Article #1

Studies have shown that excessive daytime sleepiness have led to risk for depression. This occurs to the lack of sleeping hours that the students have at night. High school studies sleeping at 10:00pm or earlier have proven to be healthier that sleeping at 12:00pm and increasing the risk to have depression symthoms. Sleep deprivation is common among this high school students and as it increase its leval of depression it also limits the student to succed academicaly and the well being of the mind. As the student sleeps more hours at night he is more likly to eliminate the possability of becoming depress.

Biological Cause of Violence

Researchers are challenging the "society-as-cause" conventional wisdom on crime by exploring biological differences between criminals and noncriminals. They believe that early intervention and treatment could reduce the likelihood of antisocial behavior.

In the movie The Bad Seed, a mother reluctantly comes to realize that her angelic-looking little girl is a cold-blooded killer. That was fiction, of course - a story that built on the notion that someone could be "born bad" - and was overly simplistic as an explanation of evil. But new research is suggesting that that notion might be closer to truth than previously believed.

Scientists have begun to ask whether there is something biologically wrong," or different, about people who become violent criminals. And they are disclosing intriguing answers. Moreover, they say, criminal behavior can be spotted at a very early age - even as young as 6 years old, the age of the girl in the movie.

Theories about the causes of violent crime go all over the intellectual map, drawing from sociology, psychology, philosophy and religion. The question bedevils law enforcement workers, prison counselors, the criminal justice system and an increasingly frightened public. Is crime rooted m poverty, poor upbringing, exposure to "the underclass" or lack of exposure to moral teachings? Is evil, pure and simple, the "bad seed" come to life?

Depression Questions

1. The main biological causes of depression are: Problems with the neurons, sometimes the Brain Cells or neurons are unable to communicate; this makes the body to go into depression. Another cause is the lack of production of certain neurotransmitters. Overproduction of Cortisol, because of over stressing conditions. Damage to special organs that secrete hormones, like the adrenal and thyroid gland.
2. The main Environmental causes of depression are: Stress produced by the death of a loved one, or the loss of a job. Also Traumatic events, like a natural disaster. Childhood traumas, like a rape.
3. Overgeneralization, all or nothing theory, mental filter, disqualifying the positive, emotional reasoning, should statements, and some other.
4. The future is hopeless, I am inadequate, all of my experiences result in complete failure. These three basic expressions regulate the cognitive triad, and explains that people feel hopeless because they feel inadequate and think they are a complete failure. 

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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

Journal Assignment

A prejudice is a prejudgment: i.e. an assumption made about someone or something before having adequate knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy. The word prejudice is most commonly used to refer to a preconceived judgment toward a people or a person because of race, social class, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, political beliefs, religion, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics. It also means beliefs without knowledge of the facts and may include "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence. Discrimination is a sociological term referring to the treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group in consideration based solely on class or category. Discrimination is the actual behavior towards another group. It involves excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to other groups. The United Nations explains: "Discriminatory behaviors take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or rejection." Discriminatory laws such as redlining have existed in many countries. In some countries, controversial attempts such as racial quotas have been used to redress negative effects of discrimination.

What is personality?

Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal condition of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom for self-determination. Personality is not easily defined. Basically, personality refers to our attempts to capture or summarize an individuals essence. Personality is person-ality, the science of describing and understanding persons. Clearly, personality is a core area of study for psychology, if not the core. Together with intelligence, the topic of personality constitutes the most significant area of individual difference study. No two people are exactly the same - not even identical twins. Some people are anxious, some are risk-taking; some are phlegmatic, some highly-strung; some are confident, some shy; and some are quiet and some are loquacious. This issue of differences is fundamental to the study of personality.

Personality Disorders

Borderline

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person (generally over the age of eighteen years, although it is also found in adolescents), characterized by depth and variability of moods.

Schizotypal

Schizotypal personality disorder, or simply schizotypal disorder, is a personality disorder that is characterized by a need for social isolation, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs.

 

Paranoid

Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.

Narcissistic

Narcissism is the personality trait of egotism, vanity, conceit, or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others.

Histrionic

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and inappropriate seductiveness, usually beginning in early adulthood.

Antisocial

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD or APD) is defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.”

 

        

Obsessive-compulsive

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce anxiety, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety, or by a combination of such thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions).

Avoidant

Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD)[1] (or anxious personality disorder)[2] is a personality disorder recognized in the DSM-IV TR handbook in a person over the age of eighteen years as characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation, and avoidance of social interaction.

Bibliographies: 

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en

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

A class divided

The brown eye-blue eye experiment was an experiment to see how kids react on racism. The kids felt very bad because they were feeling like they were being treated very poorly not like the other half of the class. The other half were like bullying them just because they were not being treated the same way as them. I think this was a great experiment because children learn to say no to racism since they are very little. Also they know how it would feel like if they were different, so i think that all teachers should do that with their students since they are like 5 at least. That way there will be less racism in the world. I think that if the world was free of racism it would be much better. There would be no wars, no school fights, no bullies, in other words the world would be perfect. But it is not so we have to learn how to live with racism and to understand that it is not good. The only god part is being racist against the gay people because that is a sin.

Why are people racist?

I think people are racist because they feel something good inside them when they act that way. I also think that they act that way because of how their parents are and how they were raised. People do that because they feel like they are more important than someone else just because of their race, the country they are from, the way they look, the way they act, and also the way they talk. You can also be racist by thinking that a person is good or bad. One example of how I think people learn if someone is a good person or a bad person is by when you look a movie and they see like how the bad beople dress and act, so they relate it to the real life. So for example i saw someone bad in a movie dessed with a tuxedo, so in real life I will think that every person dressed with a tuxedo will be bad and mabe harm me in some way. But really thats not true, like if you see in a movie a black person as the bad guy you think every black person is the same. Or also what i think is that most of the homosexuals are very built up, i don't know why i think that but it is partly true. I wouldn't mess with a homosexual they are dangerous and play with dolls you wouldn't want to be like that. So thats why I think people are racist!!

Emilio Kafati

What I like about Psychology

I like Psychology first of all because of the teacher! Second of al because you can learn about how people react. You also learn about how people think, about positive and negative reinforcement or positive and negative punishment as well. You also learn about nature and nurture that for me thats the best topic in class, because you learn if people are born gay o they are made by how they are raised. In general i lovee Psychology!!!

Emilio Kafati