The Power of a Diagnoses

The Power of a Diagnosis

The Identity Dance was an excellent read. I fully believe that environment has a play in the outcome of one’s life. Let me give you an example. In my family there is a set of identical twins. I will refer to each individual twin as Twin 1 and Twin 2, they are labeled according to birth order with Twin 1 being the oldest and Twin 2 be the younger of the two. The difference in their age is 4 minutes. Growing up, these twins seemed to be identical in every way. From kindergarten on up through school, these twins were inseparable and very competitive with one another. During these competitions there was no distinction in one twin being better than the other, they performed equally as well in everything from childhood races to doing school work. As young adults they continued to compete in the game of life and still there seemed to be no distinction between the two in terms of their accomplishments. Then at the age of 25 a fork in the road, that we will call “The power of a diagnosis” began to separate the twins. Twin 1 got into some legal trouble and quickly told a psychologist all about it. As a result Twin 1 was given a Bi-Polar diagnoses which came with what one would consider “Perks” at the time. The legal trouble disappeared, and this new found label which deemed her mentally disabled, came with a social security check and free health care for the rest of her life.
As the years progressed Twin 1 seemed to grow into her diagnoses with many diagnoses to follow. Twin 2, on the other hand, raised a child, had a successful career, had purchased a couple homes and lived an average middle class life. Unfortunately, Twin 1 was unable to separate herself from the many diagnoses she was given over the years. Twin 2 often thought to herself, and even had conversations with her sister, about how it was possible to be so identical and yet so different.
Today Twin 1 lives in the lower level of Twin 2’s house. Having had no responsibility in terms of participating in supporting herself or taking much accountability for her life, another title can be given to Twin 1, learned helplessness. Twin 1 today struggles with having a place in life. Twin 2 often reminds her that at any point she can begin to participate. Twin 2 reminds her of how identical they were up until age 25.
After reading the article it seems reasonable that although the two share the same DNA, environmental influence definitely played a role in this situation. The question Twin 2 has is: “Could diagnoses be part of that environmental condition which created such different lives for these two sisters?”
Twin 2 was reminded of a reading she had in her first psychology class just last semester, it was titled “WHOSE CRAZY HERE ANYWAY?” by Rosenhan, D.L. (1973).on being sane in insane places. In this particular study Rosenhan recruits 8 participants including himself to serve as pseudo patients. Three women and five men are among the participants. Three are psychologist, one a psychiatrist, one a painter, one a homemaker, one a pediatrician, and one a graduate student. These participants were all instructed to follow identical instructions, they were to call the hospital, make an appointment and complain that they were hearing voices. Other than this single symptom all the participants acted completely normal and gave truthful information in their interviews. Upon completion of the interview all of the pseudo patients were admitted into the hospitals and all but one was admitted with the diagnoses of Schizophrenia. Once the patients were admitted into the hospital they acted completely normal. To make a long story short, these pseudo patients stayed in these hospitals anywhere from 7 to 52 days. And when they left the hospital they had recorded diagnoses of Schizophrenia in remission in their files.
“How big of an impact can mental illness diagnoses have on a person’s life?”

Stacy Hennessy

Infant Temperament (Kagan, 2003)

While looking for a topic to blog on, I did what any good student would do, I went to youtube.com and typed in "infant temperament" to see what I could find. The first video to catch my eye talked about a study done by a man named Jerome Kagan. Upon further research I discovered that Kagan is a big player in developmental psychology whose research in infant temperament is primarily focused on two categories, shy and outgoing infants. Which matched the video I watched perfectly. In the clip Kagan claims that at 4 months of age it is possible to tell what type of temperament a child will have by the age of 14 months. It is a simple study where a mobile is swayed to and fro in front of the infant and any reaction from the infant is noted.

The study has shown that the average child will occasionally move and show some excitement to the mobile, and by the age of 14 months the child should behave perfectly normal. However, should the child be overly relaxed, yet still excited or happy, about the mobile's movement, Kagan predicts that the child will be more outgoing later in life. Conversely, if the infant shows thrashing of the arms and legs, followed by a tantrum of sorts, that child will be overly anxious and shy 10 months later. This "test" has been shown by Kagan to work on over 300 infants.

Later in the video Kagan mentions a colleague of his, Nathan Fox, has been able to relate temperament to brain patterns in a similar study where he puts a cap on the infants head that reads brain activity. Then he has simple household occurrences performed in front of the infant. His study showed that the average infant had equal activity in the left and right sides of the brain, while shy and outgoing children show more activity in one side than the other.

Kagan adds the statement, "...our fate is not in our genes, biology is not our destiny..." Implying that temperament is neither nature nor nurture, but a combination of the two. I happen to agree with this statement, I believe that it has been shown throughout history, whenever there are two sides to an argument, both sides end up being right or wrong in the end. I thought this study was interesting because of how simple it was and how well it could predict a child's temperament at the same time.

Citation:

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGjO1KwltOw

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Kagan

The Food We Feed Our Bodies

The reading titled The Mystery of Fetal Life: Secrets of the Womb, discusses the various toxins that can harm unborn children. Multiple citations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), can be found within the reading. Recently I watched a movie called Food Inc. This movie was released in November 2009, and is about the American food industry. Food Inc. describes how food we are eating in America is quickly becoming less and less like real food. Many of the leading people of FDA and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) are also the leaders of the controlling companies. How can they monitor themselves? Wouldn't this lead to conflicts of interest? To anyone who thought the information about how to have a healthier baby and healthier self I encourage you to rent Food Inc., and learn about the food you are feeding your body.

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker

I left class today evaluating my personal beliefs and stereotypes of children. When I completed reading The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker last week, I completely agreed with most of what he said. Children are not born with a blank slate in the heads, and we as a country have believed this for far too long. However, in class today, I as well as everyone else, blamed parents 100% for bad behaviors. The following sites have helped me shape my ideas of nature vs. nurture.

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/behavior.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture

http://www.parentcoachplan.com/misbehavior.php

I googled any combination of words I could think of to find varied information on children, behavior, parents, and genes. A large majority of the websites that came up for my searches related to how parents can become better parents, or how parents can fix their mistakes. This vividly proved that our society as a whole stresses the nurture arguement. With more research I found the articles above.

I understand the genitics behind the nature argument but respect that one's environment plays a large role in who children become. I personally like Donald Hebb's reply of what plays a larger role in behavior, "What is more important in a rectangle, its length or width?"

In my own words I would explain the factors leading to how people act this way: When babies are born they are given a code to live life by, not meerely a blank slate. As they grow and mature, they follow their given code of life. However, humans live life trying to avoid pain and maximize pleasure, so when a child recieves a positve reinforcement for a negative behavior he or she continues with that behavior simply for pleasure over pain. This explains how environment can paly a role. Some children may be more stubborn or maybe more extroverted because of hereditary, but the environment they are born into shapes these inate characteristics into something positive and useful or into something negative.

Study since 2005

"When we talk about stress, most people think about how we react to problems that are difficult to deal with. Sometimes these problems are major "life events" that are unexpected or unusual. The family may be having financial difficulties. Parents may be going through a divorce. Teens may be breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Perhaps the teen has been hurt in an accident. Other problems are more common day-to-day difficulties". We are reading and researching about children about stress, having a temper, or just the way the teen looks at the adult as if the teen knows everything. Ya right!!!!!!!! I have done some reading online and found a research about teen and stress levels I have enclosed the web site for you. Here is the web site http://medind.nic.in/iba/t05/i1/ibat05i1p11.pdf. After reading this, the study was done in one location and not at different colleges at all. Which maybe if they would have tested in different schools, they might have gotten a different scale or even just different reaction by the student or it might have stayed the same, but either case it was one school.

How does stress attacks the body. I found a web site that answers those questions, http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/01/22/how-stress-attacks-the-body/10876.html. Stress is something that we all will go thru and will have for the rest of our lives. There is no one person that does not have some sort of stress. You might think will I don’t have stress but you probably do. You are thinking about a test or if a guy/girl likes you. How do you get her/his phone number? Do I go to work/school? Just simple question that you think of everyday is a stress. You might not know it. Please understand that this is my opinion on my finds and what I have said.

Rubric for Class Posts

Assignments: All posts should use proper English grammar, spelling, and syntax. Acronyms should be avoided when possible. References to online sources must be linked. Student posts and comments should be respectful to others at all times.

Psychology in the Media: This posting should indicate how something we have talked about in class has been reported in the popular media within the last six years. The media itself should be included (either as an image, embedded video, or working link). A clear description of how this media relates to a topic we have covered. Finally, postings should include the writer's (student's) take on whether or not the media has accurately portrayed the psychological phenomenon and research.

A “Cool” Study: This posting should describe a recent study (published 2005-2010) that relates to something we have talked about in class. The article itself should come from a peer-reviewed source, and should be linked in the posting for the class to peruse. The description of the study should relate not just the study's abstract, but should link the study to what we have talked about in class. Finally, posters should evaluate the study's importance, strengths, flaws, etc.

I Could Do That Better: This post should propose a study that examines a phenomenon we have talked about in class (or read in an assigned reading). This post can include a criticism of a previous study, but must include a research design that corrects mistakes/biases/problems of previous examinations of the psychological phenomenon. At minimum, your proposed study must include sample, methodology, and hypotheses. Finally, your post should include a clear rational for why this proposed study is superior to previous studies.

My view on a debate: This posting should include a short summary of the debate (including relevant sources) that clearly defines the argument. You should provide at least two supports for your view on the debate, and only one of these supports can include anecdotal evidence. Empirical supports should be cited/linked so that others can comment on them. Example debates: Genes vs. Environment, Parents vs. Peers, Sex Ed, Teaching Styles, No Child Left Behind, Nursing vs. Formula, etc….

Welcome to Developmental Psychology

For this course, students will be graded upon five posts and five comments. Posts will make up 15% of their final grade, and comments will make up 5% of their final grade. Students are encouraged to post and comment as often as they like; grades will only be taken from the "highest scoring" posts and comments.