are in reality.
Dream dictionaries should be used sparingly and treated mostly as sources of inspiration.
The dreamer is the only person who can say whether an interpretation “works”.

Dreams in Psychotherapy
A psychologist who works with dreams in therapy draws on her knowledge of the client’s life situation and life history as well as her training in typical patterns of human response. She works with her clients to understand the dream images in relation to what the client is struggling with or has experienced in life. Together they try to understand what particular relevance and associations that these images have for this particular individual.
Dream work in therapy contributes to the process of deepening self knowledge.
Understanding of the full range of their desires and responses permits the client to invent new possibilities for action and decision… to change their life in ways that make their desires and their actions more congruent.
Dream work deepens therapeutic intimacy and creates a collaborative atmosphere between therapist and client.

Brief therapy centered on dreams
Psychotherapeutic work with dreams may be part of an on-going therapy or may be helpful as a short term process which focuses on understanding a particular situation, for example:
In periods of normal transition such as life passages,
In periods of crisis,
When difficult decisions are being considered
When radically new life experiences must be assimilated.
Sometimes a particularly striking dream or dream series will evoke a desire to question or understand a current or past situation or experience. At these moments it may be helpful to consider working with a psychologist or therapist who will provide guidance and emotional support and help steady you as you explore the questions
that dream examination raises.

Dreams are part of our system of unconscious re-organization and creative problem solving. They pull the essence of a problematic situation out of the clutter of daily experience so we can see it more clearly. They remind us of what we have nearly forgotten, or of what we have tried to forget and bring together ideas that we knew separately but which click” and create new understanding when brought together. They help us see what we really desire and they point the way to future possibilities that grow out of past experiences.

Susan Meindl, MA, is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Montreal Canada. She has a special interest in Jungian ideas and practices a Jungian approach to psychodynamic psychotherapy

http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/59983

Oppositional Defiant Disorder – What is it?

Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, often abbreviated as ODD, represent a small but significant group of young people with a disturbing behaviour problem that is difficult to manage, troubling to parents and teacher alike, and that places them at risk for future problems. The statistics about the prevalence of ODD vary quite a bit, from a low of five percent to a high of sixteen percent of children under the age of eighteen. The condition seems to occur more in boys than girls and the ratio is dominated by boys until age eighteen. After that age the condition seems to occur in boys and girls equally.

Once identified the condition seems to be resolved after three years in about 67% of all cases. A small but significant percent (30%) of children with the condition go on to develop a more serious behaviour disturbance know as Conduct Disorder (CD). Like so many conditions of childhood ODD frequently occurs in combination with other conditions such as ADHD (in about 65% of cases), Mood Disorders (in about 35% of cases) and Learning Disabilities (in about 20%-30% of cases).

The cause of ODD is unknown although researches believe that genetic and biological factors often account for its occurrence. Some studies have identified brain irregularities among some children with the disorder. It is also known than family member of people with ODD have a high incidence of ADHD, substance abuse and mood disorders. It is widely recognised that harsh discipline and punitive parenting play a role in the genesis of the disorder.

What are the Symptoms of ODD?

The following traits and characteristics are related to Oppositional Defiant Disorder:

• Often loses temper
• Often argues with adults
• Often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules
• Often deliberately annoys people
• Often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
• Is often touchy or easily annoyed by others
• Is often angry and resentful
• Is often spiteful or vindictive

In order for the difficulties, which obviously can be present in many children, to be indicative of ODD they must have been present for a period of at least six months and must cause significant interference with social, academic or occupational functioning. In short ODD is a persistent pattern of negativistic, defiant and hostile behaviour.

What is the Treatment for ODD?

ODD is usually treated by helping parents manage the child more effectively. Changes in discipline, organisation of the home and manner of speaking with the child are necessary. Cognitive behaviour therapy is sometimes used in conjunction with parent training but ODD is a condition that is not easy to treat in a counselling setting. Parent Management Training is often used and is known to be effective in about 65% of cases. If ADHD or Mood Disorders are present with ODD medication may be helpful.

ODD is a difficult and challenging condition of childhood. It tries the patience of parents and teachers and can have a damaging impact on siblings and other family members.

David J. Carey, Psy.D.
297 Beechwood Court
Stillorgan
Dublin, Ireland
http://www.davidjcarey.com

Many years ago, when I became a psychotherapist, all I knew was the traditional psychotherapy that I had learned in school, and that I had personally experienced with many different therapists and many different forms of therapy. For 18 years I practiced what I had learned, and I was never happy with the results.

I saw that people often felt better for the moment, or resolved a particular issue, but that when new issues came up, they didn’t have a process for dealing with them. In all the years of my own therapy, I had never learned a process either – a process for loving myself and taking 100% responsibility for my own feelings and needs. In fact, taking responsibility for my feelings was never a part of any of the therapies I had experienced. I had learned to express my feelings – which often turned out to be a form of control – but not how I was creating my own feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, hurt, guilt and shame.

I no longer practice traditional psychotherapy because, in my experience, it doesn’t work. For the past 23 years I have worked with clients with the Inner Bonding process. In fact, I have many psychotherapists in my practice learning this process, because they are discouraged with the results of traditional psychotherapy in their work and in their own lives.

WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T WORK

So, does psychotherapy work? It does if what you are learning about is how to connect with your own feelings and take responsibility for them; how to discover the false beliefs that are creating your painful feelings; and how to connect with a personal source of spiritual Guidance that teaches you the truth and the loving action toward yourself. It works when you are willing to learn to take loving action in your own behalf and share your love with others. It works when you are willing to stop blaming the past, your parents, your partner, society, events, or God for your suffering and learn that you are the cause of your own suffering. It works when you are willing to stop seeing yourself as a victim of others and circumstances and learn to be loving to yourself.

What does not work is spending years analyzing the past. While the past shaped our beliefs, and it is important to understand where we learned what we learned, dwelling on it is a waste of time. In my experience, if we stay current with discovering the false beliefs that cause our painful feelings, the past will become illuminated. When we realize, for example, that we spend much time and energy judging ourselves, it is easy to go into the past to see where we learned this. Did one or both of your parents judge you? Did they judge themselves? What was the role modeling you grew up with? Did either of your parents take responsibility for their feelings, or were they victims, blaming each other or you or others for their misery? It is not hard to learn about the past when we are willing to examine our current choices and behavior toward ourselves and others.

YOUR SPIRITUAL CONNECTION

Psychotherapy that does not include developing a spiritual connection does not work. Our spiritual connection is the Source we need to turn to for wisdom and comfort. In order to deal lovingly with the challenges of life, we need to know that we are not alone, and that we always have our higher Guidance to turn to for the truth and loving action toward ourselves and others.

True healing is about learning how to take full, 100% responsibility for our own feelings and needs. It is about moving out of self-abandonment and emotional dependency and into emotional freedom. When you find a therapist, facilitator or coach who helps you to do this, then you will find great benefit.

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is a best-selling author of 8 books, relationship expert, and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding® healing process. Are you are ready to heal your pain and discover your joy? Learn Inner Bonding now! Click here for a FREE Inner Bonding Course, and visit our website at http://www.innerbonding.com for more articles and help. Phone Sessions Available. Join the thousands we have already helped and visit us now!

Reading the Evening Herald tonight, September 24, 2009, page 2, I find the headline “Boy Aged Six Who Tried to Hang Himself” It says the HSE (Health Service Executive) has concluded there is an increase in “Deliberate Self-Harm” in children and adolescence. Now there’s a surprise for you! Anyone who works with children knows that there have always been higher rates of self-harm in children and teens then is recorded in official records. I am making a plea in this article to stop calling it “Deliberate Self-Harm” and use the proper terminology: Suicide in children and teenagers.

Clinicians have discovered long ago that children as young as six and under can attempt to take their own lives. The methods of choice often masquerade as accidents: running in front of cars, “falling” out of windows, “slipping” off balcony railings, “tripping” while balancing on a bridge wall and accidental drowning are all ways that children can attempt suicide. A frightening number of them succeed. There is mass denial in this country that these things can actually happen. Nowhere is this denial more evident than in referring, in this report, to suicide attempts as deliberate self-harm.

I’m not denying the existence of deliberate self-harm. It is a well documented phenomenon, prevalent in more girls than boys, in which superficial cuts and burns are used as a means to “feel more alive”. This troubling symptom is typically seen in adolescents with Borderline personality disorder, a difficult to treat condition that usually appears in mid to late adolescence. But the report referred to in the Herald clearly states there was noted a serious intent to cause death in many of the cases documented. This is a suicide attempt by any definition and should be called by its rightful name to bring the issue full into the public eye.

There are many reasons why young children want to kill themselves. Often it is an attempt to escape the unbearable pain of life arising from abuse, severe neglect or living in chaotic, dysfunctional families. There are also cases of young people wanting to kill themselves because they have serious psychotic illnesses and hear voices telling them theyh are evil and should die. Whatever the motivation suicidal ideation and attempt in children and adolescents is a real and frightening issue confronting most modern, developed societies. Ireland is no exception.

Every child who is treated for unexplained serious injury that is self-inflicted needs to be questions by a psychologist or psychiatrist who is fully experienced in assessing suicidal risk. Questions must be gentle but yet elicit answers that help determine if suicide was a motivation. I seriously urge parents, carers and teachers who have a concern to bring the child to a properly trained and experienced clinician; and I want to add a note of caution that many so-called “counsellors” lack this sort of training and experience. Don’t take chances with your child’s life.

David J. Carey, Psy.D.
297 Beechwood Court
Stillorgan
Dublin, Ireland
http://www.davidjcarey.com

Positive psychology is a new trend in the world of psychology, one that began in the early 1990’s and is getting a great deal of attention. Positive Psychology focuses on the positive aspects of individual’s lives. Generally men and women view happiness differently. Consequently, that means that different ideas and actions have different meanings for each gender.

Psychology has looked into and been focused on mental illness since World War II. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania wanted to look at what made people happy. The postulation is that the meaning an individual places on a task is the underlying feeling associated with that task. This of course will vary from person to person but seems to be universal when discussing supposed gender tasks.

Take for example the idea that men are better providers than women. This of course has been argued over the past several decades by women’s activist groups. These women’s groups cite that women are able to provide for their families just as well as men. The alternate question that is now being asked is if women are happier providing for their families outside of their homes. Similarly another question is if men are happier providing the nurturing care to their children.

In terms of our gender roles, men and women have inherent needs that drive us to perform tasks that give our lives meaning. Generally and historically speaking women are the caregivers of society as men are the providers and protectors. In World War II when a gross majority of men were called to arms, women were asked to work outside of their homes to support the United States and the men of this country. More and more after this time period, the female population grew in the work force and began operating outside inherent natural structures.

Mental illness has continued to grow and more people have become unhappy. Positive psychology looks at the past experiences that have created feelings of happiness. It is fair to say that if a woman has feelings of happiness caring for children and taking care of a home, she should continue those activities that provide her with that happiness. Similarly, if a man finds positive feelings in working outside of the home earning a living for his family, then to continue those feelings he needs to continue to perform those same tasks.

If individuals continue to perform the same external tasks that created feelings of satisfaction, we illicit the continuous feelings of happiness. Instead of relying on external validation as most are apt to do, Seligman suggests that the key to happiness is internal validation. Seligman’s suggestion is for men and women to internally validate our own actions rather than following the rules of societal normalcy for happiness.

That is to say that man can perform the tasks that make them feel useful and appreciated without having to succumb to being a house husband. In the same way, women are able to perform tasks that support their innate need for nurturing and feel good about those actions without consideration for what society dictates.

Argosy University offers a wide selection of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in a variety of psychology concentrations at 19 locations across the nation.

Human nature is the fundamental dispositions and traits of a human. Human nature can be understood in 2 aspects, namely the genetic blueprint and the growth blueprint.

1. Genetic Blueprint

The genetic blueprint of human nature consists of evolutionary anatomy and primal instincts. Evolutionary anatomy is based upon the categorization of humans as mammals under Linnaeus classification system. Humans are similar to mammals in most aspects except that humans are physiologically challenged when it comes to survival. Primal instincts can be understood as the id in Freudian Psychology. The id is a selfish and irrational force that supports our fight-or-flight self-defense mechanism in times of threat and danger.

An individual will inherit his parents and ancestors human nature through the genes. The most fundamental need of human beings is to survive. Hence, we have inherited the nature of aggressive in order to survive.

2. Growth Blueprint

The growth blueprint of human nature consists of our layman mind and body. One of the fundamental differences between humans and animals is the absence of an intelligent mind capable of unlimited growth. The mind does more than enabling our sensory capabilities. It is able to integrate our sensations into experiences and crystallize knowledge into wisdom. With a combination of our experiences and wisdom, we are then able to interpret situations and take active ownership of ourselves. That is why we are conscious of how our body develops the societal preferences from the different cultures and our own dreams and goals. This consciousness thus enables us to develop not only our mind, but also our body. We will know what to eat and what to work upon on our bodies to train for athletic superiority. That is why humans are about the only species that can develop and push our physical limits from that of an ordinary man to that of an Olympic runner.

The study of psychoanalysis which include classical Freudian psychology and genetic science enable us to better understand our genetic blueprint. While the study of humanistic theories such as Carl Rogers’ Person Centered Therapy and William Glassers’ Choice Theory, enables us to understand the unlimited boundaries of the human potential in a scientific manner.

Dias Lu is an entrepreneur who specializes in self-empowerment, wealth mastery, and entrepreneurial leadership. Currently he is running his internet marketing business and doing part-time experiential coaching.

To continue to benefit from his shared experience, visit his blog at http://www.diaslu.com

While not actively pursuing his dreams, he will be practicing his martial arts, reading and writing articles. He believes that everyone has a right to their dreams and that perseverance and helping one another will achieve exactly those dreams.

He continues to blogs and shares his ideas at http://www.diaslu.com