In the first meaning, it refers to an inability to connect with others on an emotional level, as well as a means of coping with anxiety by avoiding certain situations that trigger it; it is often described as "emotional numbing" or dissociation.
In the second sense, it is a type of mental assertiveness that allows people to maintain their boundaries and psychic integrity when faced with the emotional demands of another person or group of persons..
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development describes eight developmental stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood
In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges.
Each stage builds on the successful completion of earlier stages.
The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future. Erik Erikson developed the theory in the 1950's as an improvement on Freud's psychosexual stages.
Erikson accepted many of Freud's theories (including the id, ego, and superego, and Freud's infantile sexuality represented in psychosexual development), but rejected Freud's attempt to describe personality solely on the basis of sexuality.
In his most influential work, Childhood and Society (1950), he divided the human life cycle into eight psychosocial stages of development..
In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges.
Each stage builds on the successful completion of earlier stages.
The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future. Erik Erikson developed the theory in the 1950's as an improvement on Freud's psychosexual stages.
Erikson accepted many of Freud's theories (including the id, ego, and superego, and Freud's infantile sexuality represented in psychosexual development), but rejected Freud's attempt to describe personality solely on the basis of sexuality.
In his most influential work, Childhood and Society (1950), he divided the human life cycle into eight psychosocial stages of development..
Empathy
Empathy is the recognition and understanding of the states of mind, beliefs, desires, and particularly, emotions of others.
It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself; a sort of emotional resonance..
It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself; a sort of emotional resonance..
Anger management
The term anger management commonly refers to a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which one with excessive or uncontrollable anger can control or reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state.
Courses in anger management are sometimes mandated to violent criminals by a legal system..
For more information about the topic Anger management, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Anger — Anger is a term for the emotional aspect of aggression, as a basic aspect of the stress response in animals in which a perceived aggravating stimulus ... > read more
Anchoring bias in decision-making — Anchoring or focalism is a term used in psychology to describe the common human tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor," on one trait or piece of ... > read more
Mental confusion — Severe confusion of a degree considered pathological usually refers to loss of orientation (ability to place oneself correctly in the world by time, ... > read more
Pyromania — Pyromania is an obsession with fire and starting fires, in an intentional fashion, usually on multiple occasions. It should be contrasted with other ... > read more
Courses in anger management are sometimes mandated to violent criminals by a legal system..
For more information about the topic Anger management, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Anger — Anger is a term for the emotional aspect of aggression, as a basic aspect of the stress response in animals in which a perceived aggravating stimulus ... > read more
Anchoring bias in decision-making — Anchoring or focalism is a term used in psychology to describe the common human tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor," on one trait or piece of ... > read more
Mental confusion — Severe confusion of a degree considered pathological usually refers to loss of orientation (ability to place oneself correctly in the world by time, ... > read more
Pyromania — Pyromania is an obsession with fire and starting fires, in an intentional fashion, usually on multiple occasions. It should be contrasted with other ... > read more
Social cognition
Social cognition is the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations.
There has been much recent interest in the links between social cognition and brain function, particularly as neuropsychological studies have shown that brain injury (particularly to the frontal lobes) can adversely affect social judgements and interaction.
People diagnosed with certain mental illnesses are also known to show differences in how they process social information.
There is now an expanding research field examining how such conditions may bias cognitive processes involved in social interaction, or conversely, how such biases may lead to the symptoms associated with the condition. It is also becoming clear that some aspects of psychological processes that promote social behaviour (such as face recognition) may be innate.
Studies have shown that newborn babies, younger than one hour old can selectively recognize and respond to faces, while people with some developmental disorders such as autism or Williams syndrome may show differences in social interaction and social communication when compared to their unaffected peers..
There has been much recent interest in the links between social cognition and brain function, particularly as neuropsychological studies have shown that brain injury (particularly to the frontal lobes) can adversely affect social judgements and interaction.
People diagnosed with certain mental illnesses are also known to show differences in how they process social information.
There is now an expanding research field examining how such conditions may bias cognitive processes involved in social interaction, or conversely, how such biases may lead to the symptoms associated with the condition. It is also becoming clear that some aspects of psychological processes that promote social behaviour (such as face recognition) may be innate.
Studies have shown that newborn babies, younger than one hour old can selectively recognize and respond to faces, while people with some developmental disorders such as autism or Williams syndrome may show differences in social interaction and social communication when compared to their unaffected peers..
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills ("milestones") during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual capacity as an adult..
For more information about the topic Mental retardation, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Learning disability — In the United States and Canada, the term learning disability is used to refer to psychological and neurological conditions that affect a person's ... > read more
Brain damage — Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain damage may occur due to a wide range of conditions, illnesses, ... > read more
Personality disorder — Personality disorders form a class of mental disorders that are characterized by long-lasting rigid patterns of thought and behaviour. Because of the ... > read more
For more information about the topic Mental retardation, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Learning disability — In the United States and Canada, the term learning disability is used to refer to psychological and neurological conditions that affect a person's ... > read more
Brain damage — Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain damage may occur due to a wide range of conditions, illnesses, ... > read more
Personality disorder — Personality disorders form a class of mental disorders that are characterized by long-lasting rigid patterns of thought and behaviour. Because of the ... > read more
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills ("milestones") during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual capacity as an adult..
For more information about the topic Mental retardation, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Learning disability — In the United States and Canada, the term learning disability is used to refer to psychological and neurological conditions that affect a person's ... > read more
Brain damage — Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain damage may occur due to a wide range of conditions, illnesses, ... > read more
Personality disorder — Personality disorders form a class of mental disorders that are characterized by long-lasting rigid patterns of thought and behaviour. Because of the ... > read more
For more information about the topic Mental retardation, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Learning disability — In the United States and Canada, the term learning disability is used to refer to psychological and neurological conditions that affect a person's ... > read more
Brain damage — Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain damage may occur due to a wide range of conditions, illnesses, ... > read more
Personality disorder — Personality disorders form a class of mental disorders that are characterized by long-lasting rigid patterns of thought and behaviour. Because of the ... > read more
Cognition
The term cognition is used in several loosely related ways to refer to a faculty for the human-like processing of information, applying knowledge and changing preferences.
Cognition or cognitive processes can be natural and artificial, conscious and not conscious; therefore, they are analyzed from different perspectives and in different contexts, in anesthesia, neurology, psychology, philosophy, systemics and computer science.
The concept of cognition is closely related to such abstract concepts as mind, reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe numerous capabilities of human mind and expected properties of artificial or synthetic intelligence.
Cognition is an abstract property of advanced living organisms; therefore, it is studied as a direct property of a brain or of an abstract mind on subsymbolic and symbolic levels. In psychology and in artificial intelligence, it is used to refer to the mental functions, mental processes and states of intelligent entities (humans, human organizations, highly autonomous robots), with a particular focus toward the study of such mental processes as comprehension, inferencing, decision-making, planning and learning (see also cognitive science and cognitivism).
Recently, advanced cognitive researchers have been especially focused on the capacities of abstraction, generalization, concretization/specialization and meta-reasoning which descriptions involve such concepts as beliefs, knowledge, desires, preferences and intentions of intelligent individuals/objects/agents/systems. The term "cognition" is also used in a wider sense to mean the act of knowing or knowledge, and may be interpreted in a social or cultural sense to describe the emergent development of knowledge and concepts within a group that culminate in both thought and action..
Cognition or cognitive processes can be natural and artificial, conscious and not conscious; therefore, they are analyzed from different perspectives and in different contexts, in anesthesia, neurology, psychology, philosophy, systemics and computer science.
The concept of cognition is closely related to such abstract concepts as mind, reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe numerous capabilities of human mind and expected properties of artificial or synthetic intelligence.
Cognition is an abstract property of advanced living organisms; therefore, it is studied as a direct property of a brain or of an abstract mind on subsymbolic and symbolic levels. In psychology and in artificial intelligence, it is used to refer to the mental functions, mental processes and states of intelligent entities (humans, human organizations, highly autonomous robots), with a particular focus toward the study of such mental processes as comprehension, inferencing, decision-making, planning and learning (see also cognitive science and cognitivism).
Recently, advanced cognitive researchers have been especially focused on the capacities of abstraction, generalization, concretization/specialization and meta-reasoning which descriptions involve such concepts as beliefs, knowledge, desires, preferences and intentions of intelligent individuals/objects/agents/systems. The term "cognition" is also used in a wider sense to mean the act of knowing or knowledge, and may be interpreted in a social or cultural sense to describe the emergent development of knowledge and concepts within a group that culminate in both thought and action..
Thursday, 22 May 2008
MRI/PET Scanner Combo Made For First Time
Two kinds of body imaging -- positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -- have been combined for the first time in a single scanner.
MRI scans provide exquisite structural detail but little functional information, while PET scans -- which follow a radioactive tracer in the body -- can show body processes but not structures, said Simon Cherry, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at UC Davis. Cherry's lab built the scanner for studies with laboratory mice, for example in cancer research.
"We can correlate the structure of a tumor by MRI with the functional information from PET, and understand what's happening inside a tumor," Cherry said.
Combining the two types of scan in a single machine is difficult because the two systems interfere with each other. MRI scanners rely on very strong, very smooth magnetic fields that can easily be disturbed by metallic objects inside the scanner. At the same time, those magnetic fields can seriously affect the detectors and electronics needed for PET scanning. There is also a limited amount of space within the scanner in which to fit everything together, Cherry noted.
Scanners that combine computer-assisted tomography (CAT) and PET scans are already available, but CAT scans provide less structural detail than MRI scans, especially of soft tissue, Cherry said. They also give the patient a dose of radiation from X-rays.
The photomultiplier tubes used in conventional PET machines are very sensitive to magnetic fields. So the researchers used a new technology -- the silicon avalanche photodiode detector -- in their machine. They were able to show that the scanner could acquire accurate PET and MRI images at the same time from test objects and mice.
The other authors on the paper, published online March 3 by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are UC Davis graduate student Ciprian Catana, now at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard University; postdoctoral researcher Yibao Wu and Jinyi Qi, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, both at UC Davis; Daniel Procissi, Caltech; Bernd Pichler, University of Tübingen, Germany; and Russell Jacobs from the Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology. Another paper by Cherry, Jacobs and UC Davis Associate Professor Angelique Louie reviewing the opportunities and challenges for combined PET/MRI was published in the Feb. 2008 issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE. The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
MRI scans provide exquisite structural detail but little functional information, while PET scans -- which follow a radioactive tracer in the body -- can show body processes but not structures, said Simon Cherry, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at UC Davis. Cherry's lab built the scanner for studies with laboratory mice, for example in cancer research.
"We can correlate the structure of a tumor by MRI with the functional information from PET, and understand what's happening inside a tumor," Cherry said.
Combining the two types of scan in a single machine is difficult because the two systems interfere with each other. MRI scanners rely on very strong, very smooth magnetic fields that can easily be disturbed by metallic objects inside the scanner. At the same time, those magnetic fields can seriously affect the detectors and electronics needed for PET scanning. There is also a limited amount of space within the scanner in which to fit everything together, Cherry noted.
Scanners that combine computer-assisted tomography (CAT) and PET scans are already available, but CAT scans provide less structural detail than MRI scans, especially of soft tissue, Cherry said. They also give the patient a dose of radiation from X-rays.
The photomultiplier tubes used in conventional PET machines are very sensitive to magnetic fields. So the researchers used a new technology -- the silicon avalanche photodiode detector -- in their machine. They were able to show that the scanner could acquire accurate PET and MRI images at the same time from test objects and mice.
The other authors on the paper, published online March 3 by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are UC Davis graduate student Ciprian Catana, now at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard University; postdoctoral researcher Yibao Wu and Jinyi Qi, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, both at UC Davis; Daniel Procissi, Caltech; Bernd Pichler, University of Tübingen, Germany; and Russell Jacobs from the Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology. Another paper by Cherry, Jacobs and UC Davis Associate Professor Angelique Louie reviewing the opportunities and challenges for combined PET/MRI was published in the Feb. 2008 issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE. The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Sniffing Out Uses For The Electronic Nose
Despite 25 years of research, development of an "electronic nose" even approaching the capabilities of the human sniffer remains a dream, chemists in Germany conclude in an overview on the topic.
In a new article, Udo Weimar and colleagues describe major advances that have produced olfactory sensors with a range of uses in detecting certain odors. Electronic noses excel, for instance, at picking up so-called "non-odorant volatiles"-- chemicals that mammalian noses cannot pick up like carbon monoxide.
Ideally, however, an electronic nose should mimic the discrimination of the mammalian olfactory system for smells -- reliably identifying odors like "fruity," "grassy" and "earthy" given off by certain chemicals. Until electronic noses become more selective, their roles probably will be limited to serving as valuable tools for tasks such as monitoring air quality and detecting explosives.
"The electronic nose has the potential to enter our daily life far away from well-equipped chemical laboratories and skilled specialists," the article states. "Keeping its limitations in mind and adapted for a special purpose, this will be the future for the electronic nose for as long as the ability to smell odors rather than detect volatiles is still far away over the rainbow."
In a new article, Udo Weimar and colleagues describe major advances that have produced olfactory sensors with a range of uses in detecting certain odors. Electronic noses excel, for instance, at picking up so-called "non-odorant volatiles"-- chemicals that mammalian noses cannot pick up like carbon monoxide.
Ideally, however, an electronic nose should mimic the discrimination of the mammalian olfactory system for smells -- reliably identifying odors like "fruity," "grassy" and "earthy" given off by certain chemicals. Until electronic noses become more selective, their roles probably will be limited to serving as valuable tools for tasks such as monitoring air quality and detecting explosives.
"The electronic nose has the potential to enter our daily life far away from well-equipped chemical laboratories and skilled specialists," the article states. "Keeping its limitations in mind and adapted for a special purpose, this will be the future for the electronic nose for as long as the ability to smell odors rather than detect volatiles is still far away over the rainbow."
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