Monthly Archives: February 2014

Concussions: A Lasting Impact

Neuropsychology is a fairly new field of psychology, studying the structure and function of the brain and applying this knowledge to a person’s actions and behaviors.  Most of the research of neuropsychology can only be done on patients who have a damaged part of the brain, associating the outlier behaviors of the person with the damage done to the brain. Phineas Gage, as we learned in class, is a prime example of this as he was the subject of many studies after having a train spike pierce through his skull, drastically changing his personality.

Through this new field, intimidating news is being discovered regarding National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL) players whose careers were plagued with hard hits and frequent concussions. A concussion, defined as a traumatic brain injury resulting from a violent blow or shaking of the head, is far from uncommon in these sports. Repeated concussions can lead to Post-Concussion Syndrome, where symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, etc. can last up for weeks, months or even years. In severe cases, it can even lead to death or a shortened life span.

It came to the surprise of many when football hall of famer Mike Webster, a hard hitting center of the Pittsburgh Steelers, died at the age of 50.  After his playing career ended, Webster’s life was plagued with health issues. Fighting through multiple concussions throughout his NFL career led to damage to the frontal lobe of his brain leading to cognitive dysfunction, a shortened attention span, and a difficulty in concentrating.

NHL player Keith Primeau had his career shortened early from repeated concussions in 2005, and today he still suffers from the lingering effects resulting from the trauma his brain received over his playing years. Headaches, blurry vision, and trouble focusing continue to affect his life after hockey. Primeau’s symptoms have led him to donate his brain to be studied by neuroscientists and neuropsychologists. Many others, such as Chris Pronger and Ian Laperierre, have had the careers end because of concussions and continue to face the symptoms of Post-Concussion Syndrome, and these studies can help the lives of future players.

The brain is very complex, and new neuropsychology studies of former players are showing how severely new/current players are at risk. Symptoms varying from complete changes in personality, vision difficulty, light headedness, hearing issues and more are leading to new measures in sports to drastically decrease dangerous blows to the head. Stricter rules than ever are being imposed to stop the rampant amount of concussions in the leagues. Yet, It does not help that in football and hockey, and other contact driven sports, there is a mentality to fight through the pain and sacrifice the body for the game and team.

Through my high school career playing hockey, I have had times after games that for weeks I have felt dazed and unfocused. The dangerous part is sometimes I would not even realize it, and attribute the feelings to tiredness or other factors. It definitely affected me through high school, and because of this I believe the most important thing in preventing damage from concussions is making players aware. The mentality of fighting through the pain can be very dangerous, and young players must be made aware of the symptoms of concussions and the possible effects of ignoring them. This to me would be the most effective way of reducing the impact of post-concussion syndrome on player’s lives.

My Cognitive Development, Not Yours

Cognitive development is defined as the act or process of a child developing in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development and cognitive psychology compared to an adult’s point of view.

I have had a lot of different doctors. For a lot of different reasons, too. One doctor when I was really young told my mom that I had trouble paying attention. Another doctor when I was younger would sit me down and play games with me, to see how I followed the rules and what strategies I used. I had this one doctor that would give me these cards with pictures on it that would show what to remember to do when in the classroom. This included remembering to write down assignments, checking my backpack for all necessary materials, that kind of small stuff. There were others, but not for longer than two or three weeks. Growing up I had problems with organization, following directions, and just paying attention overall. I was always losing things I needed and forgetting homework assignments. I was prescribed different kinds of medicine. I can’t remember the first medication I was ever prescribed, but I can say that they never really made me feel any different. A few psychiatrists who I do remember would have me take hour to two hour-long tests so they could study my cognitive development. They thought that if they could find out how my brain worked than they could make sure that I didn’t screw up later in life. But to be honest, I did not feel comfortable with a bunch of adults telling me, a little kid, what to do so that I wouldn’t fail. These doctors should have understood that just like any other child, I need to let my cognitive skills develop on their own, and not with any extra help. As I got older I stopped letting these people make these decisions for me. I wanted to challenge myself; I wanted to not be limited by whatever kind of disability Dr. Whatever his name was told my parents I had. Since I made that decision I could not be better off. I guess I wasn’t the one who had a problem paying attention.

Functionalism in Travel

Functionalism is essentially the psychological theory that states that our minds and behaviors acclimate accordingly to our environment. It studies how the mind reacts to changes in its environment over time. This theory has been used to describe Darwinism, as both philosophies explain significant physiological/biological changes via responses to an ever-changing environment.

In my personal experience, Functionalism can easily be observed when traveling within the United States. It is common knowledge that each region of the country has its own unique dialects, social norms, and culture in general; much so to the point that outsiders can usually be identified relatively effortlessly.

For someone as myself, who has always lived in Pennsylvania yet travels across the country regularly, adapting to these different cultures is key. For instance, in the Northeast, aggressive driving is commonplace; speeding, tailgating, and their resulting traffic jams are the norm. However, as I have noticed when traveling in the South, this type of driving simply does not happen. Patience is not a virtue in the South, it is law. As a Pennsylvanian who spends much of his time in the South, behavioral adaptation greatly comes into play when trying to fit in socially. I have observed that, when at my house in Georgia, my family becomes completely different, behaviorally speaking. When in Pennsylvania, my family is typically high strung, fast moving, and all-around impatient. However, when in Georgia, this behavior is considered all but unacceptable; if we want to fit in with the locals, we have to adapt and conform to the conventional standards of social behavior there. As we come to spend more time there, I find myself adopting more and more of that region’s common habits and behaviors. This is just one example of Functionalism, which can be seen in action anywhere a social setting change is observed.

Psychoanalysis and trauma

Psychoanalysis is a theory that assumes that the past shapes the present and stresses the importance of unconscious factors that can influences our conscious thoughts and actions. In other words psychoanalysis analyzes how unconscious factors influence conscious thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Sigmund Freud was the first psychoanalyst. With the discovery of the unconscious, he developed the idea that the ‘unconscious conflict’ is significant in subsequent normal and abnormal behavior. He then pursued a theory of psychoanalytic treatment that would help patients recall suppressed traumatic memories and form ‘associative connection’ with conscious thoughts. Psychoanalytic treatment or therapy tackles conscious thought by tracing these thoughts to their origin.

My mom is a therapist and a psychoanalytic fellow at Penn. She brought up in a conversation an article she read about a woman who went through psychoanalytic therapy. The woman began therapy for depression; she also struggled with aspects of her social, economic, and intimate life. She did not know why. Slowly, the woman began to talk about how she would feel distraught visiting her parents, and feel extreme discomfort regarding a tree that stands in the yard behind her parents house. When asked about adult relationships as a child and the potential of sexual abuse, the woman said no confidently. The psychoanalyst began to realize the woman may have dissociative symptoms related to a trauma she may have experience as a child. After working through unconscious mental processes with her psychoanalyst, the woman began to have vivid flashbacks of being tied to the tree for hours by a family member and abused. In an article on Psychoanalysis, the experiments conducted by Jung and Riklin are discussed. They found that the process of association is a process that is beyond a subjects control and attention plays the greatest part in the process of association. The above example exemplifies the minds power to dissociate traumatic events and bury them into our unconscious memory because they are too painful. While rehashing these events were painful, the woman was able to work through the behaviors and emotions related to her trauma that she was playing out in other aspects of her life such as social and professional relationships.

Sources –

Arden, Abraham. Psychoanalysis: its theories and practical application. New York: n.p., 1972. 116. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. <http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822013766522;view=1up;seq=2>.

Pfister, Oscar, and Eduard Hitschmann. Definition and history of psychoanalysis and Freud’s theories of the neuroses. New York: n.p., 1916. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. <link –> http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t91841x87 >.

 

Nature vs. nurture

In this psychology course, there are many topics that we have learned about that are applied to our everyday lives. One concept that we learned in class that I have experienced is nature vs. nurture (or nativism vs. empiricism). Nature vs. nurture is the debate of which has a bigger impact on you; the characteristics that we are born with (nature) or what is gained through personal experience (nurture). In my opinion, I personally believe that nurture has a greater impact on an individual that nature.

There are many reasons why I believe this is true. For example, people change. When something happens to a person they way they view life changes. Whether it is a small event or big event your perspective alters. I think this helps develop who you are and can change you. I have seen this occur in my life all the time. I one hundred percent believe that my parents have made me become who I am today. They have always been there for me and have encouraged me to succeed and do well in school. They have always pushed me and taught me everything that I needed to do to accomplish my goals. When I was younger, my parents always made my siblings and I do chores around the house. We always were forced to do the dishes after dinner, do our own laundry whenever we needed clean clothes, take the trash out every monday night, etc. They really taught us to be independent. At the time I hated it, but now that I am in college and have to do all those things on my own, I realized that they only did it because they wanted me to do well in college. When I first came up here, I heard people say they had no idea how to do laundry because there mom would always do it for them. I can honestly say my parents prepared me well for college and that is because of the nurturing part, not nature.

When I turned 16, which is the age of eligibility for a job, my parents made me get a job. I didn’t want one because I knew it would take up time and I would end up having to miss out on events with my family and friends. My parents forced me to get one anyways so I would make money and save it for college. Being up here now I am so glad that I ended up getting a job because I spend a lot of money.

I know that my parents taught me well and shaped me to be who I am. Yes, there are traits that are past down from generation to generation, but I believe that my family, friends and personal experience is why I am who I am today.

The Power of Behaviorism

The theory of behaviorism a theory I have seen take place a lot in my life and has more power then I realized. The idea behind the theory is that behaviors can be triggered by a stimulus and that the behavior that takes place can be controlled based on receiving a reward or a punishment, in other words a stimulus-response relationship.

In the course textbook they talk about how John B Waston  , the psychologist who came up with the theory of behaviorism , proved his theory by taking a baby and teaching him to be afraid of  rats. To do this Waston took a baby who wasn’t originally scared of the rats and made loud scary noises every time the baby saw a rat. The noises would cause the baby to cry and be scared and because the noises only came when the baby saw the rat, the baby eventually developed a fear of rats.  The baby’s behavior was controlled though a stimulus-response experiment and worked.

In my life I experienced the theory of behaviorism as a child with my mother trying to get me to make my bed. As a child and still to this day I don’t like making my bed in the morning, for me it always seemed pointless because no one other than me would have to see it.  Unfortunately for me, my mother didn’t agree with that making the bed in the morning was pointless and one day decided that that if I didn’t start making my bed in the morning that I wouldn’t be allowed to what my favorite television show , Gilmore Girls, after school.  Over time I learned that she was serious and because I loved that show my behavior began to change and I started making my bed every morning. To this day I still make my bed every morning, not because I have to, but because my behavior has been conditioned into doing so.

From my experience Waston was right, behavior can and is taught many of the time. After learning about it I see it everywhere, from parents teaching their children they have to eat dinner before dessert, to teachers teaching their students to raise their hands before they speak.  Not only is it taught but the behaviors seem to carry on later throughout people’s lives (like with me still making my bed in the morning). Behaviorism is probably the source behind many people’s everyday habits.

Behavioral Perspective

Last spring my family got a new labradoodle puppy a few weeks before I moved home from Penn State for the summer. I could not wait to get home and meet the little guy. By the time I got home, Riley, our new puppy, could already do simple things like answer to his name and sit. Now it feels like every time I come home from school, Riley knows more “tricks” and I have more new commands to learn. The behavioral perspective of psychology is much like training a new puppy.

Like we discussed in class, behavioral psychology is all about condition, reinforcement, and punishment; all things necessary for training a new puppy. When trying to train a puppy to do certain things you use reinforcement repeatedly. When the puppy goes to the bathroom outside, he gets a treat. When the puppy sits when you ask him to: treat. When the puppy lays down when instructed to: treat. When the puppy rolls over: treat. And so on and so forth.

It is the same repetition with punishment for negative actions. When the puppy mistakes the carpet for the bathroom, you reprimand him. When the puppy jumps up on someone; reprimanded. When the puppy barks: reprimanded. When the puppy bites: reprimanded. And so on and so forth.

Eventually the puppy associates things like going to the bathroom outside and listening to commands with rewards like treats and they will soon become a habit for him. He will also associate things like going to the bathroom in the house, jumping, biting, and more with being reprimanded. He will much rather the rewards and the love, than being in trouble. So he will make habit of the good and break the habit of the bad all through conditioning, reinforcement and punishment.

Electroencephalograms

I recently had the privilege to experience how an EEG (Electroenchephalogram) functions as well as an in depth look at the brainwaves that are present upon taking a EEG reading. I am currently enrolled in a Physiology lab, so being able to learn about the EEG in Psych 100 and then getting hands on experience with how the EEG worked greatly expanded my knowledge on the subject. From class we learned that the EEG works by measuring amplified brain waves through small electrodes placed on the scalp, but the actual complexity behind reading these brain waves is a little harder (at least for me) to understand.

The EEG reads the electrical currents that are constantly being sent through the nerves in your brain and even the rest of your body (as I will explain). The graph produced by the EEG is comprised of four different types of brain waves, Alpha, Beta, Theta, and Delta, but my experience deals only with Alpha and Beta brain waves. The first type is Alpha, and this brain wave indicates calm or unfocused behavior. If the subject shows a low amplitude (height of the wavelength) in their alpha wave reading, it means the subject is either stressed or focused/actively thinking. We would expect to see a high amplitude in the alpha waves of a subject who is calm and relaxed. To see this, I was required to keep my eyes open for a 30 second period and then closed for a 30 second period. Sure enough, when my eyes were closed my alpha brain waves were far more active, indicating that I was more calm with my eyes closed than with them open. In the second part of our lab, we were able to witness the change in Beta brain waves during the EEG reading. Beta waves, unlike Alpha waves, signal when the subject is actively thinking or focused on something. For this part of the lab, I performed basic arithmetic versus not thinking to demonstrate the change in Beta waves. Once again, I saw what I expected, which was that high amplitude (high activity) Beta waves were present when I was trying to solve math problems and low amplitude Beta waves were present while I was not solving math problems. From this, and what is true of Alpha waves, you have probably figured out that the height Alpha waves on an EEG reading are inversely proportional to the height of Beta waves. While this isn’t really a groundbreaking realization, I thought it was interesting to see the physical representation of what my brain is doing while performing certain actions.

The brain is a fascinating organ; we know less about how the brain works than we know about the known universe. However, the more we learn about trends in thinking through psychological research and the more we discover empirical evidence to support the process of these trends in thinking, the easier it will be to understand the most complex organ in our body.

-Derek Halko

Illusory Correlation

Illusory Correlation is when a person sees a relationship between two unrelated things. Almost like cause and effect. Because you break a mirror, you will get seven years of bad luck. You sweep someone’s feet, they will never get married. You stop wearing a certain jersey, then your team loses the Stanley Cup. There are so many out there that these stereotypes are categorizes as “superstitions”. Though mostly these superstitions are really just unrelated things that honestly have no meaning and no effect on each other, there are people who take them for gospel.

Though I know in my mind that superstitions are not accurate and they don’t really have a meaning, I’d be lying if I said that I don’t have a few myself. If I spill salt I always throw a little over my left shoulder to ward off bad luck. I avoid walking under ladders at all costs, even if i have to cross the street to avoid it. There are so many that people just accept as normal that you almost feel like it is okay and accepted to have all these superstitions. For example, all of my uncles have this thing where one year for every game leading up to the Stanley Cup they would wear their “lucky” jerseys and watch it together. And if one person couldn’t make it, or if someone didn’t wear their jersey then the Philadelphia Flyers would lose. But the scary thing was that it was so accurate that the rest of the family actually started believing in their superstition to the point where every time the Flyers lost we would call and yell at them for doing something wrong. The fact that everyone else in the family started believing in their delusion shows the impact the superstitions or “illusory correlations” have in our daily lives. That’s why it was so easy to relate to that subject because being a bitch Irish/Italian family we have a lot of superstitions, that everyone fiercely believes are true.

As much as I like to believe that keeping a cold spoon under my pillow will make it snow, or that wearing a jersey will help lead the Flyers to the Stanley Cup, you know logically that is not true and there is nothing that you can do to make something happen by doing these things. But if it works, then I say stick to it because who wouldn’t want to see their team succeed or for school to be cancelled for a day? In the end, it doesn’t hurt anyone by doing these things that we convince ourselves that we need to do to avoid bad luck or whatever your superstition is. I think that it helps that we all have our own little illusory correlations so it’s an accepted form of combined insanity.

Sociocultural Perspective

In psychology, sociocultural perspective studies groups, social roles, and rules of social actions and relationships. Its the idea of how much does a large group, culture norm, or values and expectations effect an individual. It studies a person’s behavior and whether it changes when in an individual environment or in a large group. Living in a particular culture, being alone, being with certain friends, or different social norms and environment can influence one’s behavior.

As a freshman at Penn State, being around all these people you didn’t know and weren’t familiar with was intimidating yet exciting. It was like a fresh start, but for some people it easily was a way to change one’s personality to fit in with certain crowds. One of the girls on my floor I became friends with casually by just seeing each other on the floor. We would go to lunch together and even go out on the weekends together. My friend who I  had just met not a couple of weeks ago seemed very nice and a great person. One day we met other people and decided to have lunch with them. Throughout the lunch I noticed my friend’s personality completely change. She was agreeing with these girls on liking things from which I know she has told me she never liked. For example, football which is why she didn’t get season  tickets, but she told these girls she loves football and is going to go to every single day. My friend seemed really sweet when around me but her voice got really caddy around these girls and jumping in with them on making rude comments towards everything and anything. My friend said she hated sororities and never planned on rushing or anything, but when around these girls she acted as though she wanted to become the president of one, shouting out greek letters left and right. At first I realized my friend just wan’t the girl i thought she was, but then after we left lunch and we were walking back to our room she became this sweet person who hates sororities and football again. It was like nothing had even happened.

I realized my friend changed her personality to fit in and especially being a freshman it is hard not too because you want everyone to like you. So by doing so you agree to what other people say and change your behavior to stay with the crow and culture norm. By saying she loved football and wanted to be in the sorority she was just simply changed by the culture, because at Penn State thousands of girls want and dream of joining a sorority and football is a huge major deal. Instead of remaining with her values and beliefs she stuck with being in with the culture norm and crowd. A group and culture can certainly change your behavior.