The benefits of meditation Studies have shown that meditating regularly can help relieve symptoms in people who suffer from chronic pain, but the neural mechanisms underlying the relief were unclear. Now, MIT and Harvard researchers have found a possible explanation for this phenomenon. In a study published online April 21 in the journal Brain Research Bulletin, the researchers found that people trained to meditate over an eight-week period were better able to control a specific type of brain waves called alpha rhythms. “These activity patterns are thought to minimize distractions, to diminish the likelihood stimuli will grab your attention,” says Christopher Moore, an MIT neuroscientist and senior author of the paper. “Our data indicate that meditation training makes you better at focusing, in part by allowing you to better regulate how things that arise will impact you.” A 1966 study showed that a group of Buddhist monks who meditated regularly had elevated alpha rhythms across their brains.
10 Psychological Effects of Nonsexual Touch A simple (nonsexual) touch can increase compliance, helping behaviour, attraction, and signal power. To get around in the world, we mainly rely on our eyes and ears. Touch is a sense that’s often forgotten. But touch is also vital in the way we understand and experience the world. Even the lightest touch on the upper arm can influence the way we think. To prove it, here are 10 psychological effects which show just how powerful nonsexual touch can be. 1. A well-timed touch can encourage other people to return a lost item. In one experiment, users of a phone booth who were touched were more likely to return a lost dime to an experimenter (Kleinke, 1977). The action was no more than a light touch on the arm. People will do more than that though; people will give a bigger tip to a waitress who has touched them (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984). (Stop giggling at the back there!) 2. People are also more likely to provide help when touched. The percentage of people who helped went up from 63% to 90%. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Top 10 Bizarre Mental Case Studies Humans With an average weight of 1.36 kilograms, the human brain is truly something to marvel at. It is difficult to believe that something akin to a malformed sponge, at first glance, contains over 100 million neurons and 100 trillion synaptic connections. As far as we know, it is the single most complex unit in the universe. Indeed, an organ as intricate as our brain will, no doubt, be riddled with its fair share of problems. This list deals with 10 people who have experienced just that; a part of their brains has gone awry in some form or another. Peter The Split-Brain Patient Beleaguered By Conflict Location of Damage: Corpus Callosum Peter began to suffer from complex partial seizures at the age of 8. The commissurotomy involved a surgical incision of Peter’s corpus callosum. On one hand, Peter’s surgery was a success, as it did end up attenuating the magnitude of his seizures. The Man Who Was Confused By His Own Blindsight Location of Damage: Primary Visual Cortex (Occipital Lobe)
Visual illusions That Tell About Your Psychological Condition Now you can examine your psychological order by going through the simple and unfussy analysis. These illusions are invented by a Japanese psychiatrist Akiyoshi Kitaoka (A. Kitaoka). Without any trouble you can make your mind up, from which category of psychological condition you have to muddle through. Source 47 Mind-Blowing Psychology-Proven Facts You Should Know About Yourself I’ve decided to start a series called 100 Things You Should Know about People. As in: 100 things you should know if you are going to design an effective and persuasive website, web application or software application. Or maybe just 100 things that everyone should know about humans! The order that I’ll present these 100 things is going to be pretty random. Dr. <div class="slide-intro-bottom"><a href="
AS Psychology holah.co.uk "Mirrors in Our Brain" -Do They Do for Psychology What DNA Did for Biology? (A 'Galaxy' Most Popular) A recent paradigm-shattering discovery in neuroscience shows how our minds share actions, emotions, and experience what we commonly call "the monkey see, monkey do" experience. When we see someone laugh, cry, show disgust, or experience pain, in some sense, we share that emotion. When we see someone in distress, we share that distress. When we see a great actor, musician or sportsperson perform at the peak of their abilities, it can feel like we are experiencing just something of what they are experiencing. Only recently, however, with the discovery of mirror neurons, has it become clear just how this powerful sharing of experience is realized within the human brain. These results had a deep impact on cognitive neuroscience, leading the the world's leading experts to predict that 'mirror neurons would do for psychology what DNA did for biology'. Mirror neurons may also help explain the emergence of language, a problem that has puzzled scholars since the time of Charles Darwin, he adds.
The Top 10 Psychology Studies of 2010 The end of 2010 fast approaches, and I'm thrilled to have been asked by the editors of Psychology Today to write about the Top 10 psychology studies of the year. I've focused on studies that I personally feel stand out, not only as examples of great science, but even more importantly, as examples of how the science of psychology can improve our lives. Each study has a clear "take home" message, offering the reader an insight or a simple strategy they can use to reach their goals , strengthen their relationships, make better decisions, or become happier. If you extract the wisdom from these ten studies and apply them in your own life, 2011 just might be a very good year. 1) How to Break Bad Habits If you are trying to stop smoking , swearing, or chewing your nails, you have probably tried the strategy of distracting yourself - taking your mind off whatever it is you are trying not to do - to break the habit. J. 2) How to Make Everything Seem Easier J. 3) How To Manage Your Time Better M. J.
Psychology of Persuasion Do you want to be an agent of change? Psychological research reveals how to tip the balance in your favour. All human societies are alive with the battle for influence. Every single day each of us is subject to innumerable persuasion attempts from corporations, interest groups, political parties and other organisations. In our personal lives the same struggle is played out for the supremacy of viewpoints, ideals and actions. Psychologists have been studying how we try to influence each other for many years. • 3 Universal Goals to Influence People – Effective influence and persuasion isn’t just about patter, body language or other techniques, it’s also about understanding people’s motivations. • The Persuasive Power of Swearing – Show your passion and people have one more emotional reason to come around to your point of view. • Don’t Take No For An Answer – You ask someone for a favour and they say no. • Are Fast Talkers More Persuasive? • When Does Reverse Psychology Work?
Why swearing makes you feel better | Do you really wanna know what I think? It may be hard to believe, but those dirty words you’ve been told all your life are bad are actually good for you. Ever stub your toe and let loose with a barrage of cussing that would make a sailor blush? Brought about by one of the researchers noticing that his wife let loose with long bursts of cussing during childbirth, he was interested in learning if such utterances actually helped ease the pain of birthing a baby. Scientists gathered a group of study participants and formulated an experiment to seek answers to just that question. I am so tired of repeating myself! The study also found that women are more affected by the release offered by cussing than men, showing elevated heart rates more often than men. From a scientific standpoint, swearing is a fascinating subject that is certain to be studied more.
New Psychiatry Guidelines: Why Psychologists and Psychiatrists Fight - TIME Healthland Psychologists and psychiatrists tend to hate each other. The reasons are historical: beginning even before Freud, psychologists held enormous power over the cultural imagination. The whole idea of psychiatry — an explicitly chemical rather than behavioral treatment of the mind — didn’t start until the industrial age, and for a long time afterward, psychiatrists were held in disregard. Friday morning, psychiatrists take a bit of revenge. According to the new guidelines — which will govern treatment for the 200,000 in-patient psychiatric patients in the U.S., as well as the 20 million or so who get out-patient treatment — the No.-1 preferred approach is drugs. The new guidelines underplay an enormous body of data from the past decade showing that even the best psychiatric drugs work better than sugar pills only when the drugs are used in conjunction with psychological therapies that help patients change how they behave and how they form their thoughts. One reason is a problem of data.
Spiritual Endeavors www; Spiritual, Holistic, Environmental info These Links have been prepared to answer most questions concerning Spiritual Endeavors. General Information Booking Engagements at Spiritual Endeavors General Information Spiritual Endeavors is a public forum which maintains a large repository of spiritual, holistic, and environmental information, methodologies, thoughts, insights, and all types of spiritual material, available to all through free weekly Gatherings, workshops, seminars and retreats, books, mailings, audio and video tapes, and the World Wide Web site. Spiritual Endeavors explores the powerful all encompassing nature of Self, bringing people and ideas together by providing educational sources and opportunities that promote spiritual awareness and holistic understanding for all. Spiritual Endeavors reaches out to unite all individuals, young and old, who actively question their own existence... that of our world... and even the vast beyond! Background Each of us at one point or another in our lives, has wondered; "Who am I?"
Psych Web by Russ Dewey