Some people may be skeptical of pure altruism, but many psychologists believe we were born with the urge to help.
Developmental psychologist and author of the book “Why We Cooperate,” Michael Tomasello said infants have an innate tendency to want to help other people and this helping behavior is not necessarily encouraged by rewards or positive conditioning from their parents.
At 18 months, infants will immediately help an adult who dropped something. Even as early as 12 months, infants will point to an object an adult pretended to lose and try to help them find it.
Around age 3 children become more selective in their helping behavior. They are more concerned about social norms and choose their actions with the purpose of wanting to fit in, Tomasello said. (more…)
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During an economic crisis, adolescents often become the unintended victims of despair. Whether their parents are working long hours or struggling to find work after layoffs, teenagers often feel the weight of their parents’ stress.
In the South Bay more teenagers have been diagnosed with depression than in previous years, according to a Mercury News report .
To combat adolescent depression, it’s important to know what sort of therapy works for teenagers. A new study shows more adolescents recover from depression after long-term therapy treatment than short-term treatment. (more…)
After two Gunn High School students committed suicide in May 2009, the school administration sent out emails to the community creating awareness for adolescent mental health.
Understanding students are under a lot of pressure to do well in school especially around final exam time, Principal Noreen Likins said to parents, “Please reassure your student that their health and welfare is much more important than anything else right now. We stand ready to help and support you in any way we can in the difficult task of helping students navigate these teen years.”
It’s hard to know why these students ended their lives. However, there are significant signs of depression to be wary of, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. (more…)
What could be worse than feeling anxious? Perhaps feeling anxious about feeling anxious.
This type of anxiety is linked to depression, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders.
Scientists tested anxiety levels of 94 above-average worriers and discovered two types of anxiety most often related to depression are fear of losing thought process control and fear of revealing anxiety in public. (more…)
Finding a diagnosis for bulimia is not easy, especially since many people who suffer from bulimia are ashamed of their illness and deal with it in private.
But after one-quarter century of research, findings show: 45 percent of bulimic patients fully recovered, 27 percent improved considerably, while 23 percent deal with bulimia for most of their lives. These findings were based on nearly 80 studies of thousands of patients.
People with bulimia try to avoid weight gain through various methods including self-induced vomiting, excessive exercise or not eating for a day or more. (more…)
More than 500 people have undergone brain surgery for mental health disorders within the last decade.
These disorders included depression, anxiety, Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder and even obesity. Some people saw signs of improvement after the surgery; others felt nothing.
Newer psychosurgeries pinpoint specific areas of the brain. For example some neurosurgeons burn pea-sized holes in the overactive areas of a person’s brain. Other neurosurgeons use a machine to send cross-beams of radiation into the brain to burn out spots of tissue. The holes or spots create interference within the brain’s overactive circuit preventing obsessive compulsive circuits or other mental disorders from continuing. (more…)
More people are taking antidepressants, studies show, but the number of people seeking psychotherapy has decreased.
According to the Archives of General Psychiatry, about 27 million Americans were taking antidepressants in 2005. That’s twice as many as the number of people who were taking this type of medication in 1996.
Yet 80 percent of those using antidepressants were not receiving psychotherapy. Some cannot afford to see a psychiatrist even with health insurance. Others receive antidepressants from regular doctors for symptoms such as back pain, insomnia and other health problems, not necessarily related to mental health. (more…)
Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman studied what makes people happy. He asked thousands of subjects to keep a journal of moments in their day when they felt happy.
According to his studies, intimate relations along with socializing ranked high on the happiness chart, while watching television and spending time with children ranked low. Causes of unhappiness included commuting to work and lack of sleep.
It just goes to show the importance of human connection in maintaining one’s well being.
When psychologist Ben Sharar started teaching “Happiness 101” a course in positive psychology, 854 students enrolled. It was the largest enrollment of any course offered at Harvard in 2006.
Positive psychology focuses on resilience, on conditions that improve mental health as opposed to concentrating only on the causes of mental illness. Studies and experiments in positive psychology are designed to discover paths for developing love, forgiveness, creativity and other positive strengths to combat mental health disorders.
In a 1998 presidential address to the American Psychological Association, professor and psychologist Martin Seligman said psychology needs to “turn toward understanding and building the human strengths to complement our emphasis on healing damage.” Arguably, this speech caused a turning point in the history of psychology, the birth of positive psychology. (more…)