Wholesome 8===D

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30396

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30395

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30391

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30340

I am looking for articles/research on a specific type of depression. I'm not sure if it has a separate title (I haven't started my psych schooling quite yet, forgive me!).

Whereas bi-polar patients experience extreme highs and lows, I'm curious about the particular pathology that manifests primarily through numbness and detachment. These patients are basically "unable to feel" and generally not affected by positive OR negative stimuli. There can be a lack of physical or sexual arousal, and very few peaks and valleys of experience. And while often functional (though distant and detached) in daily life, they do not respond appropriately to emotional cues.

Any of the following would be helpful:

*Articles describing this kind of depressive state
*Info on the specific neurotransmitter imbalances involved
*Current therapy and treatment options

Thanks so much!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PsychologyBlog/~3/lgH9zwLOadE/how-newcomers-can-influence-established-groups.php

http://www.spring.org.uk/?p=6315

· Groups resist criticism—especially from newcomers.

Picture this: you've just started a new job and you're sat nervously in your first meeting. You look around, still trying to match names to faces. Early on a problem is discussed you know all about from a previous job. Putting aside nerves, you hop right in and start to explain just how it was dealt with at that previous company.

When you finish speaking everyone just looks at you. For a few seconds the only sound is the air-conditioning and people fidgeting with their pens. Then a red-haired woman—clearly a company veteran—recovers and makes one or two non-committal remarks. The meeting moves straight on to other business leaving you wondering what you did wrong.

Later on the red-haired woman returns to the problem on which you weighed in earlier. She repeats your suggestion almost exactly. Everyone begins nodding and smiling at her. Someone says "Good point. Yes!"

No one looks at you.

Hostility to newcomers

Although this scenario might come straight from a sitcom like The Office, it's not that fanciful. Recent psychological research has established that just this unreasoning hostility to newcomers clearly exists in groups, even when their suggestions are sound. Psychologist Matthew J. Hornsey and colleagues have confirmed the effect as well as examining how newcomers can worm their way into a group's affections and begin to generate influence (Hornsey et al., 2007).

Firstly, though, they asked whether groups are really this hostile when newcomers, as opposed to old-timers, make critical remarks. Hornsey and colleagues asked 187 health professionals at a hospital to make judgements in circumstances similar to those described above. One group of participants were lead to believe their hospital was being criticised by a newcomer who had worked there 3 weeks, while another group thought it was an established old-timer of 18 years. In each case the criticisms presented to participants were identical, the only difference was their apparent source.

The results were clear. Compared with old-timers, the health professionals:

• thought newcomers provided less constructive criticism,
• agreed less with newcomers' suggestions,
• were more negative about their criticisms.

This certainly supports our intuitive understanding that it can be difficult for newcomers to criticise their new group.

Generating influence

Next Hornsey and colleagues wanted to see whether there was any way of reducing these negative reactions to newcomers' criticisms. To do this they recruited 217 members of an online gaming community who were all interested in a particular game. They were then shown an extract purportedly taken from a chat site that criticised their game and asked to comment on whether they agreed with the critic and whether the criticisms were justified.

To test whether the anti-newcomer bias could be lessened, the participants were split into four groups and the identity of the critic was presented in four different ways.

• A newcomer who distances himself from another group to which he used to belong.
• A newcomer who embraces another group to which he used to belong.
• An old-timer who distances himself from another group to which he used to belong.
• An old-timer who embraces another group to which he used to belong.

So sometimes the critic was shunning their membership of an old group and sometimes they were embracing it.

Once again, confirming the previous findings, online community members were none too impressed when criticism of 'their' game came from a newcomer. Again, the newcomer aroused more negativity than old-timers despite making exactly the same criticisms. But the researchers did find that this negativity could be reduced if the newcomer shunned a group of which they used to be a member, then their criticisms were more likely to be viewed as legitimate. Hornsey and colleagues' results also showed that old-timers benefited from this effect as well.

This finding makes sense when you think about how a newcomer's group identity is perceived by other members of the group. Whether consciously or not, people want others to value their group as much as they do. When newcomers distance themselves from an old group, it increases their perceived allegiance to the current group. If the criticism comes from a member of the group perceived as committed, this helps to cushion the critical blow.

Toe the line

What the psychological research tells us, then, is that influencing groups to change as a newcomer is not easy. Sources of criticism or agents of change commonly face increased negativity and outright rejection. However beautifully the change is packaged, people will quickly perceive the implicit criticism of the status quo.

The temptation when joining a new group is to try and make a big splash, to impress others with our critical perceptions and new ideas. On the contrary, what the present research suggests is that toeing the line in the first instance is often the best long-term strategy. Groups are hostile to criticism from newcomers and are likely to resist, dismiss or ignore it—unless you can prove your loyalty.

One way of emphasising allegiance to a new group is by creating psychological distance from an old group. But even this might not work all the time since criticising an old group can signal a disloyal nature. Consequently newcomers to a group who want to gain influence and promote change should tread very carefully until they are well-established. Unfortunately sometimes being right just isn't enough.

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http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30676

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30675

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30674

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30673

I have a support site that might help you, or anyone you are supporting, get better.  I made it myself and i think its very good.

http://selfhelp.yuku.com

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30472

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30471

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30470

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30394

Just curious if anyone out there who knows of someone or someway to integrate a love of video games (interactive media) with psychology. I've looked at media psychology and there's one school called fielding that does media psychology it's geared toward professionals. I don't know about any other programs like this. Any insight would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

so first question. when i took abnormal psych in my university around 2006 i was told no one can diagnose alzheimers until the autoposy. so how are there drug commericals for it on tv? has things changed?

second question. i want to work with the disabled, after i get my bachlors i want to be arehab psych. so right now my main area that i've interned in are independent living centers. both in texas and virgina they are not paid internships. my friends etc ask me why they don't pay, can't you find a pay one..i got the impression that internships with people with disabilities are all not paid. did i just miss out or is this true? i thought most psych internships were hard to find a paying one, what are some examples of some that would be paid? i'm kinda past the point where i can find one at this point, i graduate in the fall, but i was just curious for knowledge sake.

Dear colleagues,

we welcome you to the new web-portal on psychology – Psyjournals.ru

PsyJournals.ru is aimed to provide conditions for fruitful communication between psychologists in Russia and abroad. The journals archives are generally based on publications of Moscow City University of Pedagogy and Psychology (MSUPE), the Centre for development of innovative programs in psychological education and practice. Read more >>>

 The core part of PsyJournals.ru is constituted with full-text digital archives of psychological journals:

Psychological Science and Education >>>

Experimental Psychology >>>

Cultural-Historical Psychology >>>

Also you will find free reviews and translations from Russian into English, information on Russian and international psychological events and much more.

Dear colleagues,

we welcome you to the new web-portal on psychology – Psyjournals.ru

PsyJournals.ru is aimed to provide conditions for fruitful communication between psychologists in Russia and abroad. The journals archives are generally based on publications of Moscow City University of Pedagogy and Psychology (MSUPE), the Centre for development of innovative programs in psychological education and practice. Read more >>>

 The core part of PsyJournals.ru is constituted with full-text digital archives of psychological journals:

Psychological Science and Education >>>

Experimental Psychology >>>

Cultural-Historical Psychology >>>

Also you will find free reviews and translations from Russian into English, information on Russian and international psychological events and much more.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/30460