Defense Mechanisms - Sep 2012

Withdrawal
 
Have you ever tried to escape from troubles? It happens to me all the time when there are too many things to do, or when I feel too upset to face it. Temporary withdrawal can be a nice time-out to our life. If you think you can’t go on, try to sneak out and enjoy a dessert from a coffee shop.


Picture: Venus Lai

Remember, you can’t sneak out from your life forever! Overuse of withdrawal may lead to avoidant personality disorder, whose sufferers avoid social interaction and evaluation from others. So, get back to work when you are ready, or else you will find yourself lag behind when you want to catch up.
 

Venus Lai

 

Reference:
Withdrawal (defense mechanism) - Psychology Wiki (2012). Retrieved September 1, 2012 from http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Withdrawal_(defense_mechanism)
 
Avoidant personality disorder - Psychology Wiki (2012). Retrieved September 1, 2012 from http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Avoidant_personality_disorder

Contributions - Sep 2012

Dear Editor,

Recently I am fascinated by a TV program called “Test Your Brain”. This is a special series introducing the cognition of our brain, which is very much related to cognitive psychology. I think it would be right up in Psycholic’s alley, so I am writing up this contribution.

 

Image: natgeotv.com

“Test Your Brain” is a special series of National Geographic Channel. It contains three episodes only, and respectively they talk about perception, attention and memory. Stroop test and change blindness are examples of the topics they included. With entertaining and tricky demonstrations, it shows us how we are faked by the magicians and professionals. Many of the demonstrations have really come out of left field to me. Moreover, it uses detailed explanations to tell us the specific parts of brain related to the sensory illusions, which is somewhat related to biological psychology.

Image: downloadha.com

Watching the program is just like playing a brain game, to see how intelligent or stupid our brain is. I can still recall in one demonstration about perception, the demonstrator told us to watch carefully how he poured the water from two bottles alternately. I did as he said, and I totally neglected the absurd background, with three staff wearing animal suit walking around. When the “highlighted” demonstration is played, I stared with wide-eyes.

I would like to recommend this program to all psychology students and fans of psychology, as it applies the knowledge of cognitive psychology. It widens my horizon in the field. Currently this series is played on Pearl, on 3rd, 10th and 17th Sep at 21:30. If you have missed the program, you can still watch it with the following links:

http://v.sogou.com/v?query=test+your+brain&w=06009900&p=&_asf=v.sogou.com&_ast=1346756350&sc=index&sut=2554&sst0=1346756354559

http://video.baidu.com/v?word=test+your+brain&ct=301989888&rn=20&pn=0&db=0&s=0&fbl=800

Test Your Brain’s official site:

http://natgeotv.com/hk/test-your-brain

Yours Faithfully,

Venus Honey Lai =]

 

Psych-Action - Sep 2012

Organiser: Dept of Psych, CUHK
Name of Activity: Body and Brain Interaction in Decision-making and Emotion
Speaker: Prof Savio Wong, HKIEd
Type: Seminar
Date: 25th September, 2012 (Tue)
Time: 11:00 am
Venue: Room 619, Sino Building, Chung Chi College, CUHK

Organiser: Ctr on Behavioral Health, HKU
Name of Activity: The Transformative Nature of Grief and Bereavement
Speaker: Dr Joan Berzoff
Type: Seminar
Date: 10th October, 2012 (Wed)
Time: 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Venue: Rm 202, HKCSS Duke of Windsor Social Services Bldg, Wanchai

Sora Siu

Laugh Out Loud - Sep 2012

Ekman suggests that there are 6 universal facial expressions to convey emotions, for instance, people from America or New Guinea can also recognize those facial expressions accurately.

 

Can you match the facial expressions in the following photo to emotions listed in the chart?

 

A.Surprise   B.Happiness   C.Anger   D.Sadness   E.Disgust   F.Fear

 

Photo: Michael, 2011

Please send the answers with your NAME and CONTACT NUMBER to salford.psy.hk@gmail.com on or before 30th September, 2012.  Those who got all correct will enter our lucky draw to win special prize!

 

Venus Lai & Stephanie Szeto

 

References:
Michael. (2011, June 6). The Channels of Emotion: Not (Just) in the Face! Retrieved August 10, 2012, from Psych Your Mind: Applying psychology to everyday life: http://psych-your-mind.blogspot.hk/2011/06/channels-of-emotion-not-just-in-face.html
Smith, E. E., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Fredrickson, B. L., & Loftus, G. R. (2003). Atkinson & Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology (14th ed.). California: Wadsworth.

_________________________________________________________

 The answer of 10th issue, August 2012
1. Social Facilitation = C
2. Social Inhibition = A
3. Group Think = D
4. Group Polarization = B

 

答對上期問題而被抽中的讀者是
Joanna Cheung

幸運兒可得到
記事簿 及 面膜 各1份

 

由於參加者眾多，其他參加者將獲得安慰獎以作鼓勵。=）

特此鳴謝 www.sunnysideup12.com 的贊助

Andrien Photography - Sep 2012

 

 

 

 

Warren Adrien Tang

PsyPanacea - Sep 2012

Write to Panacea and you might be answered! We want to wipe that frown off your face. Remember, all askers remain anonymous. Just drop your question into our mailbox, or write to us at salford.psy.hk@gmail.com. The Goddess awaits your worries and woes.

 

Kristen Pereira

 

Dear Panacea,




Photo: news.nationalgeographic.com

My pen pal lives in a village in Indonesia. The more I get to know her, the more I learn about her life of fear. She has witnessed countless natural disasters, floods and earthquakes. Her family has suffered much loss. What’s more is that they have no certainty about the future in a country where anything can happen. It pains me to see her state. My family has decided to help her in material ways, but in addition to that, I really want to help her by being a good friend and offering emotional support as well. I think we can relate well since we’re the same age and have similar personalities. I really hope you can help me to help her.



DisasterMode

Pickpocket - Sep 2012

Limbic system is distinguished into “Honest Brain” and “Lying Brain”. The former was discussed last time. This time, the totally opposite one will be shown to you, “Lying Brain”.

The Lying Brain and Honest Brain (2)

The Lying Brain

Cerebral cortex is the last evolved part in our brain, so it is called neocortex, means new brain. It is also called thinking or intelligent brain because it is responsible for advanced cognitions and memorization. The existence of the cerebral cortex separates humans from mammal as most of the human’s cerebral cortex is used for thinking. This part of our brain sent Armstrong to the moon since humans acquired calculation, analysis, interpretation and intuition abilities, so cerebral cortex is an important part of the brain and full of creativities.

 

__________________________________________________________________



Photo: cbc.ca

<<Case Share>>
In 1999 December, an American customs officer with high alert stopped “Millennium Bomber”. When Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who lived in Canada, was about to pass through the borderline to America, a customs officer, Diana Dean, noticed he was nervous and sweating. So she asked him to get out from his car for advanced interrogation. After he got out, he tried to run away but got caught again before explosives and timers were found on his car.

Analysis
The nervousness and sweating the officer noticed are the response from the brain when people face pressure. This case can demonstrate how one’s emotions are presented through NVB and body’s responses, which the limbic system of Ressam showed them to the officer even he tried so hard to hide them.

___________________________________________________________

Even the limbic system of “Millennium Bomber” made the body sweating so much, his cerebral cortex still had million ways to hide his own emotions and intentions by answering to the officer “I don’t have anything in the car”.

Our cerebral cortex can let us easily tell our female friends that we like their new dresses and male friends that their new hair styles look cool; even we do not think so. In this way, cerebral cortex is full of creativity to lie and we can only look into the most truthful response from limbic system.

Extra - Sep 2012

明報在八月十七日介紹了我校的心理學課程，有幸我們的總編輯黎欣珩及副總編輯司徒素雪亦在訪問之列。她倆解說 Psycholic 由來之餘，還談到創作這份心理學月刊的得著與對將來發展的期望。



總編輯黎欣珩十分高興能集合一班擁有共同理念的同學一起創作 Psycholic。相片來源：明報
Venus Lai, Chief Editor, feels happy to work with psychology comrades on publishing Psycholic. Photo: Ming Pao

The newspaper, MingPao, introduced our program BSc (Hons) Psychology on 17th August 2012. It has been our greatest pleasure that MingPao has interviewed our Chief Editor, Venus Lai and Deputy Chief Editor, Stephanie Szeto. The two heads of Psycholic talked about the origin of this psychology newsletter, the gains of publishing it and their anticipation towards its future development.


副總編輯司徒素雪志在推廣有趣的心理學現象予大眾認識。相片來源：明報
Stephanie Szeto, Deputy Chief Editor, loves to see the interest in psychological phenomenon is growing on the community. Photo: Ming Pao

Pillars in the Making - Sep 2012

“Easy”, “Difficult” or “Slow to warm up”??

Development of emotion

Photo: gagasisterhood.com

Do you know what emotion is? It can be associated and considered reciprocally influential with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. Sometimes it can also be influenced by biological factors, e.g. hormones. But do you know when emotion actually occurs? According to a survey done in the USA, most of the parents found that their babies show five distinct emotional expressions: interest, surprise, joy, anger and fear. We can simply divide them into three types of babies; easy temperament, difficult temperament and slow to warm up temperament.

Three types of babies

1) Easy temperament babies

There are around 40% of babies  belong to this type of temperament. They are even- tempered, and they are typically in a positive mood, quite open and adaptable to new experiences. Their habits are regular and predictable.

2) Difficult temperament babies

There are around 10% of babies belong to this type of temperament. They are active, irritable, and irregular in their habits. They often react very unwillingly in changing routines and they react very slowly to new people or situations.

3) Slow – to – warm – up temperament babies

Around 10% babies are samples of slow to warm up temperament. These children are quite inactive, somewhat moody, and can be slow to adapt to new people and situations. Unlike difficult child, they often response to novelty mildly, rather than in negative ways.

Photo: babywisemom.com

Vicky Wong

Reference:
Firchow, Nancy M.L.S.. "Your Child's Temperament: Some Basics". http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=495.

Psycovery - Sep 2012

Dementia 的新譯名

相信有留意上一期《心‧發現》的讀者都知道筆者介紹了腦退化症的致病原。以往， Dementia 是被譯為「老年癡呆症」，而「腦退化症」這個新名稱是為了釋除公眾對該病症的誤解及標籤。可是，「腦退化症」這名稱過於簡化，忽略了病變的過程，亦會令大眾誤以為這是一般年老的退化。適逢《精神疾病診斷與統計手冊》的第五次改版 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-V) ， Major Neurocognitive Disorder 將會取代 Dementia 作為這個病症的新名稱。而經過香港的主要學會商討過後， Major Neurocognitive Disorder會暫譯為「認知障礙症」。

癡呆症的曙光


這項發現為老年癡呆症患者帶來新曙光。 
Photo: doctorssupport.org

筆者上期介紹了β澱粉樣肽 (Aβ, beta-amyloid) 組成的低聚物，能夠在腦部擴散，破壞神經元，最後聚集成澱粉樣蛋白斑塊 (amyloid plaque) 。最近，科學家在白鼠試驗中發現，移除其中一種酶 (enzyme) ，能夠有效降低蛋白斑塊的產生。

研究的關鍵是發現，只要移除一種名為 jnk3 的酶，就能夠降低白鼠大腦中的 Aβ蛋白多達百分之九十，證明了高活性的 jnk3 會導致高產量的 Aβ 蛋白。研究人員透過控制白鼠的基因，成功改變 jnk3 酶的活性，除了減低了Aβ 蛋白外，亦發現白鼠的認知能力有顯著的改善。

一般來說， jnk3的活性在正常人中偏低。而在阿滋海默氏症 (Alzheimer’s disease) 的患者中發現， jnk3 的活性比在正常人中上升近三四成。這項發現將有助了解該症的機制，將來研發有效根治或預防阿滋海默氏症的藥物。

Sora Siu

References:
S 04 Major Neurocognitive Disorder. (2012, 4). Retrieved 9 2, 2012, from APA DSM-5 Development: http://www.dsm5.org/proposedrevision/pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=419

Scientists dramatically reduce plaque-forming substances in mice with Alzheimer's disease. (2012, 9 6). Retrieved 9 6, 2012, from Psypost: http://www.psypost.org/2012/09/scientists-dramatically-reduce-plaque-forming-substances-in-mice-with-alzheimers-disease-13782
 

Sunshine is always with you - Sep 2012

有了財富真的會開心嗎？

你覺得有了財富真的會開心嗎？筆者問了數人，多數答案都是「對呀、沒錯」，這是屬大多數正常人的想法，因為很多人都會想：「金錢不是萬能，但沒有錢就萬萬不能」。沒錯金錢能夠給人很多東西，但相信一定不是開心。筆者為什麼這樣說？究竟有了財富真的會開心嗎？不如我們帶著這個疑問，去閱讀以下的文章吧﹗

在2010年，幾名心理學家 Quoidbach、Dunn、Petrides 和 Mikolajczak 進行了一個有關財富與開心的實驗，這個實驗假設人有了財富，感受正面情緒的能力便相繼削弱。參加者是 351 名 Liège 大學的成年僱員，他們的職位是從保安員至高級管理人員。以上的人被隨機分兩組，一組是實驗組，另一組則是控制組。在實驗組的參加者會被給予看一張清晰可見的相片，相片內有一大堆歐元帳單，以增大參加者對金錢的意識。在控制組的參加者亦都需要看同樣的相片，但這次的相片模糊得難以看見。兩組參加者看完相片後，都須要作答一樣的問卷，問卷評估項目包括（順序如下列出）︰感受正面的情緒能力，幸福，對於未來財富的渴望和目前的財富。最後結果得出，無論參加者本身是富有，或是被分進實驗組的參加者，在問卷內感受正面情緒能力的分數都是很低的，結果說出，人有了財富對感受正面情緒能力被削弱的因果關係。

真是出人意表，當人人也以為有了財富便會開心時，偏偏實驗結果告訴我們，人有了財富相對會削弱了他們感受正面情緒的能力。人生目的不只是為了追求財富，其實還有很多事情可以做，例如與尊敬的父母和友善的朋友建立良好關係。當你與他們建立了一個好的關係時，相信你也會感受到開心，因為他們給予你的關心和溫暖，是金錢不能帶給你的。筆者很認同中國人有句老話：「知足常樂」。其實人的慾望是無窮無盡，相信你也曾嘗試過滿足了一個慾望後，第二個慾望隨之出現。而如何才能滿足自己的慾望？答案就是「知足」，多些想你已經比很多人幸福，相信你會活得更加不一樣。

Woody Yip

Reference:
Quoidbach, J., Dunn, E. W., Petrides, K., & Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away: The Dual Effect of Wealth on Happiness , pp. 759-763.

SD3 - Sep 2012

Angels or Demons?

 

In the previous issues, SD3 has told you some symptoms about dyslexia and ADHD. This time, it will continue to introduce another disorder particularly related to children. Autistic disorder is the theme here.

 

Autistic children show impairment in mainly three areas, including social interaction, communication and also restricted, repetitive, stereotyped behavior and interests. Starting from infancy, they show distinctive character from other infants. They are less responsive to their own names, and do not like body contact. They have joint attention deficit, in which their attention can hardly be attracted by people and objects. It is common we find them staring at no-where or nothing. Moreover, impaired ability to recognize the emotional expressions is also observed.

 

Upon communicative deficits, autistic people often show diminished NVC (non-verbal communication) on the faces and eyes. The term “pronoun reversal” is used to describe such case, that they confuse the use of “I”, “me”, “he”, “them”, etc. They may be obsessed with some numbers or objects. Never mess up their furniture or desired routine, because you can never tell how upset it can be to them.

 

Somehow it may be true that autistic people are generally less intelligent. Statistics shows that about 75% of the sufferers are mentally retarded. But still, some of them score even higher than the average IQ score. Due to their undersensitivity (or oversensitivity in some situations) to the surroundings, their learning ability may be disrupted. They may be focused on the wrong matter instead of listening to what the teacher says.

 

On treating the autistic people, the three ways most useful are medication, education and behavioral reinforcement. Have you ever heard a saying that autistic children are angels from heaven? This is why they do not communicate the way we do. To open their heart, much effort and patience are needed. If you treat them good, they will know it. They do distinguish family members from other strangers. All they need is love and care.

Image: blog.blogthings.com

Venus Lai

Refercence:

Wicks-Nelson, R. & Israel, A.C. (2006). Behavior Disorders of Childhood (6th ed). New Jersey: Pearson International Edition.

Words from Editors - Sep 2012

我是擔任 Psycholic「心中的陽光」專欄之編輯，能夠參與製作 Psycholic 真是一種榮幸，因為這一份工作滿有挑戰，而且從來都覺得得來不易。 經營Psycholic已差不多一年了，回想當初曾有人說過這樣的一份心理學月刊是沒有人看的，我聽後心裡難免有點戚戚然，再加上有編輯中途退出，令我倍覺緊張和憂慮。但很高興還有一班只求付出不問回報的編輯們繼續努力經營，這份曾被人看扁的心理學月刊才可以發光發亮。現在 Psycholic 才開始有點名氣，這已經令我感到成功在即和倍感快樂。這又一証明當人為了目標而努力，那管收穫多與少，最重要是能夠感受參與在努力當中的那份喜悅，因為這是你所做的。

Psycholic 在新學年會推行改革，目的是要令更多人認識它，從而令更加多人認識心理學。未來改革路向，我們希望加入不同元素，例如我會邀請一些同學參與影片拍攝和畫作分享。透過這些元素，希望能將 Psycholic 的內容更加生動呈現在讀者眼前。

 

雖然我知前面路途充滿難關和挑戰，但我亦知道我們這班毅力過人的編輯一定能夠跨得過那些難關的，因為黑夜終會走向光明。

Woody Yip