Archive for November, 2009

A Narrative Perspective on Externalizing the Problem

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

The problem bought into the session by the client can appear to be so entrenched in the person’s life that unraveling “it” from the client can prove a tough challenge for the therapist. Narrative Therapy offers a way in which the therapist can create some breathing space between the client and their problem. A client who comes in and says “I am depressed” has in fact identified wholly with the problem with no separation or boundaries. The therapist when making first attempts to externalize the problem may turn the client’s statement around and ask them “How does The Depression affect your life?” That is, the therapist is helping the client understand that they are not the problem; instead, the problem is the problem.

Michael White, one of the founders of Narrative Therapy, identifies that when externalizing conversations with clients, the therapist must engage in “four categories of inquiry” (White, 2007, p.38). These four categories are:

1. Defining the Problem.

Using different methods (questions, drawing, painting, re-enactment) the purpose is to gain an understanding of the experience-near definition. Getting to the core definition of what is happening is the purpose of this category.

2. What are the Effects of the Problem.

Next is determining the effects of the problem and in what areas of life the problem occurs (home, school, work, sport etc.)

3. Evaluating the Effects.

The third stage is evaluating the effects of the problem’s activities. How is it affecting the lives of the people experiencing the problem’s influence and what plans does the problem have for them.

4. Future Plans.

Finally, in fleshing out an externalised conversation, the therapist will question the client if what the problem has in store for them and their future is ok; or maybe it isn’t ok (White, 2007, pp.38-48).

These categories may not be fleshed out immediately. Depending on the client’s own awareness, it may take time for the client to be able to identify answers to each of the categories. It may not be a linear process either. The client may firstly identify a how they see the future and whether that future is OK with them before they understand the full effects of the problem.

To illustrate these categories further, I draw on a few sessions with a client who exhibited aspects of Depression which they identified as “The Hole” during our conversations.

T: So can you describe what’s going on?

C: I feel like I am in a deep hole and can’t get out.

T: I guess I have my own idea of what a deep hole looks like. Can you help me to understand what yours looks and feels like?

C: Well… it’s dark and deep… like midnight, every day, all day. I can’t see anything; it’s cold and lonely in the hole. I can’t climb up or see a way out; even though there are jagged rocks all the way up. There’s no way out. I’m frustrated that I can’t do anything about it and no knows where I am.

Here the client has described feeling isolated, seemingly surrounded by darkness and frustrated that they can’t help themselves to get out of the situation. The client’s near-experience definition describes the day-to-day, in the moment experience of their problem. The client also drew a chart to illustrate the spiralling lows of its effects. It was also followed by this commentary to describe the effect on his behaviour.

T: So how does that affect you; sitting in this dark hole?

C: I can’t stand it… I end up drinking till I write myself off every weekend just to escape. I don’t want to be alone so I go out with mates and get trashed to numb up and not think about it.

T: If you do this regularly, every weekend, does this helps you to cope with “The Hole”?

C: Yeah, it does. It makes me forget…until I wake up the next morning with a hangover and realise nothing’s changed. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I just want to get trashed again and forget its there.

When the client began to evaluate the effects “The Hole” had on their life, the client reported that it served to alienate them from their partner and children so that “The Hole” couldn’t be found out, confronted or questioned. Even though the heavy drinking was initially confined to the weekends, it began to creep into the week, affecting their performance at work.

Finally, I wanted to find out if it was OK for “The Hole” to influence his relationships; either within his family circle, his network of friends or work connections.

T: So, is it OK with you to be separated from your family and friends while you try to hide “The Hole”?

C: No. it’s not. I hate that I can’t talk to them and tell them what’s going on. I can see what i’ts doing to us. I’m not sure how they will take it. I’m always on top of things, sorting stuff out for everyone but I can’t do that anymore.

The client went on to describe their preferred way of life which they described as “Sunshine”. Sunshine was all about family, communication and real connection. This was something that “The Hole” did not like as it would mean the possible end of its existence. Externalizing conversations seems to be only a part of the equation for solving a client’s problem. Once the client has externalized the problem and can step back to examine and evaluate the justification of the problem, they can go about identifying alternatives for their life (White, 2007, p.61).

References: White, M. (2007) Maps of Narrative Practice. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company Inc.

Tina Pitsiavas
Grad Dip Counsel Psychoth
Qualified Member of CAPA NSW, Australia Inc.

Albert Bandura – What is Social Learning Theory

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

They are many people who contributed greatly to the study of human behavior and one of them is a psychologist named Albert Bandura. He is the main proponent of the social learning theory which even today is widely recognized as one of the best theories that explain the behaviors of human beings. Together with his Bobo Doll experiment, Bandura came up with the social learning theory.

So what is the social learning theory about? Why is it considered as an effective theory? What made it different from other theories in the field of psychology?

Here are some important things you should know about the social learning theory:

• The Proponent
Albert Bandura is a well known psychologist even today. He conducted several studies, authored many psychological books like Adolescent Aggression and Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis, and many other articles. He also received major awards such as receiving twelve honorary degrees from different universities including University of British Columbia, University of Rome, University of Salamanca, Indiana University, and University of New Brunswick among others. He was president of the American Psychological Association and the Western Psychological Association as well. Further, he garnered the most coveted Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology Award by the APA in August 2004.

• The Bobo Doll Experiment
Do you ever wonder how the social learning theory came about? Well, thanks to Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment. This one of a kind experiment proved the value of observation and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of other people. The experiment showed that children mimics what others were doing to the Bobo Dolls. If they saw someone punch and kick at the doll, they will also do the same.

• Modeling and How it is Done
The social learning theory of Bandura put emphasis on modeling and how it is done. He pointed out that there are three steps involved and these are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. According to Bandura, if you want to model someone or something, you have to pay attention to every single detail. Retention is just as important since it is the manner by which you were able to synthesize and learned by heart what you have just observed. In order for modeling to be effective, you have to put into practice whatever you have learned. Lastly, you must be able to motivate yourself to do the act. You can provide intrinsic or extrinsic motivations and other forms of reinforcements to keep you going.

The social learning theory of Bandura may just be another theory on human behavior but we cannot deny the fact that it proved to be very helpful. Once you apply the information provided by this theory, you will definitely help yourself become a better performer and be the person you want to be.

Want to discover more about Albert Bandura and his Social Learning Theory?

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Persons Related With Psychological Patients

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Our modern and quick paced way of life leaves us with no time to contemplate over things and provide time to our relations. Every urbanized and developing country is experiencing from this latest fashion, and Australia is no exception. This fast, quick, rapid paced way of life ends in upper levels of physical, mental and arousing stress, worry and restiveness. If not forced in time these things can guide to severe difficulty like despair, mental muddle, broken relationships, etc. That is the reason why a timely intervention of a skilled Psychologist Brisbane is essential.

Greatly crammed and frenetic working hours and bloodthirsty nature of the vocation can leave us with no time to unwind, catch grab a breath, spend time with our family and work over our relationships. These outcomes in stressed relationships, broken weddings, sensitive clash, etc in personal lives, and this also affects our professional lives and can result in short of attentiveness, loss in business, continuous illness resulting in absence from work, etc.

Psychologist Brisbane:

If you observe any of the over cited symbols and indications, like wakefulness, stable annoyance, concern, etc in your partner or kids, then it is highly advisable that you take an scheduled time from a capable and reputed Psychologist Brisbane.

Even if you have least hesitation and are hesitant whether it is a symptom of a mental disorder, it is highly suggested that you check with a psychologist as soon as possible and let the specialist decide whether it is a symptom or not. Do not strive to take matters in your hand instead let the experts handle it and do their job. Things can really get out of control when proper help of a psychologist is not given to the patient, as they can try considering suicides or harm others around them.

Due to the traumatic life not only adults, even children are suffering from mental disorders like hyperactivity, insomnia, lack of concentration, etc. The expert psychologist has their professional examination skills, tested and trusted healing methods and recommendation to consider the disorder and heal it. Psychologist Brisbane suggests some therapies curing sickness like: despair, schizophrenia, anger and addiction administration, compulsive disorder, personality administration, attention shortage disorder, etc.

Relationship Analysis and marriage counselling Brisbane:
Tension, anxiety, depression and severe mental disorders also affect our marital and other relationships. We accuse our spouse’s dedication level, short of interest, etc for the broken marriage or strained relationship, on the other hand, the accountable to be blamed is our contemporary } way of life and mental disorders.

Relationship Counselling Brisbane offers rapport and marriage counselling to couples whose marriage is on rocks or to persons who reveal a tension relationship with their parents, etc. The Psychologists who offer this counselling have revived many marriages and make better many relationships. Instead of opting for divorce. Try this counselling meetings and see your marriage work again. They try to bring back optimistic mentality by developing sympathy, acceptance, sympathy, integrity, empowerment, etc in the lives of the separated couples.

Timely intervention of an specialist psychologist can help save lives of many and recover the quality of life of many.

For more insights and further information about Psychologist Brisbane visit our site http://www.psychclinic.com.au

Childhood Despair – Another Characteristic of Child Psychology

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Psychology is all about dealing with the human mind and kid psychology especially deals with the respect children consider. This report looks into the respect children reply to every day circumstances in life and how they deal with it sensitively. These replies vary from one being to another. As a result, the theme of kid psychology is very broad and complete. When in quest of proficient help you can seek suggestion from the child psychologist Sydney who impart aid in the following subjects only in Sydney:

- Neurofeedback Sydney
- Anxiety treatment Sydney
- ADHD Treatment Sydney
- Insomnia Treatment Sydney

As said by the psychologist Sydney, some of the general causes that result in the child’s behavioral differentiation are age, health, career, gender and nationality to name a few. Particularly, when dealing with child psychology the focus is on the notion, sentiments and deeds of the child.

Some of the general suggestions of childhood depression are illustration of desperation and feeling of worthlessness| insignificance| unimportance| irrelevance} and helplessness defenselessness. It is essential to get treatment for it instantaneously as it could lead to self destruction and suicidal opinion

Childhood Depression: reasons

The psychologists have not yet been able to understand the correct origin of childhood dejection. Some of the possible roots as arranged by the professionals are genetics heredity, atmosphere, physical health, life events| actions| trials} and family history. It could also be a result of a combination of distinctive causes like a history of dejection in the family or a loss in the family. There are times when even a pet bereavement results in shock.

Childhood Depression: Signs

The symptom of childhood dejection changes at distinctive times. The secret is to look for a change in deeds. At one point of time, your child may display either or more than one of these Symptoms:

- Not showing interest in school. As a result it leads to weak literary implementation as they are not liable to doing their homework’s or school projects.
- Social segregation, in the significance that they stop cooperating or playing with other kids.
- When the child is in a relentless situation of despondency.
- Childhood depression also leads to emotional outbreak in the form of crying.
- You will find your child being very thin-skinned to any form of denial.
- Your will observe that your child will lose focus constantly and find it complicated to ponder.
- You could also observe changes in your child’s sleeping practice.
- Modification in hunger is one common symptom. The child will augment the food ingestion or stop eating fully.

If you perceive that the above mentioned symptoms have been relentless for more than two weeks, then you should turn to a child psychologist specialist. You can talk about the feasible treatment with the specialist.

For more insights and further information about psychologists in Sydney visit our site http://www.chantalgazal.com.au

An Appreciation of Martin Seligman, Father of Positive Psychology

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

My hope to live life in the light of optimism rather than one in pessimistic darkness was advanced by the work of Martin Seligman, a world renowned authority on depression and abnormal psychology. I became aware of him in 1999 as I prepared my master’s thesis. His early book Learned Optimism was a catalyst that provided me with deep insight into positive ways of thinking and being.

Seligman’s efforts are aimed to help us gain insight and to understand the why’s of our chaotic condition. He writes of how the human condition is one we do not choose. That choice is made by our parents who come together in a genetic splicing. We come to this world totally invalid, unable to survive more than a few hours without our parents help. As we grow our perceptions, egos, and economies are programmed like a computer. We are taught how fulfill expectations, contribute to society and fulfill the desires of the self.

Seligman invites us to keep an open mind and look further than the structure of the body in our quest for balance in both mind and body. For most of us the purpose of life is cloudy, with moments of clarity. A healthy life seems to be one where we become aware and develop a belief system that energizes our potential.The road is never easy, heath issues arrive as the trials of life bear down on our effort to control and execute our potential.

Since 1999 and my first encounter with Seligman he has expanded his efforts to help us understand our helplessness with his self help initiatives. Seligman’s insight was and is important in my education and solidifies my concept of what a healer should be and the true meaning of doctor.

My name is Bill Tallmon. I am an alternative health care doctor and offer homeopathic and naturopathic consultations, for people with both acute and chronic disease. My Doctorate degrees are Naturopathic Doctor and Doctor of Philosophy in Natural Health. I am a long time reader of ancient civilizations and ancient and modern philosophies of American, European, Greek, Chinese, Indian, Muslim, and other cultures. I am a collector of ancient and modern quotes. My PhD dissertation Natural Health and the Biotech Revolution investigates the modern wave of biotechnology and its potential impact on health.

• My biggest FEAR in life is becoming dependent.
• The idea of depending on my boss, a medical doctor, expensive insurance or the government for my health care does not feel right.
Are there Solutions?
The answer is YES
Bill Tallmon’s http://www.beyourowndoc.com

How to Conduct a Focus Group

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Focus groups are structured small group interviews. The people that are being interviewed are similar in some way (e.g., same views on certain topics, different background, part of the same community, or same financial standing). The purpose of the interview is to gather information about a particular topic guided by a set of focused questions. Participants hear and interact with each other and the leader (facilitator), which yields different information than if people were interviewed individually.

The purpose of focus groups is to develop a broad and deep understanding rather than a quantitative summary. The emphasis is on insights, responses and opinions. Usually, there are eight to twelve participants. Multiple groups are recommended since each discussion is highly influenced by who is involved and the comments that surface. Focus groups typically run one to two hours. In some cases it could run a whole day or two.

For a focus group, you need to have a skillful facilitator (leader). You may want to use an outside party if you a familiar with participants, so that they may feel freer with their comments when they do not know the facilitator. Craft the set of questions and their order to flow as a natural conversation might. Limit the number of questions; sequence the questions from broad to very specific. Prepare an assistant to take notes, and with permission of the group arrange for the video or audio recording of the discussion. If you are recording the session, it’s best that people identify them selves’ before they speak, so that it’s easier for the transcriber to make the transcription of the document.

The interview should consist of three parts: opening, questions, and the wrap up.

In the opening section welcome everyone, make introductions, and thank the participants for coming and spending their time. Review the purpose of the focus group interview. Review the rules. Explain to the participants that there is no right or wrong answers. Even negative comments are useful in gaining the insight about the topic.

In the interview section guide the participants into the questioning, beginning with the general question first. As participants begin to share ideas, cycle through the group, ensuring that each participant has a chance to be heard. When comments related to one question are finished, summarize them, making sure there is agreement with the summary. Capitalize on unanticipated comments and useful directions the discussion may take. Probe and move flexibly into unplanned aspects of the topic but be careful about unnecessary or irrelevant divergences.

In the wrap up section summarize the discussion, give participants a chance to say one last thing about the topic, and what they thought was the important aspect of the conversation for them. Thank participants for joining you, and remind them how the information will be used. Offer to send them the transcript of the conversation once it’s available. Once you have the recording higher a qualified transcription services company to work on your focus group transcript.

Jan Krivocheia
Managing Partner at Transcription Institute.

We the Matrix

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Time – An Oxymoron or A Paradox?

A paradox is a statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition.

The word paradox is often used interchangeably with contradiction. Often, mistakenly, it is used to describe situations that are ironic.

In literature, the paradox is an anomalous juxtaposition of incongruous ideas for the sake of striking exposition or unexpected insight….

An oxymoron (plural oxymora (greek plural) or, more often, oxymorons) (“sharply dull” in Greek) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. (include bittersweet, virtual reality, and living dead). A rhetorical device in which two seemingly contradictory words are used together for effect: “She is just a poor little rich girl.”

Moros “stupid.” Rhetorical figure by which contradictory terms are conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression; the word itself is an illustration of the thing. Now often used loosely to mean “contradiction in terms.”

A paradox (disambiguation) is a self-contradictory or counter-intuitive statement or argument.

Paradox (database), a relational database management system

It has occurred to me that many people did not grasp the reality of what the movie “The matrix” had to offer. It entailed the wisdom and affect of where and what we are. Through several conversations around what we call the “Catharsis Table”, the topic of time came to play. It just “Shows-to-Go-Ya” how some folk just don’t get it; hence the “Great Digital Divide!”

“I can only show you the door, it is up to you to walk through!” I hope the quotation is correct. You’ll forgive me if it isn’t, yes? Let’s start with the definition and conception of time. One argument from one of the fella’s is there is no such thing as time! How profound! I asked, if there is no such thing as time, how is it that we move through life and its challenges? He came back, “Motion is the true definition of time as well as growth!” I asked, if you are to move and grow, does it not occur over time? The brother then stated that time is a description conceived by man!” “Therefore, time does not move!” Okay, but is it not true that every thing occurs over a period of what…time, yes? The man pondered for a moment. He then replied, “The Sun does not move, the planets revolve around it.”

I agreed. Albeit, does this not occur over time? If a man grows from one year to sixty years of age, does it not occur over time? The argument continued as others joined. They all concurred with my hypothesis. I will take advantage of this time…and interject the definitions as we know them, i.e., posted and written statements -

Time: (Represents the present as being between the past and the future)

From “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”

The flow of sand in an hourglass can be used to keep track of elapsed time. It also concretely represents the present as being between the past and the future.

Time is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. Time has been a major subject of religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars.

Among prominent philosophers, there are two distinct viewpoints on time.

One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence, time travel, in this view, becomes a possibility as other “times” persist like frames of a film strip, spread out across the time line.

Sir Isaac Newton subscribed to a realist view is that time does not refer to any kind of “container” that events and objects “move through”, nor to any entity that “flows”, but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events.

This position is what I belive my friend was attempting to communicate.

Another view, as described by Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant holds that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

“A prime motivation in navigation and astronomy, temporal measurement has occupied scientists and technologists, as well.”

It’s been said that periodic events and periodic motion have long served as standards for units of time. Examples include the apparent motion of the sun across the sky, the phases of the moon, the swing of a pendulum, and the beat of a heart. Currently, the international unit of time, the second, is defined in terms of radiation emitted by caesium atoms.Time is also of significant social importance, having economic value (“time is money”) as well as personal value, due to an awareness of the limited time in each day and in human life spans.

Would you not agree with this definition of Time as it relates to your/our experience of time? Does time exist? Is there such a thing as time, as we know it? My friend insists that it doesn’t. I say that one cannot do anything with or without time. It takes time to get things done. It takes time to post the comments/report that you are viewing at present. Past, present, and future occur over what? Time! Would you agree that time represents the present as being between the past and the present? Everything that has a beginning has an end. And it occurs over time!

Now let us move on. The concept of the Matrix has been mentioned and explained in the Holy Scriptures. In the movie/story, it’s described as a universe. The “Nebuchadnezzar” was the vehicle in which the starring team is being conveyed through the canals of the Matrix…remember? Why was the ship given that name?

Take a look at your daily routine…the life-style to which we are all accustomed. It doesn’t matter whether you reside in the city or the country, you are part of the structure of our society as we know it. Are we a program within the Matrix of society?

What is a program? A program is a set of written commands or instructions that can be compiled and/or interpreted…understood by a computer.

Programs can also be transformed to run as an executable set of instructions to get a computer to do what you want it to do. Now with that being said, is it feasible that we can and are programmed to do what we and/or someone wants us to do? How about the training we receive in order to do a particular job? What about the things that are taught to us as we grow and function within the family structure and/or society?

One might view a program as a recipe. A recipe is a set of instructions, (a syntax, or an algorithm), that guide the cook while preparing a particular dish, yes? The description of the ingredients in a pie or cake, for instance, is the things needed to convert the raw material into the desired product. A computer works in the same way. The concept is very similar. A person is given a set of instructions to carry out a particular task. People follow a certain set of rules or instructions in their daily routines, don’t you think?

In the movie, the Matrix has run afoul or is in a state of chaos. It’ broken.

When a program or a computer is not operating the way that it is supposed to, we take steps to correct them…we want it fixed. When a person is sick or not behaving the way that one should, we call a doctor or a particular professional to make things right again, right? Well a patch is what IT pros (and non-pros) use to make corrections to the program or computer. They fix the things that are wrong in the program or the computer. Many would rely on a computer geek to get their PC’s up and running. That’s one of the reasons that IT personnel rely on updates to offset the possibility of glitches or malfunctions. In the case of the Matrix movie, “Neo” can be described as the patch, the thing or program that is sent to make things right. One could also interpret the Neo program as the ultimate program or an upgrade. What would the purpose of the all seeing, all knowing Oracle represent? Can it be viewed as an “All Mighty Being?”

The inference of religion has been noted in the story. The character “Neo” was described as “The One!” Morpheus has described “The One” throughout the story, as the savior he’s been waiting for. Note the names: “Switch”, “Cypher”, “Trinity”, “Mouse”, “The Architect”, “Link”, and “Apoc!” What do they infer? Would it be politically correct to assume “The One” being the description of a “Messiah?” The description of these names are also peripherals of computing devices.

“Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world…where none suffered, where everyone would be happy?” The architect posed that question. “It was a disaster.” “No one would accept the program.” “Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery.”

“The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization”, said Agent Smith.

“To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human”, stated Mouse.

Morpheus holds up a Duracell battery and says, “What is the Matrix? Control? Is it a program within an operating system? The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.” “They (the machines) were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun.” “What is control?” “No one cares how it works, as long as it works!” ‘the Architect’ made that statement.

Trinity adds, “A glitch in the Matrix!” “It happens when they change something.”

Are you able to see what the writer has implied? Would it be reasonable to see that a warning is present? Are we headed in a direction of self-destruction? Are we killing our planet…our resources…our selves?

Remember, the operators of computer systems are human beings…for the time being.

Are we running out of time? Time is of the essence.

“The very first programmers actually had to enter the binary codes themselves, this is known as machine code programming and is incredibly difficult. The next stage was to create a translator that simply converted English equivalents of the binary codes into binary so that instead of having to remember that the code 001273 05 04 meant add 5 to 4 programmers could now write ADD 5 4. This very simple improvement made life much simpler and these systems of codes were really the first programming languages, one for each type of computer. They were known as assembler languages and Assembler programming is still used for a few specialized programming tasks today.”

“Just as you speak to a friend in a language so you ’speak’ to the computer in a language. The only language that the computer understands is called binary and there are several different dialects of it.”

In most cases, an interpreter is required. The interpreter has a couple of names, one being the interpreter and the other being the compiler.

Zion or Sion, has been mentioned throughout the movie, is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel (the Hebrew coulture) and its capital, Jerusalem. The word is found in texts dating back almost three millennia. It commonly referred to a specific mountain near Jerusalem (Mount Zion), on which stood a Jesuit fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was named the City of David, according to text from wikipedia and the Holy Bible. A ‘Grid’ can be defined as a ‘Metropolis’, don’t you think? How about a community? Can you imagine a government controlled by machines? Have you ever seen the movie titled “Dark City?”

The Nebuchadnezzar, the main battleship in the Matrix trilogy, is actually the Akkadian name for the king who conquered Jerusalem. According to the Bible, as quoted from ‘wikipedia”, he conquered Judah and Jerusalem, and sent the Jews into exile.It kinda makes you wonder why they used that name for the ship. Do you think that it had something to do with control? What about slavery? I wonder if the name referred to that type of invasion and mass control? Sentinels were used to control the human enemies of the machines that are in control. They were also used as an invasion force. A sentinel is a guard that challenges all comers and prevent surprise attacks; they are the guardians of the citidel or ruling domain. Sentinels are also called “tags.” Tags are also described as computer symbols, marks, and/or other lables of a device or program indicating the beginning or the end of a text paragraph. They are also described as the end of a unit of information.

Time, Motion, and Growth is the central point to my friend’s argument. He insists that there is no such thing as time. The aggregate majority continually insisted on a more direct and conclusionary definition of time from the introductory topic interpreter.

Technology is defined as the knowledge of tools and crafts. It is a broad view or concept that deals with human inventions, intervention, and the ability to adapt and control of a particular environment. The clock has a form of control over the way we react to time, i.e., cause and effect. Technology can also be construed as material objects in use by humans such as machines and devices that involve systems, techniques, and/or methods of organization. Do humans control computers or do computers control humans? Why is the question germane to this topic? View my article: “Device Machine Dependent!”

What is it that we humans attempt to achieve with the use of technology? Are we evolving or becoming enslaved? Only time will tell.

“Everything that has a beginning has an end” according to ‘the Oracle.’

What do you believe?

Til next time…

Acknowledgment(s):

WikiPedia.com

The Free Dictionary.com

AutoCadLT2000i, Grabowski

Visual Basic 6.0, Halvorson

Problem Solving & Program Design in C, Hanly and Hoffman

“The Matrix Trilogy”

“The Topic of Time”, R. (K.) Reed

Members of “The Catharsis Table”

by Gregory V. Boulware

Distress Treatment – By What Means to Set Up Handling Strategies

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Human race who face events with anxiety might be relatively wary of feeling the onset of disturbed or irritable emotions and beliefs. Most of the times, terror issues can meddle with the working of everyday life, creating disturbances in the office, within friendships, and throughout the humane experience. A vast number of humankind who grapple with terror and depended mental health concerns realize that they’d likely be gay and more personally profitable in the nonappearance of such thoughts and senses. Due to this, many turn to the favorable circumstances given by treatment.

Such therapy for anxiety sessions prepare the humankind to conquer these issues while undergoing attacks of agitation also when the affected are not agitated and also aide them to understand why the affected be in pain from massive tension and distress. People might become prone to attacks of distress either because they have experienced appalling or aggressive times or because they were exposed to similar sort of moral patterns displayed by their family members or human race who meant some sort to them. Although there can be several causes why humankind undergo bouts of panic, the outcome is generally the of similar nature.

Bouts of agitation can head to loss of psychological equilibrium, excessive distresses, physiological disabilities like as searing ache in the head, deficit of breath and quick heart beat. Counseling aides clients face these signs not only through understanding why they’ve become a part of the patient’s life, but by developing tactics for functioning through terror as it when it occurs. people who suffer from fits of agitation in their office or during they are out seeing someone, might face other same kind of senses that flood prospect with terror. As this experience is disagreeable enough at house or in seclusion, it can be specially hard when it happens in the presence of others, an element which can at times make the symptoms bad.

Treatment helps the affected to be trained how to cool their own bodies and avoid fits of distress from taking place.Fits of anxiety and other like related feelings may be avoided by engaging in a specific strata of deducing process or by working out in a productive way. Counseling clients can be directed how to contemplate or take soothing time outs to help drive away over-active distress. To greaten the capability of the therapy, the actual approach is very often stitched for the client. The process by which the singular prospects control to restrain their fits of distress may be dissimilar but the result is always the identical, that is it aids the prospects to live a more fulfilling and calm lives.

For several human beings beating terror or related feelings is likely by not relying on or paying for in medical expenses. Your life can be greatly changed for the more desirable forever with the help of therapy for anxiety.

What Do Colors Mean in Dreams?

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Dreams not only composed of sounds and voices, but also images (and sometimes) with different colors. Dreams can be interpreted from who did you see in the dreams, what did you do in the dreams or even where did you stay in your dreams, but do not miss out the one thing that you can use to interpret you dreams, that is the colors. When you try to find ways to give your dreams some kind of explanations, you can probably find many different interpretations. To find out the best interpretations, you have to ask yourself where does the whole world come from and ask the one who made the earth, if your answer is not dust or the ape, then, you know best way is to interpret your dreams in the way of the God.

The most common colors that you can find in your dreams are probably black and white. Black, by relating the color to your own life, it is always the theme color for funeral and not surprisingly, the black color in your dreams means death, fault and sins.

On the other hand, white is the color with the largest contrast with black, and which not difficult to think of, the white color in your dreams can represent birth, holiness, purity and righteousness.

Other than black and white, you can often find colors like red, blue and green in your dreams also. Each of them bears different meaning to your dreams. And, that is the very right answer when it comes to the dream interpretation. Red color in dreams can mean blood and hence war.

Red, straightly, if you ask people what they can think of or associate to the Red color, I guess probably majority of the people will tell you “Blood”. Red color in dreams can mean blood and hence war. You can refer to one of the bestselling book in the world, the Bible that so much blood is relevant to war.

Blue is another common color that you can dream of. In your reality life, you can get in touch with the color blue, most of the time should be the color of the sky. In your dreams, blue can mean heaven and of course related to the heaven, the Holy Spirit.

Green is always associated to the grasses which cover the earth. Green in your dreams can mean the creations on earth around you, of which grasses were created by the God in the sixth day.

To acquire the ability to interpret dreams, check out: Dreams Handbook

Love,
Michael

What is Intelligence? The Three Main Theories of Intelligence – Two Good, One Bad

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

When people talk about a person’s ‘intelligence’ it is not generally clear what underlying ability or abilities this term refers to. This article is intended to clarify in layman’s terms what psychologists and brain scientists can mean by intelligence. Basically, there are two good theories–and scientists are divided on which is the best theory–and one bad one which all scientists I know of reject. A good theory is one that is supported by the evidence; a bad theory is one that is not.

Official IQ tests such as the WAIS-IV claim to measure individual differences in an underlying ‘ level of cognitive ability given by a single number–your IQ or intelligence quotient. But is it true that there is a single underlying mental ability that we differ in and that explains what makes us different in our cognitive abilities? If someone is good at maths, are they also likely to be good at language comprehension, reasoning, thinking analogically, learning languages and general knowledge, due to their underlying ‘intelligence level’, as this theory implies?

Or are there ‘multiple intelligences’ underlying out abilities–perhaps dozens or even hundreds of them–each independent from each other, and measured by different types of test. If you have an ability in mathematics, is this ability completely unrelated to your ability in learning languages or play general knowledge games like trivial pursuit? If this is the case, is the idea of having a single IQ score quite meaningless? Or alternatively, are there a small number of underlying cognitive abilities (perhaps two or three) that we differ in, which are relatively independent from each other–and which together explain most the differences in our cognitive abilities?

1. The theory of general intelligence (g)–a good theory

A long standing an influential theory for our cognitive abilities states that underlying all our cognitive abilities (math, language comprehension, general knowledge) is a single factor–called general intelligence (also known as unitary intelligence, general cognitive ability, or simply ‘g’ ) that individuals differ on and which explains those differences.

Spearman (1923) proposed that underlying all cognitive abilities a ‘general ability’ factor (g) that all the abilities draw on. Individuals differ in g according to a bell curve distribution on this theory. g can be thought of in terms of information processing power. Some people –those with higher g–can process more information, more efficiently than others. Using a computer analogy, they have more RAM. The more RAM a computer has, the more complex and information-intensive the programs that can be run on it. If you have an IQ of 160 like Quentin Tarantino has, you have lots of RAM, large ‘bandwidth’ for processing information. If you have an IQ of 78 like Muhammad Ali as a young man (whose IQ was measured by the army), then you have less RAM. Muhammad Ali had many talents, but according to the unitary intelligence theory, intelligence wasn’t one of them.

The evidence for this theory is the same evidence that allows us to reject the theory of multiple intelligences. All standardized tests of cognitive ability (and there are dozens of them, measuring a wide range of different abilities) are positively correlated–not perfectly, but to a large degree. This means that if someone scores higher than average on one of those tests, they are likely to score higher than average on all the other tests–even ones that appear totally unrelated. Scoring higher in an arithmetic test means you will probably also score higher in a vocabulary test. This remains true, even when you take other factors like educational background, or family socioeconomic status into account. This is compelling evidence that there is a single underlying level of cognitive ability that is applied to each of the tests and that performance on one test is not independent from performance on another as the multiple intelligence theory claims.

Spearman (1904)–the psychologist who first proposed the g theory–argued that the variance (the person to person variation) of performance between individuals on ANY cognitive task can be attributed to just two underlying factors: g (general intelligence) and s –the skill unique to that particular task. A person could invest relatively more time into developing a specific skill such as arithmetic, and this will raise their score on an arithmetic test relative to another test such as vocabulary that they didn’t train or practice on, but their general intelligence g will still account for most of their performance on the arithmetic test. G is still the most important factor in explaining levels of performance, whatever the test.

2. The theory of multiple intelligences-a bad theory Spearman’s ‘g’ theory is the opposite of the theory of multiple intelligences. The theory of multiple intelligence is an appealing one because it gives some room for everyone to have their own unique strengths in ‘intelligence’. But as we have seen it turns out that our cognitive strengths and weaknesses are best explained by how much time and effort is we have invested into particular skills or types of knowledge. If I take up a technical trade and become good at it, and find that I am struggling with reading fiction, this doesn’t necessarily mean that I have a special ‘intelligence’ for technical thinking and have no ability for reading or language. The fact I struggle with fiction is better explained by the fact that I have invested my intelligence into building up this particular type of expertise and thus see more of a return on that investment in technical modes of cognition. If I had spent as much time reading fiction as I have applying myself to technical problems, chances are I’d be good at that.

3. The theory of fluid intelligence (gF) and crystallized intelligence (gC)–another good theory

This theory builds on the general intelligence theory, and was originally proposed by the psychologist Raymond Cattell back in 1943. It holds that g is meaningful–that we each have a different general intelligence level– but contributing to g are two different types of intelligence: fluid intelligence (gF) and crystallized intelligence (gC ). Fluid g is the ability to reason and problem solve with novel tasks or in unfamiliar contexts (measured reasoning tasks), while crystallized g is defined as acquired knowledge and is measured using tests of general knowledge, mathematics, and vocabulary. This dual way of understanding intelligence allows for knowledge that you have built up in particular areas to compensate for limitations in overall reasoning and problem solving ability– our ‘raw intelligence’. You may succeed due to knowledge about a task or domain (crystallized g), or due to sheer mental ‘horsepower’ (fluid g).

Where the idea of ‘multiple intelligences’ makes sense: as crystallized intelligence that we invest in

Our crystallized intelligence allows for ‘multiple intelligences’. You could have a high level of crystallized intelligence in graphic design, for example, while having only an average level of fluid intelligence. But you will only be able to use your crystallized intelligence for graphic design in situations in which you are familiar and have built up expertise. Unless you have a high level of fluid intelligence when you are confronted with an unfamiliar problem in graphic design–something ‘out of context’, requiring some difficult figuring out-then you are likely to have difficulties. On the flip side, if you have a high level of fluid intelligence, it will take you less time to pick up graphic design (or whatever) skills as you learn your basic skill set. Your learning will be more efficient, and you will find it easier. In general, the more fluid intelligence you have the more you will be able to ‘invest’ it into crystallized intelligence skills and knowledge–the more ‘multiple intelligences’ you will be able to develop if you so wish. In the context of work, the more gF you have the more quickly and efficiently you can be trained. One study showed that it took people in the 110 to 130 IQ range about 1 to 2 years to catch up with the super-charged performance of those with IQs of 130+ who had only 3 months’ experience on the job.

Summary

Looking at all the evidence, both the general intelligence (g) theory, and the fluid intelligence (gF) and crystallized intelligence (gC) are well supported and useful in explaining how we differ in our cognitive abilities. In my view, the fluid and crystallized theory is the more insightful and useful. It helps me understand intelligence-and how we can improve it-better. For instance, research shows that you can do a specific type of ‘working memory’ brain training to increase your fluid intelligence level substantially–but this training does not directly affect your crystallized intelligence.

The author, Dr Mark A. Smith, is a cognitive neuroscientist, author and entrepreneur. Between 2000 and 2003 he was a Lecturer in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge. His most recent position has been as Assistant Professor at Bilkent University, Turkey. His current research is in fluid intelligence and its evolution in human cognition. He has recently set up a cognitive interventions laboratory for experimental research into brain training tools and brain nutrition.

To find out more of what is known about intelligence and how to increase IQ, visit his website: http://www.iqlift.com/.