Psychology Review- A level magazine

http://magazines.philipallan.co.uk/Magazines/Psychology-Review.aspx

ALL RODILLIAN TEACHERS MUST READ THIS!

CLASSROOM PHOBIA/ANXIETY

SYMPTOMS TEACHERS SHOULD EXPECT PUPILS TO DISPLAY AND THE MAIN WARNING SIGNS: 

• Extreme quietness
• Unable to initiate conversations
• Lack of eye contact
• Often refuses to do things
• Doesn't join in
• Won't speak at all
• Fear of public speaking
• Fear of the unknown
• Fear of being judged (happens loads)
• Won't be able to think on the spot e.g. will say they don't know the answer due to not being able to think of it quick enough/ they will be too worried to think about it at all- often occurs in problem solving (maths) or offering their own opinion or interpretation (English lang and lit) 
• Stutters
• Sighs
• Disinterested in lessons
• Irritability and fidgeting 
• Dread of events in the future
• Looks worried/anxious
• Looks exhausted
• Drinks lots
• Leaves to go to the toilet (anxiety causes frequent urination/ maybe just escaping the situation)
• Will talk about anything other than work- suggests lack of confidence in work- some won't actually know the answers due to not listening as they are preoccupied with other thoughts and feelings. The more they try to listen the more they won't be able to.
• Frequently absent
• Abrupt with teachers
• Uses physical illness as an excuse for the real problem 
• May even cause panic attacks- read The Panic Cycle Post. 

May often coincide with other disorders such as Social Anxiety, Generalised Anxiety Disorder and depression. Often the cause of selective Mutism.

The problem is slowly becoming more recognised by teachers.....

Teachers have the power to create a safe and comfortable classroom environment where pupils accept the teachers control as a result of being able to trust the way they conduct lessons. 

http://www.itv.com/thismorning/life/school-phobia/

Skinner- Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement 

Skinner showed how positive reinforcement worked by placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box. The box contained a lever in the side and as the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever.  Immediately it did so a food pellet would drop into a container next to the lever. The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box. The consequence of receiving food if they pressed the lever ensured that they would repeat the action again and again.

Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. For example, if your teacher gives you £5 each time you complete your homework (i.e. a reward) you are more likely to repeat this behavior in the future, thus strengthening the behavior of completing your homework.

Skinner showed how negative reinforcement worked by placing a rat in his Skinner box and then subjecting it to an unpleasant electric current which caused it some discomfort. As the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever. Immediately it did so the electric current would be switched off. The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box. The consequence of  escaping the electric current ensured that they would repeat the action again and again.

Eating Disorder Awareness Week

http://www.b-eat.co.uk/support-us/get-involved/eating-disorders-awareness-week/

"Mental illness is a myth"

Can you believe this?

Dissociative Personality Disorder

Dissociative Personality Disorder

DSM-IV-TR criteria

1. Longstanding or recurring feelings of being detached from one’s mental processes or body, as if one is observing them from the outside or in a dream.
2. Reality testing is unimpaired during depersonalisation
3. Depersonalisation causes significant difficulties or distress at work, or social and other important areas of life functioning.
4. Depersonalisation does not only occur while the individual is experiencing another mental disorder, and is not associated with substance use or a medical illness.

The DSM-IV-TR specifically recognises three possible additional features of depersonalisation disorder:

1. Derealisation, experiencing the external world as strange or unreal.
2. Macropsia or micropsia, an alteration in the perception of object size or shape.
3. A sense that other people seem unfamiliar or mechanical.

The media and mental health medication article

‘Hooked on happy pills’? How the media demonises mental health medication

Language is very telling of attitudes - would it be the same talking about medication for
high blood pressure?

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hooked-on-happy-pills-how-the-media-demonises-mental-health-medication-8494801.html

LOST CHILDREN- C4

Josh
Shows the the effect of having a drug-addict mother, alongside the effects being put into care and moved between 24 foster placements can have on a child. 
With intimate access to staff, pupils and families, this film tells the surprising and touching story of one of the High Close School's most challenging children: Josh. Filmed over a year, the programme follows the ups and downs of his education and explores his history to discover what made him the way he is.

Fourteen-year-old Josh is the school's tough man. He was taken away from his heroin-addicted mum and put into care at the age of three. He had a staggering 24 moves between foster placements before the age of six, together with his younger sister Demi.

However, for the past eight years, Josh and Demi have lived with their adoptive mother, former social worker Sue, who is determined to provide them with a loving and stable home.

'You think a lot of love and lot of attention will be enough,' Sue says. But soon Josh's angry outbursts and aggressive behaviour mean that both Sue and the teachers at High Close are struggling to help him.

As the story of Josh's past unfolds, tensions escalate at school, and he brings his mother closer to breaking point. Can Josh avoid repeating the mistakes of his birth family and make the necessary changes to remain at High Close?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/lost-children/4od#3407684



Courtney
Shows ADHD and the possible causes for this illness to develop from situational events from the past. 
Twelve-year-old Courtney from Liverpool has been diagnosed with ADHD, and was excluded from her primary school for disruptive behaviour.

She's now starting her second year as a boarder at High Close School in Berkshire, which is run by Barnardo's and is home to some of Britain's most troubled children.

According to Nikita, Courtney's key worker, she has tremendous potential. But as Courtney approaches her teenage years her behaviour is deteriorating fast.

Struggling to find words for how she feels, Courtney says it's like there's 'a little cell in inside my head that says "don't care". It's like my head's changed.'

Behind Courtney's anger there's an extraordinary family story that stretches back more than four generations, from her mother, Sara, to her great-grandmother, Edna.

Loving and close, these four generations are a remarkable testimony to the strength of their family ties but they're also players in a story of troubled and sometimes violent relationships.

Through the years, the women in the family have turned to each other for support. But despite their love for each other, events in their lives seem to keep on repeating themselves.

As Courtney's mother Sara inches closer to breaking point, Jonathan Newport, the dedicated deputy head teacher of High Close, is running out of ideas.

Courtney's on the brink of exclusion at an extremely understanding school, and keyworker Nikita is worried if she leaves there she will 'fall through the net'.

With the help of her family and teachers, can Courtney turn her life around?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/lost-children/4od#3407683

Cane Hill, London

Cane Hill was an insane asylum in Croydon, London in use until 1991 when – by all appearances – everyone just got up and walked out. Some of the inmates were transferred to other secure locations but the hospital, and much of the medical apparatus still remains.

Teenage drinking and mental health.

Teenagers who drink heavily are also more likely than their peers to have behavioral problems or symptoms of depression and anxiety, a new study finds.

The study of nearly 9,000 Norwegian teenagers found that those who said they had been drunk more than 10 times in their lives were more likely to have attention and conduct problems in school. Meanwhile, heavy-drinking girls showed higher rates of depression and anxiety symptoms.

The findings, published in the online journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and mental health, are based on a one-time survey. They do not, therefore, show whether the drinking came before or after the teenagers' other problems. 

"We can say that mental health problems are closely to alcohol drinking and intoxication, but we cannot from these data say anything about which comes first", explained Dr. Arve Strandheim, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

That said, conduct and attention problems do tend to develop early in childhood, and would be less likely to arise in adolescence, Strandheim told Reuters Health. 


But regardless whether drinking or other problems comes first, the bottom line is that parents should be aware that they often go hand-in-hand, according to the researcher.

The findings are based on a survey of 8,983 13-to-19 year olds. 80 percent said they had tried drinking, when 57 percent had gotten drunk at least once.

Similarly, 35 percent of teenagers who acknowledged conduct problems- getting into fights or clashes with teachers- also admitted to getting drunk frequently. That compared roughly to 27 percent of teens with few conduct problems.

Anxiety and depression symptoms were also linked to more frequent drinking binges, but only among girls.

It is important to intervene early to keep all teenagers from abusing alcohol, Strandheim stressed. however, the researcher said, it may be particularly important to girls with signs of depression or anxiety, and teen with attention problems or behaviour issues.

SOURCE: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 

DANCE THERAPY

Dance/Movement Therapy

Dance/movement therapy, or dance therapy is the psycho therapeutic use of movement and dance for emotional, cognitive, social, behavioral and physical conditions. As a form of expressive therapy, DMT is founded on the basis that movement and emotion are directly related. The ultimate purpose of DMT is to find a healthy balance and sense of wholeness.

Since its birth in the 1940s, DMT has gained much popularity and has been taken to more serious and beneficial levels. Over the years, the practices of DMT have progressed, however, the main principles that founded this form of therapy have remained the same. Influenced by the “main principles” of this therapy, most DMT sessions are configured around four main stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, and evaluation. Organizations such as the American Dance Therapy Association and the Association for Dance Movement Therapy, United Kingdom maintain the high standards of profession and education throughout the field. DMT is practiced in places such as mental health rehabilitation centers, medical and educational settings, nursing homes, day care facilities, and other health promotion programs. This form of therapy which is taught in a wide array of locations goes farther than just centering the body. Specialized treatments of DMT can help cure and aid many types of diseases and disabilities. Other common names for DMT include: movement psychotherapy and dance therapy.

The theory of DMT is based upon the idea that “the body and mind are inseparable”.

“Dance movement therapy rests on certain theoretical principles. These are:

• Body and mind interact, so that a change in movement will affect total functioning
• Movement reflects personality
• The therapeutic relationship is mediated at least to some extent non-verbally, for

example through the therapist mirroring the client’s movement

• Movement contains a symbolic function and as such can be evidence of unconscious process
• Movement improvisation allows the client to experiment with new ways of being
• DMT allows for the recapitulation of early object relationships by virtue of the largely non-verbal mediation of the latter”

Through the unity of the body, mind, and spirit, DMT provides a sense of wholeness to all individuals.

The Creative Process

The creative process has four stages, which occur during DMT. Each stage contains a smaller set of goals which correlate to the larger purpose of DMT. The stages and goals of DMT vary with each individual. Although the stages are progressive, the stages are usually revisited several times throughout the entire DMT process. The four stages are:

Preparation: the warm-up stage, safety is established

Incubation: relaxed, let go of conscious control, movements become symbolic

Illumination: meanings become apparent, can have positive and negative effects

Evaluation: discuss significance of the process, prepare to end therapy

DMT can be used to heal serious disorders and diseases. Although DMT is promoted to reduce stress and center the body, this therapy is very effective in helping to heal other disabilities and diseases. Examples of these include:

• Autism: therapists connect on a sensory-motor level, provides a sense of acceptance and expands skills and cognitive abilities, increases maturity

• Learning Disabilities: develops better organizational skills, learns/experiences control and choice, higher self confidence, new inspirations to learn

• Mental Retardation: improves body image, social skills, coordination, and motor skills, promotes communication

• Deaf and Hearing Impaired: reduces feelings of isolation, provides inspiration for relationships

• Blind and Visually Impaired: improves body image, motor skills, and personal awareness

• Physically Handicapped: improves motor skills and body image, provides a way to communicate and express emotions

• Elderly: provides social interaction, expression, and exercise, alleviates fears of loneliness and isolation

• Eating Disorders: alters distorted body images which helps end destructive behaviors, discovers symbolic meanings behind disorder/food

• PTSD: weaves together past and present through symbolism in a “safe place” to confront painful memories

• Parkinson's Disease: uses rhythm to help reduce body dysfunctions which improves motor abilities, balance, and use of limbs

• Holistic Birth Preparation: implores relaxation techniques to reduce anxiety, learn breathing techniques and release energy, builds confidence to help cope with labor, birth and early parenting

• Dementia: improvement in articulacy, oral and body language communication and increased pleasure/enjoyment of activities as well as an increase in involvement of activities 

• Depression: reduces stress, anxiety, number of visits to the doctor, medication intake; help build and strengthen bonds and relationships

Abnormality

What is madness? 

Can abnormality really be defined?

Abnormality definitions
1. Failure to function adequately.
2. Deviation from social norms.
3. Deviation from ideal mental health

Attraction

ORPHAN

American psychological thriller. Kate and John, a couple with 2 children decide to adopt a nine year old Russian girl, after their third child was a still born. Kate, who is recovering from alcoholism, soon discovers that there is something not quite right about Esther. Esther soon forces Max, Kate and John's deaf-mute daughter into her dangerous and disturbing plots.... as the family begins to deteriorate as a result of her distressing and evil personality and John's blindness to see what she is really doing..... Will you spot Esther's secret? 

Presents family relationships, adoption, attachments, alcoholism and mental illness. 

                                       

Schizophrenia simulations

Schizophrenic's experience all different types of positive symptoms(addition to normal behaviour) There are no exact same voices heard by all - these are just a few cases (and obviously may not be accurate)

Life is incomplete until you own these!

MATHS ANXIETY

As many as 2 million children are believed to be affected by maths anxiety, so why is it still so poorly understood?

maths anxiety link

DANVERS STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM

Danvers State Lunatic Asylum

Danvers State was a monstrous state mental institution. It was opened in the 1870s and closed in the early 1990s. These photographs were taken after the closure during a year and a half spent crawling around this sprawling, and disturbing monument to man’s inhumanity.

Music on the mind.

Jung's Model of the Psyche.

Erik Erikson- Psychosocial Development

1. Infancy: Birth to 18 Months

Ego Development Outcome: Trust vs. Mistrust
Basic strength: Drive and Hope

Erikson also referred to infancy as the Oral Sensory Stage (as anyone might who watches a baby put everything in her mouth) where the major emphasis is on the mother’s positive and loving care for the child, with a big emphasis on visual contact and touch. If we pass successfully through this period of life, we will learn to trust that life is basically okay and have basic confidence in the future. If we fail to experience trust and are constantly frustrated because our needs are not met, we may end up with a deep-seated feeling of worthlessness and a mistrust of the world in general.

Incidentally, many studies of suicides and suicide attempts point to the importance of the early years in developing the basic belief that the world is trustworthy and that every individual has a right to be here.

Not surprisingly, the most significant relationship is with the maternal parent, or whoever is our most significant and constant caregiver.

2. Early Childhood: 18 Months to 3 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Autonomy vs. Shame
Basic Strengths: Self-control, Courage, and Will

During this stage we learn to master skills for ourselves. Not only do we learn to walk, talk and feed ourselves, we are learning finer motor development as well as the much appreciated toilet training. Here we have the opportunity to build self-esteem and autonomy as we gain more control over our bodies and acquire new skills, learning right from wrong. And one of our skills during the “Terrible Two’s” is our ability to use the powerful word “NO!” It may be pain for parents, but it develops important skills of the will.

It is also during this stage, however, that we can be very vulnerable. If we’re shamed in the process of toilet training or in learning other important skills, we may feel great shame and doubt of our capabilities and suffer low self-esteem as a result.

The most significant relationships are with parents.

3. Play Age: 3 to 5 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Initiative vs. Guilt
Basic Strength: Purpose
During this period we experience a desire to copy the adults around us and take initiative in creating play situations. We make up stories with Barbie’s and Ken’s, toy phones and miniature cars, playing out roles in a trial universe, experimenting with the blueprint for what we believe it means to be an adult. We also begin to use that wonderful word for exploring the world — “WHY?”

While Erikson was influenced by Freud, he downplays biological sexuality in favor of the psychosocial features of conflict between child and parents. Nevertheless, he said that at this stage we usually become involved in the classic “Oedipal struggle” and resolve this struggle through “social role identification.” If we’re frustrated over natural desires and goals, we may easily experience guilt.

The most significant relationship is with the basic family.

4. School Age: 6 to 12 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Industry vs. Inferiority
Basic Strengths: Method and Competence

During this stage, often called the Latency, we are capable of learning, creating and accomplishing numerous new skills and knowledge, thus developing a sense of industry. This is also a very social stage of development and if we experience unresolved feelings of inadequacy and inferiority among our peers, we can have serious problems in terms of competence and self-esteem.

As the world expands a bit, our most significant relationship is with the school and neighborhood. Parents are no longer the complete authorities they once were, although they are still important.

5. Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion
Basic Strengths: Devotion and Fidelity

Up to this stage, according to Erikson, development mostly depends upon what is done to us. From here on out, development depends primarily upon what we do. And while adolescence is a stage at which we are neither a child nor an adult, life is definitely getting more complex as we attempt to find our own identity, struggle with social interactions, and grapple with moral issues.

Our task is to discover who we are as individuals separate from our family of origin and as members of a wider society. Unfortunately for those around us, in this process many of us go into a period of withdrawing from responsibilities, which Erikson called a “moratorium.” And if we are unsuccessful in navigating this stage, we will experience role confusion and upheaval.

A significant task for us is to establish a philosophy of life and in this process we tend to think in terms of ideals, which are conflict free, rather than reality, which is not. The problem is that we don’t have much experience and find it easy to substitute ideals for experience. However, we can also develop strong devotion to friends and causes.

It is no surprise that our most significant relationships are with peer groups.

6. Young Adulthood: 18 to 35

Ego Development Outcome: Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation
Basic Strengths: Affiliation and Love

In the initial stage of being an adult we seek one or more companions and love. As we try to find mutually satisfying relationships, primarily through marriage and friends, we generally also begin to start a family, though this age has been pushed back for many couples who today don’t start their families until their late thirties. If negotiating this stage is successful, we can experience intimacy on a deep level.

If we’re not successful, isolation and distance from others may occur. And when we don’t find it easy to create satisfying relationships, our world can begin to shrink as, in defense, we can feel superior to others.

Our significant relationships are with marital partners and friends.

7. Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65

Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation
Basic Strengths: Production and Care

Now work is most crucial. Erikson observed that middle-age is when we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to “be in charge,” the role we’ve longer envied.

The significant task is to perpetuate culture and transmit values of the culture through the family (taming the kids) and working to establish a stable environment. Strength comes through care of others and production of something that contributes to the betterment of society, which Erikson calls generativity, so when we’re in this stage we often fear inactivity and meaninglessness.

As our children leave home, or our relationships or goals change, we may be faced with major life changes — the mid-life crisis — and struggle with finding new meanings and purposes. If we don’t get through this stage successfully, we can become self-absorbed and stagnate.

Significant relationships are within the workplace, the community and the family.

8. Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death

Ego Development Outcome: Integrity vs. Despair
Basic Strengths: Wisdom

Erikson felt that much of life is preparing for the middle adulthood stage and the last stage is recovering from it. Perhaps that is because as older adults we can often look back on our lives with happiness and are content, feeling fulfilled with a deep sense that life has meaning and we’ve made a contribution to life, a feeling Erikson calls integrity. Our strength comes from a wisdom that the world is very large and we now have a detached concern for the whole of life, accepting death as the completion of life.

On the other hand, some adults may reach this stage and despair at their experiences and perceived failures. They may fear death as they struggle to find a purpose to their lives, wondering “Was the trip worth it?” Alternatively, they may feel they have all the answers (not unlike going back to adolescence) and end with a strong dogmatism that only their view has been correct.

Extroverts and Introverts

SOCIAL INFLUENCE- Locus of control

Internal Locus of control- Events in your life are largely a consequence of your own behaviour. 

External Locus of control- What happens to you is a result of external factors and is uncontrollable. Luck and fate are important factors

15 STYLES OF DISTORTED THINKING

Alice In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll- DRUGS?

                                             Is Alice In Wonderland really about drugs? <-- LINK
Was Lewis Carroll on drugs when he wrote Alice In Wonderland? Ever noticed that Alice In Wonderland pops up in many mental health stories? Is Alice in Wonderland  your favourite children's film? If so, what exactly does that say about you? Are you mad? Or do you just like drinking tea? 

Psychological wordsearch- first 3 words you spot reflect your psychological state at the time.

Our psychological state allows us to see only what we want/need/feel to see at a particular time. What are the first three words that you see?

Schizophrenia- perception

Louis Wain was an artist popular for his paintings of cats in the late 1800s and early 1900s. H.G. Wells said that “He has made the cat his own. He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves. Wain began to exhibit the symptoms of schizophrenia around 1910, and was committed to a mental hospital in 1924.

The following pictures of cats are typically interpreted as illustrating the increasing effects of his schizophrenia. Some debate this however, as Wain did not date his paintings, and argue that he was simply experimenting with patterns reflecting his mother’s work designing textiles.

Borderline Personality Disorder- Facts and an individual's personal story.

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Schizophrenia Poem

Blast Off To Insanity

By Dan Hoeweler

They say I am mad
That I am evil
And creepy
That my genes are corrupted
And my brain is deformed
That my actions are freaky
That my behavior is not the norm
They then ask me the question
“Sir why are you this way?”
I tell them as such:

“A genetic predispisation
An environment unsound
The reasons of madness
Don’t matter to me
For I believe
In the world
Of impossibility”

Wacko Schizo
Psycho and nuts
Call me whatever
I don’t mind
For I can escape
To a strange world
And leave you behind.

I’ve seen places from hell
with fires and flames
Of torture and madness
It’s name is taboo
Psychosis, psychosis
Does it scare you?

Madness, Madness
A self destruct button
That I pressed
Years ago
To blast off on a mission
To a planet
Where the aliens are free
To play with
My memories

Here things are different
Many say they are strange
Here it’s the “normals”
That are deranged
If you want to be different
If you want to be free
From logic and reason
Then come and meet me
On this strange planet called
Insanity

Freud's mental iceberg