|
May 2007 - Posts
-
|
A new vocabulary to describe family members’ new roles. Here, a sampling:
- Binuclear family. as post-divorce fathers become more involved with child rearing, they are beginning to be seen as the other hub of family life, just as important as mothers.
- Social parent. When two parents actively care for a child, but only one of them is genetically connected to the child – as is often the case in gay and *** couples – the parent who does not share the child’s genes is known as the social parent.
- Serial parenting. As divorced and remarriage have become common, men, and to a lesser extent women, are producing multiple sets of children with different partners.
- Distance parenting. The increasing mobility of Americans has taken many divorced parents far away from their children. Through no one argues it’s ideal, parents who have no choice are learning how to parent from a distance.
- Nonresidential father. Recent estimates suggest that almost 60% of children growing up in America will live apart from their biological fathers at some point. That makes the nonresidential father, one who doesn’t live with his children, the norm rather than the exception.
- Post-divorce family. once, we spoke of broken homes and split families in the wake of divorce. Now counselors, therapists and others are telling their clients that while divorced may end a marriage, it doesn’t end a family. Mother, father, and children are all still there, just in a different configuration.
|
-
|
When fathers feel certain in their abilities as parents, when their place in their children’s lives is clear and unambiguous, and when they feel satisfied with their interactions with their children, they are likely to stay involved with their family.
Some social scientists believe such confidence can learned by actively teaching parenting skills.
Men are increasingly considered capable and effective single parents.
Women and men in single parent households act in less sex stereotyped ways than their counterparts in mother father households.
|
-
|
Spirituality is an awakening directed toward an opening of the inward doors of perception and it is perceptually grounded in what the person that has the experience believes is a deeper level of the immediate reality than the one we normally have access to.
This mystical experience although often transient in nature cannot be brought to the mind at will. The experience of Awakening brings about a sense of deeper knowledge providing meaning to ones life.
|
-
|
The psychology of risk involves far more than a simple “death wish.” studies now indicate that the inclination to take high risk may be hard wired into the brain, intimately linked to arousal and pleasure mechanism, and may offer such a thrill that it functions like an addiction. The tendency probably affects one in five people, mostly young males, and declines with age. It may ensure our survival, and even help trigger our evolution as individuals and as a species. Risk taking probably brought a crucial evolutionary advantage, inciting the fighting and hunting behavior of our ancestors.
|
-
|
May 16, 2007-05-18
Depression and Medication
In the amine hypothesis, there is the idea that depression is related to or caused by equivalent to depletion of serotonin or norepinephrine. There’s lost of evidence that can’t be the whole answer and even some evidence that contradicts that theory entirely.
One is that you can deplete patients of these chemicals and most don’t get depressed. Another, that there are drugs that don’t seem to have any direct effect on these systems that act as antidepressants. Plus these are contradictions within the literature as to whether you’re up regulating or down regulating pathways that use these chemicals.
|
-
|
May 11
Health and friends
Facing a barrage of major stressors like getting fired or divorced can permanently alter the cardiovascular system. But whether you face the risk of heart disease down the road may be a matter of who your friends are.
The more friends you have, the better you’re protected from illness. Daily hassles, like minor arguments or waiting in line affect you cardiovascular system, but major life events involving big changes, like mourning the loss of a loved one or relocating can alter your blood pressure. Too many over time may raise your blood pressure permanently, setting the stage for heart disease. Having a strong network of friends speed recovery from the rise in blood pressure, as if protecting against its damaging effects.
Rising blood pressure isn’t always harmful; it surges when we exercise. The body’s dramatic response to tensions may not be as risky as how well it recovers, something that relies on a little help from your friends.
|
-
|
May 10, 2007
The importance of feedback
People shown a mirror eat less unhealthy food than do those who can’t see their reflections while they eat. We should then place a mirror permanently on the table where we eat to avoid eating junk food.
If a mirror image of ourselves help us eat healthier food, which by the way could also make us lose a few pounds, then it might not be a bad idea to promote as part of a healthy education the standard use of mirrors on the table in order to obtain feedback while we eat and therefore getting the right nutrients for our bodies.
|
-
|
May 8, 2007
Attitude counts
On the outskirts of town, surrounded by oil fields with rusty rigs that suck up the black liquid from inside the dry earth, a row of pick-up trucks and customized cars are parked next to a giant I sculpture. The India stands guard over Ethel’s Old Corral, a box-shaped wooden-shingle bar wedged between two highways. Inside the bar, in front of the unplugged jukebox and somewhat hidden in the shadows, four musicians dressed in flowery cowboy shirts are pumping out the rhythms and rhymes of the classic Merle Haggard song “Last Night the Bottle Let Me Down.” In front of the band, locals in boots twirl their partners on the dance floor. Muscular, sweaty women bartenders in dresses serve cold tap beer in mugs, while several signs posted behind the bar ask the clients to behave, including one that warms that they’ll be a 20 dollar surcharge for having the wrong psychological attitude.
|
-
|
Writing expressively about thoughts and emotions get people to share their concerns with friends and family, which in turn helps speed resolution of problems. Emotional expression in writing helps people gain better perspective on their life experiences. Emotions that they weren’t venting before through writing them in paper helps them work through their problems.
It is perhaps that through the writing process one becomes better aware of one’s problems, rehearsing solutions in ones mind and helping this way to implement the appropriate behavior in order to improve our lives.
|
-
|
In “visualization” or “imagery rehearsal.” we start with 20 to 30 minutes of relaxation training, followed by the visualization of some aspect of our lives that needs improvement. It’s the mental equivalent of doing the real thing.
For instance if your husband or wife thinks your attitude with them is too tough and harsh your therapist could show you the appropriate behavior and then during visualization therapy you can practice making the correct body manner and speech in your mind. It may be that your muscles start to learn through this visualizing practice the proper way of moving. Research evidence indicates that when people use visualization after relaxation, their performance does improve.
There is also evidence to suggest that if you use the wrong imagery your performance will get worse.
These are all tactics that people can use in their own lives. But people should be aware that many of these exercise do takes some time to learn. They have to be practiced often enough.
|
-
|
We react more strongly to negative than to positive stimuli hence our attitudes are more influenced by downbeat news. Our ability to weigh negative input so heavily evolved to keep us from getting hurt or in order to reduce the probabilities of dying. Our brain has been molded by evolution to insure our survival. and paying attention to harmful and negative factors will certainly help us live longer.
The problem with our proclivity to pay attention to negative stuff is that if in our lives we encounter too many negative things too often our thoughts recursive capacity might make us become depressive or see only the down side of life.
Indeed Mood State Learning theory emphasizes the strong role emotions play in learning and remembering. Then if we are in a negative mood we are bound to remember negative things from the past and if the amount of negative memories grow, then think about them more often. A sure way of becoming depress.
|
|
|
|