November 13, 2009 WASHINGTON - Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war, while those in Iraq show much improved mental health amid much lower violence, the Army said Friday.
November 12, 2009 LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Nov 12, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Swiss scientists say people who are stressed and reach for dark chocolate -- the "chocolate cure" -- do seem to experience less emotional stress.
November 12, 2009 Nov. 12--Temple University professor Laurence Steinberg will take his research on teen brain development and risky behavior international with a word_count_title="25" rssimage="0" million award he received yesterday.
November 11, 2009 WASHINGTON - Far from winding down, the numbers of U.S. soldiers coming home wounded have continued to swell. The problem is especially acute among those fighting in Afghanistan, where nearly four times as many troops were injured in October as a year ago.
"Who is this person, really?" Your mind may start to wonder as you meet someone for the first time. Countless methods, whether by reading stars, palms, faces, or minds, have been recommended throughout time as the ultimate doorways to the inner landscape of a person.
But what about examining the foods they eat as a window into their personality?
After all, eating spans a significant portion of the day for most human beings. In fact, research shows that we make more than 200 decisions about food every day! As a result, the way that we go about our relationship with eating says something rather significant about how we choose to live life. This idea may not be far-fetched considering that we have long been told "you are what you eat".
Therefore, if you want to peel back the onion layers of your next date, business contact, or distant family member, go out to dinner and watch what they select to eat. Here are some ideas on how to gauge personality based on their food choices (keep in mind that this is only a general guide!):
(1) Steak-and-Potatoes Sticklers - The tried-and-true steak-and-potatoes person is a classic traditionalist. Often times, they don't even need to read the menu at the restaurant because they know exactly what they want. The high protein of the meat and the lack of a palette of bright colors suggest that these folks are rather "down to earth". For them to be satisfied, they need to be financially stable and secure with a job, home, and family. You can typically trust these people and get practical, grounded advice from them. They don't like to let people down, and they won't want you to let them down either. Too much steak and potatoes may result in a less adventurous, "stick in the mud" personality as they may be resistant to change.
(2) Carb Cravers - You can spot them in a second as they automatically reach for the bread basket, or peruse the pasta section of the menu. Without a doubt, carb cravers are those who tend to do too much, which is why they need all that quick energy from carbohydrates. They love throwing themselves in the midst of action and excitement, but then later, they realize that they took on too much and now their lives are out of balance and stressful. Too many carbs signals imbalance. These folks are stressed and are attempting to balance their brain biochemistry by pumping up their feel-good neurotransmitter, serotonin. Carb-lovers are missing comfort and sweetness in their lives. They can repair their carb fixation by re-evaluating their lives to create more joy and happiness!
(3) Green Giants - Having a salad as an appetizer is one thing, but there are some individuals who order salads as the main course. It's rare, but they are out there - people who love raw, leafy, green vegetables, every parent's and nutritionist's dream! There are also people who eat more vegetables not because they like them but because they are health-conscious. Eating lots of vegetables may denote a healthy, free-thinking individual who is expansive in how they live life. They may try to keep ahead of the curve, and be aware of the latest health trends. A vegetable lover leans toward open-minded social views and being social, especially with like-minded people who are passionate, intense, and dedicated to causes. Vegetable eating out of discipline and not out of love indicates that the person is highly motivated to achieve their goals, even if it means having to restrict their sense of fun and pleasure. If this is the case, they may have their eye on unattainable perfection rather than inner satisfaction.
(4) Fried Food Fans - People who order foods of the "brown, crisp" variety, like fried chicken and fried potatoes, are most likely "fried" themselves. Their lust for life has been shriveled and burnt to a crisp, their hearts are weary, and their spark for living has fizzled out. They may appear lackluster, their expression may fall flat. Eating brown foods indicates that a life that needs an overhaul - some rejuvenation and color. For these people, it is too easy to sink into the comfort of crackling, brown, salty foods rather than to get the motivated to make a shift in their lives. When you eat with someone that chooses brown foods, give them some inspirational food for thought! Guide them to the rainbow of whole, un-fried foods. Give them ways to "get moving" and out of the sludge of their current situation!
(5) Sugar Sprinklers - Sugar, sugar, everywhere! You've seen it - people that focus more on the dessert than on the meal. They might reach for the colorful square packets of sugar to start dumping them in their drinks while they skip to the dessert section of the menu first to see what lie ahead. For the sugar-lovers, there is always room for dessert, no matter what, and dinner is the gateway to what they really want - the hot fudge sundae, crème brulee, ice cream. Their days are speckled with soft drinks and saccharine snacks. They may be incredibly sweet people, but they may not feel their lives are sweet, which is why they may be trying to take a short cut to sweetness through the path of foods. Enjoy your meal with those sinking in sugar, as they need more happiness and laughter. By letting them let loose in a stimulating, stress-free dinner conversation, they may not feel the need to bury themselves under a blanket of white!
(6) The Salt Shaker - Does the person shake the salt before shaking your hand? If so, you may want to find out what is shaking under the surface. People who add salt to just about anything (even before trying it first!) are really looking for flow and movement in their lives. They want to "shake things up" but they don't know how. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure in salt-sensitive individuals, causing too much fluid retention. What these people need is to move, dance, and flow into healthier lives.
Although it's not the absolute path to figuring out the complex nature of one's being, food choices say heaps about someone's life - giving insight on their health, social views, emotional state, and approach to living. Indeed, the plate is a small window into the soul!
Deanna Minich, PhD, CN, (www.foodandspirit.com) is a nutritionist who sees more to food than calories and macronutrients. She helps guide others in using foods and eating as tools for personal growth and nourishment for the soul. She has written three books on nutrition, on topics ranging from food additives to dietary supplements and even to the connection of food to spirituality. Her latest book, Chakra Foods for Optimum Health: A Guide to the Foods that can Improve Your Energy, Inspire Creative Changes, Open Your Heart, and Heal Body, Mind, and Spirit, invites you to open your heart, unravel your intuition, and take a journey to inner and outer bliss with every bite you take!
Good self-esteem rests, first and foremost, on having an objective, balanced perspective on our strengths and weaknesses. We all have plenty of both. But anxiety and fear push us to extremes, so we may feel like an emotional basket case on the one hand, or present ourselves as having no needs, problems or loose ends on the other.
Anxiety, by its very nature, will lead you to lose objectivity about the complex, wonderful, flawed, ever-changing person you are. When you can't see yourself objectively, you won't see anyone else objectively, either.
Good self-esteem also requires that we view our vulnerabilities and limitations with curiosity, patience and humor. Nobody is perfect and we can all benefit from working on ourselves. But the process of self-observation, reflection and change is basically a self-loving task. It will not flourish in an atmosphere of terminal seriousness, self-flagellation or self-blame.
Unless you are a saint or a highly evolved Buddhist, you will partake in a fair amount of anxiety-driven judgmentalness of both yourself and others. Keep in mind that the tendency to be judgmental-toward yourself or another person-is a good barometer of how anxious or stressed out you are. Judging others is simply the flip side of judging yourself.
Being judgmental of others often takes the form of obsessive thinking. For example, we may have our own personal, anxiety-driven mantras that go round and round like an automatic tape.
These repetitive thoughts often center on the experience of being mistreated or done in. Your mantra might be: "My sister cheated me out of Dad's money," or "I can't stand my brother's drinking" or "My ex is turning the kids against me."
Whether you are right or not is beside the point. Such anxiety-generated thinking is totally non-productive, flushing your valuable time and energy down the tubes. Ditto for anxiety-generated thinking that takes the form of judging yourself and your future in a negative, doom and gloom way.
If you pay attention to your body and observe your thoughts, you can begin to distinguish thinking that comes from a calm center and leads to problem solving from an anxious, ruminative overfocus on a person or problem that goes nowhere.
On November 5, 2009, during a soccer match between the University of New Mexico and Brigham Young University, UNM defender Elizabeth Lambert behaved badly. She kicked and punched other players and even pulled another woman's pony tail, causing her to fall to the ground. A video of Lambert's behavior was quickly posted on the internet causing her much embarrassment and shame. In an interview with the New York Times, Lambert admitted that the video makes her look like a monster. She also said, "That is not me," "I can't believe I did that," and "That's not the type of player I am." Most people, however, disagree with her, and explanations of her behavior have focused almost exclusively on her personality.
People seem to imagine that Lambert's actions on the field reflect a deep-seated anger, moral defect, or unconscious conflict. In support of this "poor character" hypothesis, one blogger, a psychologist, even quoted scripture stating, "a good tree cannot bear bad fruit" (Matthew 7: 18-21). Some have also speculated that Lambert has "a lot of sexual aggression" (Longman, 2009, p. B11). These simple explanations are comforting, because they reaffirm what most people already believe: Good people do good things and bad people do bad things. However, they neglect the findings of social psychology, which show that behavior is a function of the person and the situation.
Explanations that focus on Lambert's personality tend to neglect the context in which her behavior occurred. This tendency, to attribute behavior to personality rather than situational factors is called "the fundamental attribution error" (FAE; Ross, 1977). It was first described by Heider and later developed by Jones (Jones & Davis, 1965). Likewise, people tend to attribute their own behavior to situational factors and other people's behavior to dispositional factors. This tendency is called the "actor-observer bias" (Jones & Nisbett, 1971). Accordingly, Lambert says that, during the game, she was frustrated, because she was called names, elbowed, taken to the ground with cheap shots, and her shorts were tugged at. Of course, many factors, both dispositional and situational, caused Lambert to behave as she did.
Social psychological research on attributional processes as well as aggression and violence should cause us to think twice before we judge Elizabeth Lambert. To understand her actions, we must recognize the power of situational factors to influence behavior. Such explanations of behavior are not meant to excuse people of responsibility for their actions. Rather, accurate explanations are useful, because they allow us to predict and sometimes influence future events. They also allow us to make sense of disturbing and surprising outcomes. According to the New York Times, Lambert is now seeing a clinical psychologist, presumably in order to understand why she behaved badly. Although therapy might lead to greater insight and self-awareness, she might be better off talking to a social psychologist who would not necessarily assume that her behavior during that game reflects who she is in either a general or permanent way.
Jones, E. & Davis, K. (1965). From acts to dispositions: The attribution process in social psychology. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, (Vol. 2, pp. 219-266). New York: Academic Press.
Jones, E. & Nisbett, R. (1971). The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behavior. In E. Jones, D. Kanouse, H. Kelley, R. Nisbett, S. Valins, & B. Weiner (Eds.), Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior (pp. 79-94). Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.
Longman, J. (2009, November 18). Thos soccer plays, in context. The New York Times, p. B11. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Psych. Today Articles & Research\Those Soccer Plays, in Context - NYTimes_com.mht
Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 173-220). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Why settle for giving a “thank you” when you can give a POWER THANK YOU*?
Make giving thanks the center piece of your Thanksgiving by having each person give a Power Thank You. It has 3 parts:
Part 1: Thank someone for something specific that they did for you (it can also be something they refrained from doing that would have hurt you).
Part 2: Acknowledge the effort it took for them to do it (by saying something like: “I know you didn’t have to do —-” or “I know you went out of your way to do —-”).
Part 3: State the difference it personally made to you.
For example:
1. I want to thank the 17,000+ readers at Psychology Today that have read and shared my recent post, "The 10 Habits of Happy Couples."
2. I know how much information from the internet comes across your screen and how annoying much of it can be and the fact that you took the time to read the post and pass it on took some effort on your part.
3. The fact that so many of you have read my post(s) and shared them spurs me on and puts a spring in my step, because it means that I am being of useful service to you. And being of service is what I about.
One of the reasons for that is that you can’t be angry and thankful at the same time.
Anger is a reaction to feeling something is missing, something has gone wrong and you are wounded. Anger comes from a need to retaliate or out of fear of something or someone attacking/hurting you again to attack them to keep them from doing it (think wounded animal and war in Iraq after 9/11).
Thankfulness comes from a feeling of wholeness, that nothing is missing, that there is no one you need to retaliate against. In fact, if you are not a dyed-in-the-wool taker, thankfulness crosses over into wanting to show gratitude by giving to others.
I’d love to hear from you if you try a Power Thank You for Thanksgiving.
An inability to resist aggressive urges may be an indication of intermittent explosive disorder. Individuals with this disorder often seriously damage property or assault others, usually in stark contrast to the provocation involved in a situation.
Sources:
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
DSM-IV™ Made Easy: The Clinician's Guide to Diagnosis
Kessler RC, Coccaro EF, Fava M, Jaeger S, Jin R, Walters E. The prevalence and correlates of DSM-IV intermittent explosive disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2006 Jun; 63(6):669-78
NIMH (2006).
Olvera R. L. (2002). Intermittent explosive disorder: epidemiology, diagnosis and management. CNS Drugs. 16(8):517-26.
Patients coping with the chaos and misery of Borderline Personality Disorder now have reason for strong confidence in making major life changes through a new treatment, Schema Therapy. For the first time, three major outcome studies have shown that many patients with Borderline Personality Disorder can achieve full recovery across the complete range of symptoms.
The European Medicines Agency has been formally notified by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd of its decision to withdraw its application for an extension of indication for the centrally authorised medicine Abilify (aripiprazole) tablets, orodispersible tablets and oral solution. Abilify was expected to be used in the treatment of major depressive episodes, as adjunctive therapy, in patients who have had an inadequate response to previous treatment with antidepressants.
"Mental Health America is pleased to endorse the nomination of Chai Feldblum to serve as a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
On the day that the consultation period for the Government's Green Paper on adult social care closes, mental health charity Mind has expressed its concerns that the Paper does not address the needs of adults with mental health problems, instead skewing the debate towards older people.
The results of the 2009 Pfizer Health Index announced at the Royal College of Physicians Ireland reveal that the recently unemployed are four times more likely to claim to have depression than the general population. There is also evidence that the recession is leading to anxiety over money, is bad for self-esteem and is leading to relationship tension. The greatest impact of the recession is apparent among those between the ages of 25 and 50, who are parents and who live in urban areas.
Daily service providing the latest research news in the field of psychiatry including addiction, anxiety, mood disorders, eating disorders, personality and behavioral disorders, schizophrenia and psychosis, and Alzheimer's disease and dementia, in addition to the drug and psychotherapeutic treatment of psychiatric conditions.
There is no gradient in affective temperament scores from bipolar I disorder through unipolar depressive patients to healthy individuals, say UK researchers who found high dysthymic scores in both patient groups.
There is wide range of ages and diagnostic groups among patients with first-episode psychosis, warn UK investigators who highlight the lack of research and treatment guidelines for such patients.
Polymorphisms in two genes related to the circadian rhythm may be associated with the development of pediatric bipolar disorder, although not with age at onset, US researchers have discovered.
Schizophrenia patients have no deficits in the anticipation, experience, and memory of positive affective events, but they are unable to translate these into motivational states, US scientists have found.
There are limited differences between bipolar II disorder depression and unipolar depression, say Australian scientists who suggest previously suggested differences can be explained by age, gender, and severity.
