Psychology Articles

If your public service involves interviewing surviving victims of or eyewitnesses to violent events, you will want to learn more about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Witness Memory Retrieval Technique and how each can impact your investigation.

Research proves there are two distinct human processes that prevent investigators and police personnel from conducting the most effective investigation when working with surviving victims of and eyewitnesses to violent crimes. Those processes have been identified as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Memory Retrieval (Recall).

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how does it impact the Witness Memory Retrieval process?

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a reaction to a violent event that evokes intense fear, terror and helplessness. Many surviving victims of violent crimes…rape, robbery, murder, kidnapping, terrorism, sexual abuse and physical assault, for example, are unable to recognize the signs of emotional stress they are experiencing. Traumatic events trigger feelings in victims from which they cannot easily recover, largely because they have not been helped to recognize and subsequently deal with their emotional and behavioral changes. These feelings impede an investigators’ ability to retrieve additional significant information paramount to solving a case.

As a police officer or investigator you are often the first contact victims have following a traumatic encounter. The importance of police interaction with victims cannot be underestimated. In many instances, victims suffer what is known as second injury in their interactions with police, judges, attorneys, physicians and other public authority figures. The term “second injury” refers specifically to a psychological injury, rather than a physical injury. The event will leave the victim in a vulnerable state of mind, causing them to perceive situations in a distorted and overly negative light.

Although it is natural to establish common perceptions about the kinds of behavior people exhibit, know that things are not always as they appear. The outcome of effective police-victim interviewing can have a positive dual impact, aiding you in retrieving pertinent and factual data relevant to your case, while protecting the immediate and potential future emotional well-being of the victim.

While you certainly are not expected to be an expert diagnostician or mental health professional, you are in an ideal position to help. Acquiring even basic information on PTSD combined with practical experience and cognitive interviewing skills can be a major benefit for eliciting more precise and vital investigative information.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder manifests itself in phases beginning with the initial impact or shock the victim suffers and ultimately resulting in a healthy recovery. Dr. Calvin J. Frederick, retired Chief of Psychological Services at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Los Angeles, California has spent a career researching PTSD and has developed a Table that lists the phases a victim moves through and the physiological and psychological symptoms a victim is likely to display following a violent event.

In addition to becoming more aware of the signs of PTSD, there are initial intervention responses available to you. According to Dr. Martin Symonds, retired New York City Police Department psychiatrist, the first moments of police contact with a victim/witness are the most critical moments.

It is essential that the victim be provided with a feeling of trust and support and a lessening of any external threat following the trauma of a violent crime. Police officers, especially non-uniformed officers, should immediately identify themselves as such to the victim/witness. It would be helpful to include basic opening conversation such as “I’m sorry this happened to you” “It wasn’t your fault” and/or “I’m glad you’re alright.” This combined with preliminary intervention techniques will reinforce the victims’ trust that they are dealing with law enforcement officers who are sensitive to and aware of the trauma being suffered.

Lastly, the method in which a victim/witness is interviewed for police report taking is not only crucial to his/her emotional healing but also to the type and amount of investigative information you are able to retrieve.

The most widely used ’standard’ method of interviewing is a series of questions beginning with a description of the suspect(s) – sex, age, race, height, weight, color of hair and eyes and the victim’s account of the event.

The second method of interviewing is hypnosis, generally performed by a specially trained forensic hypnotist. With the victim in a state of altered consciousness, the forensic hypnotist asks questions and solicits answers. This method is the least used because of the negative legal ramifications it poses within the judicial system.

The third method is the cognitive Witness Memory Retrieval Technique (WMRT), researched and developed by Dr. R. Edward Geiselman of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). WMRT is a collection of memory-jogging techniques designed to provide investigators with an organized series of focused memory retrieval ‘cues’ and steps that help victims/witnesses retrieve and elaborate on information stored in the memory.

The theoretical support of the research and development are based on two generally accepted principles of memory:

* A memory is comprised of several elements. The more elements a memory retrieval ‘cue’ has in common with the recall of an event, the more effective the ‘cue’ is in retrieving information.
* A memory has several access routes, so information that is not accessible with one retrieval ‘cue’ may be accessed with a different one.

The purpose of the Witness Memory Retrieval Technique, when used in conjunction with the standard interview method, maximizes the quantity and quality of information retrieved while minimizing the effects of misleading or inaccurate information.

Skillful incident-specific treatment is an absolute prerequisite for effective police-victim relations and problem resolution. Determining the most reliable and effective tools available is a concern for most law enforcement investigators. Any valid interviewing instrument should be designed to deduce the pertinent facts, identifications and recollection of the event that best assist you in the apprehension and conviction of the criminal suspect(s). Essential bits of information can make the difference between the time you spend on solid leads and the time you spend following up on weak ones.

As you well know violent events happen in a matter of seconds and yet it’s amazing what the memory can store. To test your own Memory Recall for FREE and for further information on the Witness Memory Retrieval Technique training video and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder go to http://www.GiveYourselfTheInvestigativeEdge.com.

Give Yourself the Investigative Edge is dedicated to providing training to assist investigators, criminal justice students, first-on-scene responders, and any public official that would have the occasion to interview a survivng victim of or eyewitness to a violent event. What they know and learn about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and memory recall can help them increase the amount of investigative information they retrieve by up to 35%. Research indicates that as much as 90% of that information is accurate.

Law enforcement officers, while receiving maximum training in suspect interrogation, receive little or no formal training in the proper techniques of interviewing cooperating witnesses. The Cognitive Interview process (aka The Witness Memory Retrieval Technique) was developed by Dr. R. Edward Geiselman, Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles and is a system for conducting interviews with willing surviving victim’s/eyewitnesses which involves using ‘Memory Cues’ designed to get to the deeper recesses of the memory bank. Using the cognitive interview method tends to cut down on misleading information received in the standard interview used by many law enforcement personnel.

Advanced methods of obtaining more accurate and detailed information becomes critical when it is time for a witness to make a suspect identification during a lineup or ’six-pack’ photospread or when called to testify in court. The cognitive interview method can enhance an eyewitness’s ability to recall events and provide solid investigative information. Test your own memory recall for FREE at: http://www.GiveYourselfTheInvestigativeEdge.com.

Have you ever been amazed by the fact that although most of us followed the same standards when learning to write or probably attended the same institute; why can none of us write in exactly the same way as others does? Why does our handwriting differ so much from each other? Why are they so unique? When asked this question you will be tempted to promptly answer, “This is my style of writing!!” As I can say your answer is partially true. Do you know what shapes your style of writing? Well, it’s your personality. This very simple logic forms the basis of the science of ‘Handwriting Analysis’. Our handwriting is as unique as our personality or finger prints.

The science of evaluating and interpreting personality traits and human behavior through one’s handwriting is designated as ‘Graphology’; it is more commonly addressed as Handwriting Analysis. A Graphologist or Handwriting Analysts while analyzing one’s handwriting not only considers the writing but also the pressure, slant, spacing between the letters, margins and many more factors which can lead to an accurate portrait of the person concerned.

Emotions play a very indispensable role in each and every human life. Emotions are also responsible for the way we perceive things to some extent. It is your own handwriting which can clearly define the manner in which your emotions influence your thinking and perception. Your handwriting is a window to your inner self. It helps you to reflect on your thoughts, emotions, fears, actions and understand yourself in a very clear manner. Self reflection and self knowledge is the first step towards harmonious life. Graphology will not only address your weakness but it will also help you overcome them, as well as build on your strengths.

Though it seems that this science is new and still gaining its popularity, one will be surely amazed to know that it dates itself back a few hundred years. Since many years there has been extensive research in the subject and have helped a number of people in a numerous ways, be it personal, professional, emotional or spiritual aspects of human life. One of the major applications of graphology is personality assessment and development. Career guidance, relationship management, personnel selection are also a few common areas where in graphology plays a major role.

Life today is fast paced and the numbers of difficulties due to this fast paced life are also arising at an alarming rate. Deadlines, competition, erratic working hours, growing demands are not only taking a toll on one’s health but also on the self confidence and emotional state, which in turn affects their personal life as well. To cut out on stress and live a well balanced life, people are now putting in efforts. This is when people can benefit from a simple yet highly useful science of graphology to help add those wonderful colours of happiness and bliss back into their life and live with a content mind and heart.

To utilise expert personality analysis services through handwriting and learn graphology you are welcome to visit – http://www.handwritinginstitute.com

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