AU Blogspot

Special thanks to Jannes_Pockele for permission to use this photo.

A paper presented in the November 2007 issue of Behavior Research and Therapy follows up on previous research that has indicated that compulsive buyers often suffer from compulsive hoarding as well. The researchers examined 66 treatment-seeking compulsive buyers prior to their entry into a group therapy program for compulsive buying. The study participants were tested using selected measures of compulsive buying and related clinical scales and were included in the study based on the proposed diagnostic criteria for compulsive buying by McElroy, Keck, Pope, Smith, and Strakowski [(1994). Compulsive buying: A report of 20 cases. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 55, 242-248]. The study results supported previous evidence concerning the link between compulsive buying and compulsive hoarding. Specific factors linked to hoarding included clutter, difficulty discarding and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Hoarding compulsive buyers also reported more severe buying symptoms and obsessive-compulsive symptoms and presented with a higher psychiatric co-morbidity, especially in terms of depression, anxiety and eating disorders. Suggestions for identification and treatment for compulsive buyers who also report compulsive hoarding are given.

Click here for the abstract

Romeo Vitelli
Creator of Providentia
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*A man who has lived a fascinating life, Dr. Romeo Vitelli spent fifteen years as a staff psychologist in Millbrook Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison run by the Ontario government. In 2003, he successfully escaped prison and went into full-time private practice and currently also serves as a Disaster Management volunteer with the Red Cross. He is one of the web’s most respected and trusted sources in matters of psychology. We here in the Ashworth University community are honored to share with Dr. Vitelli’s gifts with our students and would like to express our gratitude to him. Visit Providentia to learn more about the life and work of Dr. Romeo Vitelli.

              Thanks to Todd Ehlers for permission to use this Photo.

It is likely that many diverse factors have contributed to the current obesity epidemic. Fast food, less activity, trans fats, viruses, big portions, and so on have all been blamed for our increasing waistlines. The more we understand the phenomenon, the better equipped we are to deal with it.

Adina Lemeshow and her colleagues have added a new consideration–social status [1]. Teen girls were asked to rate themselves on a ten point social standing scale, with 10 representing people with the most respect and highest standing and a 1 representing people “no one wants to hang around with.” Girls who rated themselves less than 5 were 69 percent more likely to experience a two unit or more increase in BMI over the following two years, even after other factors such as socioeconomic status, TV viewing habits, mother’s BMI, and depression were controlled. (more…)

 
                 Thanks to Erwan for permission to use this Photo.

After William Enman escaped from the New Jersey psychiatric hospital where he had been serving his sentence, he sent a letter to the governor and hospital CEO protesting that he had earned the right to sign himself out. The 64-year old patient has been serving a sentence for a brutal double-murder hat he had committed in 1974. Although diagnosed as schizophrenic, he has consistently denied the diagnosis and refused to comply with psychiatric treatment. Enman’s September 9, 2007 escape from Ancora Psychiatric Hospital sparked a nation-wide manhunt although he was recaptured without incident 48 hours later. After his rearrest, he stated that he had escaped the hospital to “clear my mind” and that he needed to “get away” from his drug problem. In his letter, he stated that he had “maxed out” the time that he had spent in hospital and was entitled to leave.

In the decades since he was first imprisoned for the brutal bludgeoning deaths of a man and his young son, Enman has committed numerous infractions including having contraband weapons being found in his cell and placing his hands around the throat of his then-wife in 2003. (more…)

               Thanks to Angel Schatz for permission to use this Photo.

Answer the following questions, and don’t look at the next until you answer the previous: 

Does depression in kids raise their risk of violence? 

If a kid is violent, is it more or less likely they are depressed? 

If someone is depressed and violent, is it likely they are a kid? 

Can you define any of the nouns in the preceding questions? 

In a study called Perceived Dangerousness of Children With Mental Health Problems and Support for Coerced Treatment the perceptions of 1100 members of the public were evaluated, finding: 

“Children… with major depression were perceived (by 81% of the sample) as somewhat likely or very likely to be dangerous to themselves or others, compared with children with asthma (15%) or those with “daily troubles” (13%).”
and, later: 

“…compared with the child with “daily troubles,” the vignette child with depression was more than twice as likely to be assessed as dangerous toward others and ten times as likely to be assessed as dangerous toward himself or herself.”

Now, you lose no money assuming the public at large merely guess at probabilities.  So what they think may be right, wrong, both– who knows.  But whatever they think, it’s probably important to quote them correctly:

“The issue that was highlighted by this study that was really concerning to us was that Americans have linked depression in youth and violence, particularly violence towards others,” said Dr. Pescosolido [”distinguished professor of sociology, Indiana University.”] [emphasis mine, but, face it, really theirs.]

Well, no, that’s not what the public thinks, at least according to your study.  They think that depression leads to violence against themselves, and maybe towards others.  Only 9% thought violence towards others was very likely.  The majority thought violence towards others was not likely.  Right? (more…)

              Thanks to Jon Nicholls for permission to use this Photo.

After receiving approval from the Catholic Church, a new centre is scheduled to be opened in the Polish town of Poczernin near the German border to provide exorcisms for those believing themselves to be possessed. Andrzej Trojanowski, an academic chaplain who has been working in the nearby town of Szczeczin for the past five years, will be directing the centre. Father Trojanowski is reported to have dealt with twenty cases a week in his former position. While there are currently fifty exorcists operating in Poland, the centre will be the first of its kind in that country. The new centre is also expected to draw potential clients from Germany due to the lack of exorcists in that country. Reports indicate that the centre will be built as a retreat house with a chapel, guest rooms and clinical facilities for the psychiatrist who has been working with Father Trojanowski.

After a long decline throughout most of the twentieth century, demand for exorcisms began to make a comeback in the 1960s (partially spurred by movies such as The Exorcist). (more…)

 
               Thanks to Chris Gladis for permission to use this Photo.

Psychology studies that rely on deceiving participants have shown we often have little clue what’s going on in our own minds. But what about in everyday situations where trickery isn’t involved?

Here are four everyday situations - shopping, reading, watching TV and judging other people - and four experiments that show how little we know in each situation about what’s really going on in our minds (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).

Shopping

For this study researchers set themselves up in a mall pretending to carry out a consumer survey on nightgowns and nylon stockings. Passersby were asked to evaluate what they were told were four different nightgowns and four different pairs of stockings. In fact, all four items were identical.

Quite by accident they discovered a positional effect for the identical goods: people seemed to prefer the item that was on the far right. In fact this effect was really obvious for the stockings. The right-most pair, although identical to the left-most was preferred by a factor of four to one.

When asked why they had chosen a particular item, no one mentioned its position. Even when experimenters suggested to people that the position might have an effect, most participants looked at best very confused and at worst utterly dismissive.

Result: these people didn’t have a clue why they preferred one identical pair of stockings over another.

Reading

In this study participants read a passage from the novel ‘Rabbit, Run’ by John Updike. The extract from the book involves an emotionally charged scene in which an alcoholic mother, while washing her baby in the bath, accidentally drowns and kills her.

Click here to read the rest of this entry… 

Two of my most popular posts have been 12 Ways to Care for a Depressed Person and Things to Say to Someone with Depression. Why have they been popular? Judging from comments I’ve received, they struck a chord for the practical help in dealing with a depressed person. A view from the other side, so to speak.

Special thanks to tanakawho for permission to use this photo.

I’ve just read a very helpful article at Psych Central that is in the same vein. Helping Someone with a Mental Health Concern is written by psychiatrist John M. Grohol. Of particular interest to me are his insights on effective listening and empathizing with a mentally ill person. It is invaluable advice for someone in a caring role.

To read the article click here.

James Bishop
Creator of Finding Optimism 
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Mr. James Bishop shares his personal experiences and insights dealing with mental health issues in his inspiring Finding Optimism Blog.  We are grateful to have James, joining us all the way from Australia, as a contributing blogger to our Ashworth student community.  Thanks James!

 
              Thanks to Jordan Garn for permission to use this Photo.

I have never liked the term “learning disability,” preferring instead to use the term “learning difference.” Is this just more PC-speak? It seems to me that the identification of somebody as “learning disabled” is rather arbitrary. We don’t refer to people as “athletically disabled” or “musically disabled,” and send them to remedial classes. A literate culture cares a lot about verbal and mathematical skills, but in other realities, these talents might not count for much. Should we ever be so stupid as to bomb ourselves, my guess is that the Hell’s Angel is more likely to survive the new world order than the accountant.

We know that many serious conditions have compensatory aspects that keep them in the population, such as the protection from malaria that is the flip side of sickle cell anemia, or the creativity that seems to correlate with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Obviously, not all conditions have such benefits, but it is interesting to consider the ones that do.

Having spent a lot of time with my two favorite people with dyslexia, Mr. F and Karen, I was always dazzled by what they did well. Yes, writing was a struggle, especially for Karen, whose love of public relations plopped her in some exceedingly challenging reporting classes in the journalism departments of her universities. No spell check on lab work? Catastrophe! But these struggles were always offset by some amazing creativity. Karen just had her first-year research project accepted for presentation at the prestigious International Public Relations Conference …do I sound like a proud Mom or what? (more…)

A classic 1931 experiment shows how the mechanics of our own problem-solving are often a puzzle to us.

The process of human creativity is both fascinating and, at the same time, mystifying. Understanding the mental processes of great thinkers offers an enormous reward to any who can replicate them: immortality. Perhaps if we really understood what was going through their minds, we too could create an object or idea that would live long after our deaths.

This idea motivated Brewster Ghiselin to collate the problem-solving processes of great thinkers and artists from Poincare to Picasso (Ghiselin, 1952). Unfortunately, as I mentioned in ‘The Hidden Workings of Our Minds‘, these great thinkers usually report being mere onlookers to their own mental processes. They seem unable to identify what prompted their discoveries and even, when they’re actually happening.

The problem is that these reports were usually made many years after the original thought processes. Picasso may simply have forgotten what prompted him to create the first ever cubist painting ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ (detail above). Perhaps if we’d asked him exactly what was going through his mind right after he painted it, the answer would have been more accurate.

A classic psychology study from 1931 suggests, though, that he still wouldn’t have been able to tell us what was going on in his mind. This experiment neatly demonstrates how we often don’t have a clue how we solve a problem.

Click here to read the rest of this entry… 

              Thanks to Jon Walton for permission to use this Photo.

Visitors to the countries of Western Africa (including Morocco, Algeria, and
Senegal) can take in the exotic sights, sounds and smells associated with that part of the world but, for a real understanding of the religious life of the people, you need to learn about the marabouts. Meaning “saints” in the Berber language spoken in Morocco and Algeria, the marabouts act as spiritual leaders of the particular brand of Islam practiced throughout the West African nations. While the marabout tradition appears to predate Islam (and Islamic leaders often denounce the veneration attached to them), marabout worship can take many forms.

The term marabout extends to the living spiritual leaders, known for their virtuous living and ability to act as agents between humans and divine forces, but also to the tombs where they are buried. Long after a marabout’s death, the tomb can be a site for pilgrimages with each saint being judged by the miracles attached to his name and stories surrounding his life. Of all the marabouts who continue to attract pilgrims long after their death, there are few who are more revered than Bouya Omar. (more…)