Nature of Violence

Domestic violence may start when one partner feels the need to control and dominate the other. Abusers may feel this need to control their partner because of low self-esteem, extreme jealousy, difficulties in regulating anger and other strong emotions, or when they feel inferior to the other partner in education and socioeconomic background. Some men with very traditional beliefs may think they have the right to control women, and that women aren’t equal to men.

Indeed, paleontological data reveal a rather continuous stream of human violence dating back thousands of years. It is clear that violence is not restricted to early historical periods or particular cultural groups. Despite recent concerns in the United States and elsewhere over spiraling violence rates, available data suggest that there is actually less violence now than in ancient times.

1 co-opting the resources of others; 2 defending against attack; 3 inflicting costs on same-sex rivals; 4 negotiating status and power hierarchies; 5 deterring rivals from future aggression; 6 deterring males from sexual infidelity; and 7 reducing resources expended on genetically unrelated children.

The political right believes that the root cause of violent crime is bad genes or bad morals. Not so, says the left. The root cause of violent crime is bad housing or dead-end jobs. And, I tell you that while doing something about the causes of violence surely requires a political ideology, the only way we can determine what those causes are in the first place is to check our ideologies at the door and to try to keep our minds open as wide, and for as long, as we can bear.

Violence - The Causes Of Violence - Aggression, Violent, Social, and Factors http://law.jrank.org/pages/2292/Violence-causes-violence.html#ixzz17QxFYm1p

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/the-causes-of-violence/blog-263921/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/teenviolence.html
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/index.html

Depression

1. The biological causes of depression are physical changes in the brain, which can be caused by problems with the neurotransmitters and neurons. Also changes in the body's balance of hormones, which can be a result of problems in the thyroid, menopause, or other condition. Inherited traits are also involved in causes of depression.

2. The environmental causes of depression are life events such as the death or loss of familiars of loved ones, financial problems, and high stress. Early childhood traumas can be also a cause of depression, traumatic events during childhood such as abuse or loss of a loved one which can cause permanent changes in the brain.

3. Cognitive causes of depression are learned through relationships, unfavorable life situations often in childhood and the formative years. People view the world in a negative way, this negative view is usually a distortion of reality.

4. The Cognitive Triad is based in 3 beliefs that can cause depression and affect each other. These things are negative views of the self, the world, and to the future. As an example if a soccer player fails a penalty will believe he is a failure, then will believe everyone is against him, and finally he will believe he will fail in a future and would never be good at something.
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=564306
http://www.md-phc.com/puntil/ccausesof.htm
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/allen.html
http://www.allaboutdepression.com/cau_04.html

Article #1

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609083221.htm

The study was conducted by Dr. Mahmood I. Siddique, clinical associate professor of medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J. It was presented June 9, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas, at SLEEP 2010, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC. The study involved 262 high school seniors with an average age of 17.7 years who were attending a public high school in Mercer County, N.J. Participant show socio-demographic characteristics using a cross-sectional survey. Too much daytime sleepiness was indicated by a score of 10 or higher on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and mood was evaluated with a validated depression scale. The results indicated that high school seniors were three times more likely to have strong depression symptoms if they had excessive daytime sleepiness.

Article#2

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100802165402.htm

The study was conducted by Lawrence T. Lam, Ph.D., of the School of Medicine, Sydney, and the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia, and Zi-Wen Peng, M.Sc., of the Ministry of Education and SunYat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, in August 2010. It will appear in the October print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.  1,041 teens in China were assessed for depression and anxiety using previously validated scales. They also completed a survey to identify pathological Internet use, including questions that reflect typical behaviors of addiction. At the beginning of the study, 62 participants  were classified as having moderately pathological use of the Internet, and 2% were severely at risk. Nine months later, the adolescents were re-assessed for anxiety and depression; 2%  had significant anxiety symptoms and 84% had developed depression. The risk of depression for those who used the Internet pathologically was about two and a half times that of those who did not. No relationship was observed between pathological Internet use and anxiety.

Article#3

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091117094933.htm

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College led by Dr Robert Stewar. The study consisted of a survey of over 60,000, complemented with already existent records. Researchers found that over the following 4 yearsusing the survey, the mortality risk was increased to a similar extent in people who were depressed as in people who were smokers.

 

Mental Disorders

paranoid-type schizophrenia: may have delusions that one or more people are plotting against them or their loved ones. It is difficult or impossible for others to convince them that they are not the target of a plot. People with this condition may spend a lot of time thinking about how to protect themselves from the person or people they believe are trying to harm them.  Is marked primarily by delusions that follow a theme, like persecution or grandeur. Auditory hallucinations may accompany a delusion and are, therefore, usually related to its theme. Symptoms common to other subtypes, like disorganized speech and flattened affect, are not usually prominent in episodes of paranoia, but anger, irritability, and extreme anxiety are. People suffering from paranoid delusions become particularly preoccupied with them and may be especially prone to violence.


disorganized-type schizophrenia: type of schizophrenia in which behavior is disturbed and has no purpose. Is marked by disorganized speech, behavior, and flattened affect is particularly disruptive. The disorganized episode often features fragmented speech and inappropriate or unexpected behavior that does not reflect ideas expressed verbally. Strange mannerisms, gestures, and surprising behavior are common. This type of schizophrenia typically causes significant dysfunction in daily life, self-care, and interaction with others, as well as notable thought disturbance and loss of goal-directed behavior. People in the midst of a disorganized episode show no catatonic signs.


catatonic-type schizophrenia: People with catatonic type assume peculiar postures and are usually speechless. They may be both rigid and motionless, or they may seem agitated and move around excessively, but always without external stimulus. Catatonic people may also have strange facial expressions, may mimic the behavior of others, and may repeat words that others say. Catatonic behavior is also seen in mood disorders, like bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, and occasionally in diseases of the central nervous system, like Parkinson's disease.


positive symptoms:
* hallucinations and illusions
Hallucinations are perceptions that occur without connection to an appropriate source. Although hallucinations can occur in any sensory form - auditory (sound), visual (sight), tactile (touch), gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell).
* delusions
Delusions are false personal beliefs that are not subject to reason or contradictory evidence and are not explained by a person's usual cultural beliefs. Delusions may take on different themes.
*Disorganized speech/thinking
Disorganized speech/thinking, also described as thought disorder or loosening of associations, is a key aspect of schizophrenia. Disorganized thinking is usually assessed primarily based on the persons speech. Therefore, tangential, loosely associated, or incoherent speech severe enough to substantially impair effective communication is used as an indicator of thought disorder by the DSM-IV.
* Catatonic behaviors
Catatonic behaviors are characterized by a marked decrease in reaction to the immediate surrounding environment, sometimes taking the form of motionless and apparent unawareness, rigid or bizarre postures, or aimless excess motor activity.


negative symptoms:

*Affective flattening is the reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact, and body language.
* Alogia
Alogia, or poverty of speech, is the lessening of speech fluency and productivity, thought to reflect slowing or blocked thoughts, and often manifested as short, empty replies to questions.
*Avolition
Avolition is the reduction, difficulty, or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior; it is often mistaken for apparent disinterest. (examples of avolition include: no longer interested in going out and meeting with friends, no longer interested in activities that the person used to show enthusiasm for, no longer interested in much of anything, sitting in the house for many hours a day doing nothing.)

differnece between a halucination and a delusion:
Delusions are a symptom of some mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophreniform disorder. Hallucinations, on the other hand, tend to only appear in people with schizophrenia or a psychotic disorder.


cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia:

• Difficulty maintaining attention The inability to maintain focused attention makes people with schizophrenia seem spacey or “out of it.”
• memory problems
  Schizophrenia often effects working memory, which is the kind of memory you use to keep things in your head for active processing, like the digits of a phone number you’re about to dial.
• Difficulty planning and structuring activities
  Caused by reduced executive control. Executive control is the mental process that allows us to identify the steps needed to complete a task and then execute them in a proper order. Executive control also allows us to suppress our response to distractions in order to get something done.
• Lack of insight
  People with schizophrenia have a specific cognitive blindspot that prevents them from understanding that they are ill. This means that loved ones and caregivers should remain as vigilant as possible to help the patient maintain the routines of treatment in order to control symptoms.

avolition:
 Avolition is the reduction, difficulty, or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior; it is often mistaken for apparent disinterest. (examples of avolition include: no longer interested in going out and meeting with friends, no longer interested in activities that the person used to show enthusiasm for, no longer interested in much of anything, sitting in the house for many hours a day doing nothing.)


Catatonia:
People with catatonic type assume peculiar postures and are usually speechless. They may be both rigid and motionless, or they may seem agitated and move around excessively, but always without external stimulus. Catatonic people may also have strange facial expressions, may mimic the behavior of others, and may repeat words that others say. Catatonic behavior is also seen in mood disorders, like bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, and occasionally in diseases of the central nervous system, like Parkinson's disease.


Delusion od Grandeur:
A delusion in which one believes oneself possessed of great importance, power, wealth, intellect, or ability.


delusion of reference:
Delusions of reference refers to the strongly held belief that random events, objects, behaviors of others, etc. have a particular and unusual significance to oneself.
A person might believe that secret messages about him are broadcast in a weekly television show, to the point where he would record the programs and watch them again and again.


somatic delusion:

a false notion or belief concerning body image or body function. See also delusion.

http://www.enotalone.com/article/3018.html
http://www.mentalhealthchannel.net/schizophrenia/causes.shtml
http://www.schizophrenia.com/diag.php
http://schizophrenia.about.com/od/whatisschizophrenia/f/schiz_symptoms.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/delusion-1
http://bipolar.about.com/od/glossaryd/g/gl_delusofrefer.htm

A Class Divided

Jane Elliott, internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And if you think this does not apply to you. . . you are in for a rude awakening.

Jane Elliott, internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And if you think this does not apply to you. . . you are in for a rude awakening.

In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. over thirty years ago, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. Everyone who is exposed to Jane Elliott's work, be it through a lecture, workshop, or video, is dramatically affected by it.




In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. over thirty years ago, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. Everyone who is exposed to Jane Elliott's work, be it through a lecture, workshop, or video, is dramatically affected by it.

What is Phsycology

Psychology is both an applied and academic field that studies the human mind and behavior. Research in psychology seeks to understand and explain thought, emotion, and behavior. Applications of psychology include mental health treatment, performance enhancement, self-help, ergonomics, and many other areas affecting health and daily life.

Personality Disorder

Border Line: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual's sense of self-identity. Originally thought to be at the "borderline" of psychosis, people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation.

Schizotypal: It is a condition characterized by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior. This disorder is only diagnosed when these behaviors become persistent and very disabling or distressing.

Paranoid: PPD is a type of psychological personality disorder characterized by an extreme level of distrust and suspicion of others. Paranoid personalities are generally difficult to get along with, and their combative and distrustful nature often elicits hostility in others. The negative social interactions that result from their behavior then serve to confirm and reinforce their original pessimistic expectations.

Narcissistic: This personality and mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.

Histrionic: It is a disorder in which people have intense, unstable emotions and distorted self-images. For people with histrionic personality disorder, their self-esteem depends on the approval of others and does not arise from a true feeling of self-worth.

Antisocial: Disorder in which your ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional. When you have antisocial personality disorder, you typically have no regard for right and wrong. You may often violate the law and the rights of others, landing yourself in frequent trouble or conflict. You may lie, behave violently, and have drug and alcohol problems.

Obsessive-compulsive: Anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Repetitive behaviors such as handwashing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away.

Avoidant: Personality disorder in which a person has a lifelong pattern of feeling extremely shy, inadequate, and sensitive to rejection.