Month: November 2019

I have always associated OCD with wanting to keep everything clean and in order until I really found out that it is way broader than that. OCD, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, is the persistence of unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and urge to engage in senseless rituals (compulsions) that cause distress. OCD ranges from person to person and the symptoms can be extremely different depending on the person.

My cousin has OCD, as well as one of my very close friend from home. They don’t constantly shower or wash their hands, but they both repeat constant actions throughout their day that others do not. My cousin, Sam, is constantly checking things. She will look if her straightener is on, even though in her mind she KNOWS she turned it off, she checks the lock on her door, she checks her families locations, etc. These all associate with harm or danger that she fears can happen to herself or the people she loves. My friend from home, Gianna, refuses to throw anything she gets away. She thinks that she might need something for future purposes and won’t be able to ever find it or use it if its thrown away. This causes her to keep everything and hoard things in her room.

Being around people who have OCD, I have realized that OCD can create people to develop really bad anxiety. This is because their mind is always somewhere else thinking about the future and what will happen. Anxiety is feelings of excessive or unrealistic fearfulness for future events.

While OCD can be treated with medication, or something called ERP, or Exposure and Response Prevention therapy. This is when you voluntarily expose yourself to the source of your fears over and over again, without acting out any compulsions to stop your fear.

Another useful link to look into OCD is below: https://www.everydayhealth.com/anxiety-disorders/experts-common-obessions-and-compulsions.aspx

 

In class the last couple weeks, we have discussed positive punishment and reinforcement, as well as negative punishment and reinforcement. These are all different ways to encourage a desired behavior (via reinforcement) or to discourage an unwanted behavior (via punishment). Positive reinforcement adds a reward as a means of encouraging said desired behavior (i.e. giving a child a treat for completing a chore), whereas negative reinforcement removes an unwanted stimulus to encourage the wanted behavior (i.e. when your mom quits nagging after you have taken out the garbage). Positive punishment adds an unwanted stimulius as a means of eliminating an undesired or unwated behavior (timeouts, spankings, etc.), and negative punishment takes away a desired stimulus to discourage undesired behavior (i.e. losing privileges, getting your phone taken away, etc.).

I think everyone at some point or another has experienced some form of both punishment and reinforcement. As a kid, I know my parents positively reinforced good grades each marking period with a reward, like a movie or toy I wanted, and took my sisters and I out to celebrate at the end of each school year to dinner, dessert, or a fun activity of our choice as a way to show their appreciation for all our hard work. That being said, I also faced punishment as a kid. When I misbehaved I had to sit in timeout, or I wasn’t allowed to watch TV, or had to go to bed early. As I got older, this turned into having to give my parents my phone or not being allowed to go places with my friends.

I have also been on the other end of punishment and reinforcing. I did a lot of babysitting in high school, and one summer I consistently babysat a family with 3 small children, ranging from ages 2 to 8. The 2 year old was in the process of potty training, and was really struggling. When I started babysitting her, I made it a point to give her a special treat like a popsicle or a little piece of candy whenever she asked me to take her to the bathroom as a way to encourage her to do it more often. I didn’t punish her when she didn’t, but she quickly realized she would get a treat when she asked me to take her to the bathroom and did it on a regular basis.

In class, we learned about mood disorders, and specifically, major depressive disorder. Depression is one of the most common reasons why people seek professional help. It is usually a response to past or current loss. Depression slows people down, defuses aggression and restrains risk taking. PET scans have shown that people with depression have lower brain energy consumption. The social cognitive perspective explains that depression can arise partly from self-defeating beliefs and negative explanatory styles. People who tend to explain with stable, global, or internal styles tend to be more depressed/have a higher chance of depression than those who explain with temporary, specific, or external styles. Temporary, specific, and external explanations mean that the person has successful coping skills, rather than those who use stable, global, or internal. Some signs of depression are: tiredness and lethargy, feeling of worthlessness, loss of interest in family and friends, and a loss of interest in activities. If these signs last more than two weeks, you might have depression, and should seek help/go to therapy.

One of my close family members ended up being diagnosed with depression in October 2017. She was starting her freshman year of college for music education and she was so excited to be starting. The more she was in college, the more overwhelmed she felt and the more, as she explains it, “worthless”, that she couldn’t do it. One of her professors told her that “school comes first and mental health comes second”. So, she pushed herself past her breaking point, lost all interest in music, and she sadly ended up trying to commit suicide, which lead to her being hospitalized for 3 days. She then had to drop out of college because her mental health had to come first. She then went home and started going to therapy. She has been in a much better place since then, and she recently has finished an intensive 3-month therapy program. Since then, she has started talking about going back to college for music education and has become much better after going to therapy.

She says that if she didn’t go to therapy, that she probably would not have gotten better. She started to become herself again, and the whole family saw a difference in her too.

            Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health disorder that causes uncontrollable thoughts, called obsessions, and behaviors, called compulsions, that interfere with daily activities. These compulsions can be repeated numerous times throughout the day in order to soothe the anxiety associated with the obsessions. Common obsessions are the need to be clean, have things in order or specific places, and symmetry. OCD is chronic and there is no cure for the disorder. Many people suffering with OCD also have anxiety or depression because of their obsessions and compulsions. They feel like they cannot escape their disorder because it is so long-lasting and uncontrollable.

I know two people with OCD. One person, my dad, has a milder form of OCD whereas the other, my 6^thgrade teacher, had serious problems controlling his compulsions. My dad is obsessed with keeping himself clean. He had a shower built in his office bathroom so he can shower at work whenever he feels dirty and he washes his face more than 5 times a day. He is not scared of dirt but instead, he just feels the need to be clean more often than the average human. He keeps hand sanitizer in his car, desk, bedside drawer, bathroom, and pockets.

My 6^thgrade teacher let his OCD interfere with his ability to teach in class. Whenever a student would sneeze during his lessons my teacher would make them wash their hands in front of the whole class. He would also clean off the desks and chairs before and after a new group of students came into the classroom. He would get calls from parents complaining that he put their child on the spot in front of all the students. During flu season he would act anxious and uptight about all the germs in his classroom. I remember this being a struggle for him and he would tell us about his diagnosis, but at the time we did not understand what he was really going through. I believe that this disorder interfered with the ability of children to open up and feel close to him. We all saw him as an uptight and weird man but now I realize he had a disorder that is life-changing.

OCD can be a constant struggle for some people. Some of those affected, like my dad, have little obsessions and compulsions that mildly alter their day, and others, like my teacher, have obsessions that change the way they perform at work and interact with others. There is no cure, so those affected with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are constantly in an anxious state which is unfortunate for them, and their relationships.

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/index.shtml

Operant conditioning has been used constantly to have animals of all types perform interesting actions on command. We have seen everything from pigeons spinning in circles to bears playing the trumpet. Teaching these animas to perform actions can be difficult but there is a rather structured process to teaching these animals. There are two main components to teaching these animals and one is shaping which is the process of reinforcing behaviors that are close to the desired action. The other component would be the use of reinforcement to encourage these desired actions. Another thing that helps train these animals is what is called a Skinner box. These boxes isolate animals in an attempt to contain their focus and concentration on certain a task. Skinner boxes were used in one of the examples above with the pigeon.

Now that we have a basic understanding of the ability and process behind operant conditioning I wanted to talk about one of the most impressive cases in my opinion which I learned about in my high school psychology class. Our teacher told us one day that someone named B.F. Skinner (same skinner that made the skinner box) got funding form the United States government. The interesting thing is that the funding was to research whether or not operant conditioning could be used to guide missiles. The process could be simplified to there being a dot (target) in the middle of the screen and the bird would peck to the sides of the dot to keep it in the middle. After they successfully kept the dot in the middle their behavior would be reinforced with food. Slowly but surely these birds were missile guiding machines. Although this was never actually used in real life it is an excellent example on how successful operant conditioning can be.

 

Matt Silver

Psych 100– Blog Post 3

Depression is one of the most common mood disorders that is prevalent in our society. It can affect people from all walks of life, including any type of background and any age. There has always been a negative stigma around depression, making people that have it seem “weak.” The truth is, people that are depressed cannot help this feeling, it is not something that anyone can control due to the fact that it involves a chemical imbalance in the brain. This disorder can have many symptoms including: loss of appetite, trouble sleeping, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, thoughts of suicide, and many more. It truly can cause so much distress on a person that it changes how they act or how they live their life. There is no certain age that depression just pops up, although, it is most prevalent in ages eighteen to twenty-five and from a recent study by “VeryWellMind.com” occurs about 3% more in females than males.

Thankfully, in my life so far I have been happy and have not dealt with the symptoms of depression. Although, it has been a part of my life due to the fact that some of my friends and family members have been through it. The truth is, everybody knows many people with depression whether they know it or not, due to the fact that a lot of people do not like to admit it.  In my personal experience dealing with my friends and family who have it, it is a really tough time and is extremely hard to see them go through it. Medicine can help with the chemical imbalance in the brain, although, it cannot totally fix the issue. Some people, including my friends, have grown out of it, but it can just as easily come back into their lives at any time. We as a society cannot take depression lightly, the people that have it cannot help it, we cannot judge them, we just need to be there for them.

 

Link: https://www.verywellmind.com/depression-statistics-everyone-should-know-4159056

 

Many people are aware of observational learning, but may not be aware of how it exactly works and what needs to happen in order for it to be successful. Obviously, people can learn through observation; however, in order for humans and/or animals to learn through observation, mirror neurons need to be present and active in the brain. Mirror neurons are neurons that fire in the brain when a human performs an action but also when that human observes the same action being done by another human. The neuron’s purpose is to basically mirror the action being done so when it comes time for the human to perform an action on their own, they have this information already stored in the brain and do not need assistance. Within observational learning, there are four elements that are key to its success, these steps include the following: attention (must notice it), memory (must remember it), imitation (must be able to do it), and motivation (must have the desire). When describing these four elements, the word “it” refers to the action being performed.

The real-life experience that I can apply to observational learning is how I learned how to cook and bake. My parents are both big cookers, my mom also loves to bake, and they are extremely well at what they cook/bake. In our kitchen, at home, we have an island that looks onto the kitchen and I often found myself at home doing homework there, talking to my parents, or even watching them cook in the kitchen. I became interested in cooking around when I was about 13-14 years old, especially after watching my parents cook such good food for years (attention), this is where my motivation came in (desire to cook). Overtime I would ask my mom to further explain what it was that she was doing or I would watch videos on youtube and facebook of people cooking, which is for sure when the mirror neurons became most active in order for my memory to come into effect. After I watched both my parents cook numerous dishes and desserts, I became confident enough to try it on my own. Of course, there was trial and error, and not every dish came out perfect the first time, but I was able to do it (imitation) and eventually able to perfect it. The key out of the four elements to me is motivation, you need the motivation to want to learn how to do something, you need it to understand that you will fail at a task sometimes, and you need it to keep on going so you can eventually know exactly how to perform a task on your own. Observational learning can be applied to so many other situations in a person’s life and can be key to how someone learns something.

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder affecting less than one percent of the United States population. Symptoms of Schizophrenic disorder include delusions, hallucinations, trouble concentrating, and lack of motivation. The most well known symptom would be the hearing of other voices. We often see these portrayed in films such as “A Beautiful Mind” or “The Soloist” where the character suffers from hearing multiple voices in the their head. Many people when the hear “schizophrenic” they often conclude that the person just hears voices in their head. This may be true for many cases but there are many other symptoms to the disorder. Symptoms such as confused and disordered thinking and speech are often found in schizophrenic patients. Having trouble with logical thinking and sometimes bizarre behavior or abnormal movements. Some other symptoms include problems with attention, concentration, memory and declining educational performance.

Many cases of schizophrenia often happen when the patient is entering into adulthood. Many people who suffer from schizophrenia tend are usually diagnosed in their early 20’s to 30’s.

One of my neighbors growing up was actually diagnosed with schizophrenia around 20. He suffers from hallucinations and tends to only hear voices where as others may experience visionary hallucinations. Other signs that shows he suffers from this brain disorder is that when he would walk around the neighborhood to work out he would never look up to wave, he often just focused on the ground because for many schizophrenics, they tend to focus on one thing such as rubbing the arm of a chair for hours which was discussed in class.  My neighbor was also never dangerous or aggressive. Many movies sometimes portray the character as a violent person, but in most cases schizophrenics are not at all dangerous and can live pretty normal lives. Going to a therapist also helped with my neighbors schizophrenia because the therapist could help with developing his social skills and to improve his condition by learning to live with it.