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Knowledge of different cultures shakes up psychology 2 clicks

Knowledge of different cultures shakes up psychology 2 clicks
The academic discipline of psychology was developed largely in North America and Europe. Some would argue it’s been remarkably successful in understanding what drives human behaviour and mental processes, which have long been thought to be universal. But in recent decades some researchers have started questioning this approach, arguing that many psychological phenomena are shaped by the culture we live in. Clearly, humans are in many ways very similar – we share the same physiology and have the same basic needs, such as nourishment, safety and sexuality. Experimental psychologists typically study behaviour in a small group of people, with the assumption that this can be generalised to the wider human population. However, this isn’t the case. Thinking styles Consider which two of these objects go together: a panda, a monkey and a banana. The self If you were asked to describe yourself, what would you say? However, the way people describe themselves seems to be culturally bound.

http://theconversation.com/how-knowledge-about-different-cultures-is-shaking-the-foundations-of-psychology-92696

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R.I.P. Polyvagal Theory. What therapist doesn’t love Polyvagal… | by Shin Shin Tang, Ph.D. | Aug, 2021 | Medium What therapist doesn’t love Polyvagal Theory? Since 2009, when neuroscientist Stephen Porges first publicly shared his theory of how trauma affects the nervous system, it has been widely embraced by not only mental health therapists but yoga instructors, meditation teachers, and just about anyone interested in treating trauma. Polyvagal Theory has also been lauded by giants in the field of traumatic stress such as Bessel Van Der Kolk, Pat Ogden, and Peter Levine. What is Polyvagal Theory? Polyvagal Theory centers upon the vagus nerve, which extends from the brain stem to all the internal organs including the heart, lungs, and stomach. According to Porges (1995), the three premises of Polyvagal Theory are (as paraphrased by me for my fellow non-neuroscientists): Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), or changes in heart rate that typically synchronize with breathing, and neurogenic bradycardia, a sudden and extreme drop in heart rate, are mediated by different branches of the vagus nerve.

How are faith communities tackling mental health stigma? Growing up in the UK Jewish community, we didn’t have much education about mental illness. Luckily this has changed and the community is now leading the way in terms of talking about the issue and battling the stigma against it. ‘Children often get sidelined when a family experiences loss’: why it’s important we talk to pupils in schools about grief As an example, I volunteer for the charity Jami – a mental health service for the Jewish community. As part of its service, Jami runs a wellbeing cafe, Head Room, in London. It’s an innovative social enterprise combining a coffee shop, vintage boutique and access point, which places mental health in the heart of the Jewish community. Daniel Neis of Head Room says: ‘The cafe takes the subject of mental health out of an institutional context and into the heart of the community. ‘We have a wellbeing programme, which has been a great way of getting the community to think about mental health.’ ‘The stigma was real. So what should be done?

Hotter, Drier, Hungrier: How Global Warming Punishes the World’s Poorest KAKUMA, Kenya — These barren plains of sand and stone have always known lean times: times when the rivers run dry and the cows wither day by day, until their bones are scattered under the acacia trees. But the lean times have always been followed by normal times, when it rains enough to rebuild herds, repay debts, give milk to the children and eat meat a few times each week. Times are changing, though. Northern Kenya — like its arid neighbors in the Horn of Africa, where Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson paid a visit last week, including a stop in Nairobi — has become measurably drier and hotter, and scientists are finding the fingerprints of global warming.

How to Work with Someone Who Creates Unnecessary Conflict Disagreements on a team aren’t necessarily a bad thing. But you want to watch out for unhealthy conflicts that hijack precious time, trust, and energy. Often this type of animosity develops when there’s a “conflict entrepreneur” on your team — someone... Conflict at work comes in many forms. Good conflict, the kind that is healthy, pushes us to be better as people and communities. Most organizations need more good conflict, not less. What causes high conflict? Think about someone you’ve worked with who sends defensive emails that may include ALL CAPS, copying multiple, uninvolved, often more senior colleagues in the cc line. One obvious response is to distance yourself from the conflict entrepreneurs in your office (or on your Facebook feed). But what if you can’t distance yourself from a conflict entrepreneur? Calling a conflict entrepreneur out is equally unwise. One seasoned manager at a small tech company encountered a conflict entrepreneur for the first time a few years ago.

Photos of Cultural Fashion Clothing Around the World Most global fashions aren’t fads. They arise from centuries of tradition and don’t go out of vogue when the seasons change: the bold beadwork of the Maasai in the Serengeti, the endless folds of a bright blue Tuareg head wrap in the Sahara, a Scottish tartan. Here are some of the world’s most notable fashions and the people who wear them—plus tips on borrowing the styles when you get back home. Beads Maasai The Maasai, a semi-nomadic people who breed predominantly cattle, roam the Serengeti grasslands. Lightweight, vibrant, and distinctive, Maasai beadwork has entranced designers for ages, so much so that in the last decade, the Maasai have trademarked their bead artistry to protect their cultural identity, fighting fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton for appropriating their designs without permission. Before you wear, take note: Color is key. Beads YORUBA Beads NATIVE AMERICANS Head Wraps TUAREG Head Wraps XHOSA Head Wraps NIHANG Plaid SCOTS Scots put plaid on the fashion map. Plaid PUNKS

Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine A patient of mine, a bright and thoughtful young man in his early 20s, came to see me for debilitating anxiety and depression. He had dropped out of college and was living with his parents. He was vaguely contemplating suicide. He was also playing videogames most of every day and late into every night. Twenty years ago the first thing I would have done for a patient like this was prescribe an antidepressant. Over the course of my career as a psychiatrist, I have seen more and more patients who suffer from depression and anxiety, including otherwise healthy young people with loving families, elite education and relative wealth. When we do something we enjoy—like playing videogames, for my patient—the brain releases a little bit of dopamine and we feel good. As soon as dopamine is released, the brain adapts to it by reducing or “downregulating” the number of dopamine receptors that are stimulated.

Breaking The Stigma: Women Of Color Speaking Up For Minority Mental Health Lost and Found in Borneo’s Jungle: A Tragic Tale of Two Men in Sarawak One man was a Swiss environmental activist who wore a loincloth and learned to hunt with a blowpipe before mysteriously disappearing in Sarawak. The other was an art dealer from California who swapped surfing for a life of adventure, travelling deep into the jungles of Borneo in search of the fabulous art of the Dayak people. In his new book, The Last Wild Men Of Borneo, author Carl Hoffman brings together the stories of Bruno Manser and Michael Palmieri, two very different, yet similar, men, and their obsession with one of the wildest places on Earth. When National Geographic spoke with Hoffman by phone at his home in Washington, D.C., he explained how Manser became a cult hero in Europe; how Palmieri mapped vast tracts of Borneo by hand; and why palm oil now threatens what remains of the indigenous peoples of Borneo. The two main characters of your book are a Swiss environmentalist, Bruno Manser, and an American art dealer named Michael Palmieri. But he wanted to go further.

The Halo Effect | Hidden Brain Media The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. From NPR, this is HIDDEN BRAIN. I'm Shankar Vedantam. It's a summer evening in northern Indiana. VEDANTAM: It's 1978. VEDANTAM: A few seconds behind the Pinto on the same road, Roger Duggar (ph) is driving a Chevy van. VEDANTAM: At first, Roger doesn't think the crash is that bad. UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: There was a puff of flame about 12 to 18 inches long at the rear of the car. VEDANTAM: Almost immediately, the Pinto explodes into flames. UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: He said it was like a large napalm bomb going up. VEDANTAM: The eyewitness gets out of his car with a fire extinguisher and runs over to see if he can help. UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: But he said the temperature and heat was so intense that it was too hot to stay close to the car for very long. We begin in 1970. VEDANTAM: (Laughter). VEDANTAM: Wow.

Chichicastenango Maya Cemetery On the fringes of a densely crowded marketplace in the Guatemalan highlands, a reverent silence looms over the ivory gate of the Cementerio General. Beyond its deceptively sterile exterior, hundreds of vibrant tombstones pepper the hillside. To outsiders, the passionate display of color may seem incongruent with loss of life—but according to indigenous Maya tradition, honoring the dead encourages the living to make peace with the inevitability of death. In the K'iche' town of Chichicastenango, offerings of flowers, incense, candles, and chickens are made at the cemetery year-round. Despite their exuberant exterior, Guatemala’s cemeteries also have a darker side. While Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion, it remains infused with Maya ritual. The Popol Vuh—a sacred text that documents the creation of humankind according to Maya cosmovision—was discovered in Chichicastenango in the 18th century and continues to inform the beliefs and practices of the K'iche' people.

REPORT | Why We Like Certain Music: The Brain And Musical Preference Most classical music lovers can rattle off at least a few different reasons why they love the genre that spans many centuries of Western music. They might list objective reasons like its musical sophistication as compared with the usual pop radio fare, or the studies that talk about relaxation and/or mental stimulation associated with listening to classical music. They may talk more subjectively about the emotions it evokes. Science, however, tells us that the roots of musical preferences lie much deeper in the very brain itself. “There are a lot of similarities between how we process music and speech, and there are a lot of different opinions about whether we are using the same or different pathways and mechanisms for each.” That processing goes something like this: Soundwaves are filtered by the ear, and processing begins based on the frequency;The cochlea then encodes the pitch;The auditory pathways send the encoded information to the auditory cortex in the brain. Anya Wassenberg

Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith | Fortress Press Monica A. Coleman's great-grandfather asked his two young sons to lift him up and pull out the chair when he hanged himself, and that noose stayed in the family shed for years. The rope was the violent instrument, but it was mental anguish that killed him. Now, in gripping fashion, Coleman examines the ways that the legacies of slavery, war, sharecropping, poverty, and alcoholism mask a family history of mental illness. Those same forces accompanied her into the black religious traditions and Christian ministry. Bipolar Faith is both a spiritual autobiography and a memoir of mental illness. Buying multiple copies? Monica A.

MFON Celebrates the Work of Black Women Photographers During the recent unveiling of the official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, conversations about the intersection of art and race took center stage. Artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald became the first African American painters to paint the first African American president and first lady of the United States. “I’m also thinking about all the young people—particularly girls and girls of color—who in years ahead will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution,” Michelle Obama said at the ceremony. “I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because I was one of those girls.” Three decades later, inspired by the work of pioneers like Dr. MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora is providing that platform. We were inspired by the dedicated work of Dr. Do it.

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