Author Archives: Rory Richard Rieger

Why do we make bad decisions?

How do people make decisions? Especially the difficult ones? Why do we make bad decisions from time to time? These are loaded questions but there has to be some reasoning for them right? It can be especially astonishing when you look back on your own decisions or the decisions of another and think, how could I or (they) have thought that it would have been a good idea? This reasoning seems to be justification. We justify decisions prior to and after to make ourselves “ok” with following through or reflecting on why we have made a particular decision. I am going to take a closer look at how justification works.

Many decisions in life cause a feeling of dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is defined as conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (McLeod, 2014). In the cognitive dissonance theory we have a drive to keep our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in harmony and avoid dissonance (Festinger, 1957). Imagine you are accepted to the college that you have dreamed to get into for years…but there is a catch. It means you have to move over a thousand miles away from the girl or guy you have been together and in love with for a couple years now. This will probably cause ALOT of dissonance. In weighing these decisions there is good and bad outcomes of each but the real issue is that you cannot have the good outcomes of both situations. There are many situations like this that you have to choose or decide. Another example would be a person to stop drinking alcohol because they were recently arrested for a D.U.I. The good outcome of quitting would not be getting into any more trouble because of alcohol but wouldn’t get the good outcomes of continuing to drink such as feeling relaxed and feeling a part of with friends. The issue is you cannot have both good outcomes of choices. This is where the idea of justification comes into play in making decisions.

One other idea to consider before getting to justification is the role that emotions play in decision making. A lot of emotions come into play in decisions expected, immediate, and incidental emotions can all become involved (Goldstein, 2011). (Goldstein, 2011) also notes that people tend to overestimate what their negative feelings about a decision will be. This is linked to that people do not take into consideration the different coping mechanisms they use to deal with adversity (Goldstein, 2011). This is where people begin to use justification. Justification is defined as an acceptable reason that a person finds to do something (Webster, 2008). (McLeod, 2008) reports that to do this we either change our attitudes or beliefs, acquire new information, or reduce the importance of certain beliefs or attitudes. Going back to the two prior examples maybe a person would say “if my boy/girlfriend really loved me they would move across the country to be with me” or in the drinking example one might say “I wasn’t that drunk and the cop made up a reason to pull me over”.

Both of those examples are using justifications the first is changing attitudes because even though you know the girl or guy loves you it a big decisions to let some of your goals to the side to stay in a relationship. The drinking one is reducing the importance because it is deflecting responsibility onto the cop not looking at the idea that it is dangerous to operate a vehicle under the influence. These coping mechanisms such as justification seem to be built into us.  How do we avoid justification?

The first step is to become aware you are doing so (this often requires help from an outside source) then identify why you are trying to justify a given belief, attitude or behavior.  Is it self preservation, pleasure, or pride etc. that is keeping you to continue using it? I think a major key is getting feedback or thoughts on big decisions we are going to need to make and becoming educated. A pro’s and con’s list can sometimes help in the decision making process. There is many things that can help reduce justification but awareness is key. Although they help I do not think justification in decision making is going anywhere soon.

McLeod, S. (2008). Cognitive Dissonance Theory | Simply Psychology. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
Goldstein, E. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed.). Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

 

 

 

How memory plays a BIG part in addiction

There has been a long debate over whether addiction to drugs and alcohol or certain behaviors is truly a disease or some sort of moral deficiency. I would like to talk briefly about new information that finds two neurotransmitters play a key role in why addiction is a disease of the brain. The big surprise until recently is the fact that one of these neurotransmitters is linked to memory. In the 2009 video “Pleasure Unwoven Dr. Kevin McCauley describes how addiction fits the disease model by affecting the brain (organ), having a (defect) in the reward system in the brain, and finally resulting in (symptoms) such as lying, cheating, and manipulating to just name a few. Just looking at the pleasure defect is an incomplete picture I would like to discuss the role of memory in addiction.

The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a key role in addiction because it is the pleasure chemical in the brain (McCauley, 2009). It is released in the midbrain and subconscious area of the brain. When people use drugs or alcohol high levels of dopamine are released which the brain was never meant to handle (Lange, 2010). This explains why people want to use drugs but does not give a good explanation of why addicts continue to use drugs despite the consequences associated with them. This is where memory comes into play. The other neurotransmitter involved in addiction is glutamate. It is associated to identifying the brain to remember something. Because of the high levels of dopamine released with drugs it triggers dopamine to “lock” the memory into the brain (McCauley, 2009). As time goes on though it does not begin to just associate the drug with pleasure it begins associating everything associated with drugs (which becomes about everything in an addicts life) with pleasure. The memories associated with drug use become “super memories” (Lange, 2010). I believe these memories are implicit and fall into the category of Classical Conditioning (Goldstein, 2011). Like the psychologist Pavlov and his dogs where a bell ringing became associated with getting a treat and triggers the dogs to salivate. Triggers for the addict become people, places, and things. For the addict exposed to these memories brings about strong emotional responses which are called cravings (Lange, 2010). Without proper coping skills they are very difficult to resist. This disrupts the normal “stop” and “go” response of the brain. This is why drastically impacts the ability to bring into the rational thinking the consequences of use. Based on memories associated with pleasure, glutamate tells the person to “go” or to use despite drastic negative consequences to their lives.

In my everyday experience with working with people with addiction problems this explanation makes sense to me. When I see clients ruin many aspects of their lives by using drugs (and being aware of why)  then use drugs again when the opportunity arises even though I believe they truly do not want to needs a good explanation.  Many peoples belief that they “chose” to do it just does not cut it for me. Rationally think about why a person would choose to ruin their lives in such ways.  The reality is that addicts begin using drugs without the intention of becoming addicted. It starts with experimentation and when they experience the high amount of pleasure drugs produce they do it more. There is no way to tell when it will switch from recreational use or experimentation into addiction.

The next time you hear a conversation about addiction I would like anyone to think back to this explanation of addiction as a chronic, biological brain disease. Maybe even do a little more research into my sources. I think there needs to be a spreading of the knowledge about addiction because so many people are very ignorant about what it really is. The fact of the matter is that addiction effects everyone in one way or another and is considerably affecting our country as a whole. Lock this information into your long term memory and educate others on a “disease” that affects so many.

Goldstein, E.B. (2011).  Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, Third Ed. Belmont, CA. Wasdworth, Cengage Learning.

McCauley, Kevin, 2009, “Pleasure Unwoven” DVD, Institute for Addiction Study

 

Lange, G. (2010). How addiction lights up our brains. Retrieved July 12, 2015.

 

A Second Look

Recently I had needed a weekend away from work and the same routine and decided to go to Cook Forest State Park for the weekend which is a couple hours away from my home. On Sunday morning we decided to have breakfast at a small diner a couple miles from our cabin. When we walked into the diner I noticed a guy sitting at a table who seemed familiar but briefly passed over the recollection. How I was seated, faced the direction of his table and I couldn’t help to be drawn to a second look to see why I felt I have seen him before. I still could not figure this out and let it go but he ended up leaving before we even had got our food. After eating I went outside to get some fresh air and the same gentleman was sitting on the railing right outside the diner. We started small conversation and I could not help it any longer so I told him I feel like I know him from somewhere. About five minutes later putting together many pieces we realized we went to the same elementary school and realized we were in the same third grade class before he moved away to near where we are currently. It absolutely amazed me how I found his face so familiar almost 20 years later. How is this possible or was it all luck?

According to our text it has to do with specificity coding which means the representation of  specific face fires specific neurons that respond just to that particular face. (Goldstein, 2011)Which makes complete sense but how many faces have I seen over the last 20 years? Thousands? I know there is no way I would have specific neurons that fired for all the faces I remember so it is also discussed in our text that there are specific groups on neurons that fire which is called distributed coding, not just one specific neuron for one specific stimuli. (Goldstein, 2011) Also I do not remember all the thousands of faces that I have seen so why this guy from third grade? Cognitive Psychology and perception explains that also with memory which would be considered the top down processing that is built from memory and experience. This must be because we were friends in the classroom until he had moved away, therefore their was a connection there. But there has to be more to it.

Looking a little more into this I realized there is more too it. We seem to only be able to process a pretty small number of things that actually retain in our long term memory. Based on a study done by researchers at Vanderbilt College found we are able to retain more faces in short term memory than other objects because of the way they are encoded. (“Recognizing and Remembering Faces”) A researcher at Yale University explained it by comparing a packing a suit case because how much you get in the bag depends on how you pack it and our brains seem to pack faces into our memory very efficiently therefore remembering more of them. (“Recognizing and Remembering Faces”) During my research I also found out some other good news that research is showing that while most brain processing peaks around 24 years of age the recognition of faces seems to peak around 34 (“Recognizing and Remembering Faces”) which means the best is yet to come.

Another seemly amazing feat accomplished by our brains…Also another question answered by Psychology!

Recognizing and Remembering Faces. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2015, from http://www.psyarticles.com/intellect/remembering-face.htm
Goldstein, E. (2011). Cognitive Neuroscience. In Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed., pp. 39-41). Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.