The Midlife Crisis: Schaie's studies

Describe the common understanding of midlife crisis. What is Schaie’s description of crisis and what factors are necessary for a life change to be considered a crisis?

Midlife crisis is a concept that is a stereotype of the middle adulthood years. Middle adulthood is ranged from 40-60 years old. Midlife crisis is mainly associated with the sense of impending loss of health and vigour, of professional status, of the parental role, of life itself. For example, parents who have “empty nest” stage of life may feel lonely when their children are no longer living with them (Sugarman, 2001).

In earlier time, there were several theories of development in early and middle adulthood (e.g. Erikson, Levinson), including evidence for the presence of crises and transitions. According to the Erikson’s eight stages theory of psychosocial development, maturity stage (aged 30-65) is the crisis stage of generativity versus stagnation. This stage is about whether the individual has generating something that the individual care about in his or her life. Later on, Levinson refined the stages around midlife by suggested that lifespan is made up by life seasons (Sugarman, 2001). Levinson (1977) conducted a biographical study of 40 males in the "mid-life decade" (age 35-45). 80% of the subject faced midlife crisis where they questioned almost every aspect of their lives.

Schaie’s work focused mainly on the study of cognitive functioning from young adulthood to old age by the ongoing Seattle Longitudinal Study (http://geron.psu.edu/sls) since 1959. In the study, he placed health, demographic, personality, and environmental factors that have impacted on the individual differences in successful cognitive aging. Perhaps, these variables are determining factors that may linked to negative events like midlife crisis. Schaie had conducted a list of research based on the data of Seattle Longitudinal Study.

For example, Bosworth and Schaie (1997) supported association between social relationships and heath outcome and service utilization in adulthood (mean age = 58). For unmarried individuals, increased age was associated with greater medical usage and estimated total health care cost; while lower levels of perceived social environment were correlated to a higher numbers of hospital visits. Thus, supportive social environment and broad social networks are helpful to the adult’s health, which would possibly to reduce the midlife crisis.

Bosworth, Schaie, and Willis (1999) examined the relationship between cognitive function and the survival rate for sample of survivors and individuals who subsequently died. Level of cognitive function was found to be associated with subsequent mortality; including crystallized abilities, visualization abilities, verbal memory, and perceptual speed. Individuals in the highest 25th percentile of performance in various factors (e.g. verbal memory) had a lower risk for mortality compared to individuals in the lowest 25th percentile. Overall, mortality rate tend to be ability specific rather than age-related.

Schaie' longitudinal studies have shown that there is no uniform pattern of age-related changes across all intellectual abilities (Schaie, 2005). In terms of job performance, Schaie (2000) stated that there is no correlation between industrial productivity and chronological age. Thus, midlife crisis is less likely to occur too. Schaie also suggested that positive self-concept is important in adulthood. Successful aging is enhancing in midlife by learning methods for stress reduction and developing techniques for coping with change, and maintaining adequate social support from others.

In short, changes in midlife may often be as a turning point rather than crisis. This is supported by Shek (2006) where only some respondents were dissatisfied with their work and personal achievement but majority did not experience to the extent of midlife crisis.

References:

Bosworth, H. B., & Schaie, K. W. (1997). The relationship of social environment, social networks, and health outcomes in the settle longitudinal study: Two analytical approaches. Journals of Gerontology, 52, 197-205.

Bosworth, H. B., Schaie, K. W., & Willis, S. L. (1999). Cognitive and sociodemographic risk factors for mortality in the Seattle Longitudinal Study. Journals of Gerontology, 54, 273-282.

Levinson, D. J. (1977). The mid-life transition: A period in adult psychosocial development. Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes. 40, 99-112.

Schaie, K.W. (2000). How does maintenance of intellectual competence contribute to quality of life and successful aging? In K. Manger (Ed.), [Jena University lectures] (Vol. 9, pp. 21-40). Jena, Germany: Hausdruckerei der FSU Jena [Friedrich Schiller-University Press].

Schaie, K. W. (2005). Observations from The Seattle Longitudinal Study of adult intelligence. John Hopkins Memory Bulletin, January 28, 23-30.

Shek, D.T.L. (1996). Mid-life Crisis in Chinese Men and Women. Journal of Psychology, 130, 109-119.

Sugarman, L. (2001). Life-spam development; Frameworks, accounts and strategies. (2nd ed.). New York: Psychology Press.

Cognitive Development: Vygotsky vs Piaget

Vygotsky and Piaget have different ideas on cognitive development. It is interesting to note that Vygotsky’s theory was described as “thinks afresh according to how he saw things at the time”; whereas Piaget’s theory was always consistent.

Vygotsky emphasised much on ‘nonspontaneous’ concepts. He was concerned about dynamics of development, which has an influence on the cognitive learning of children in applicable issues as primacy of social processes of learning. This was also pointed out by Wong, who stated that human thought processes were mainly influenced by their interactions with the social, historical and cultural environments. In comparison, Piaget’s theory was built on with the statics of development and emphasised more on ‘spontaneous’ concept, which means that the influence of the environment is not much taken into consideration. In addition, Vygotskian’s theory focused on individuals whereas Piaget’s focused on the population as a whole.

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) concept as Vygotsky suggested is practically useful. In his clinical interview with 10-year-old children, the prediction of their unassisted score on the Binet test of intelligence is not as good as ZPD score with regard to their school achievement after two years. Therefore, it was believed that ZPD is a better predictor tool of potential achievement than the child’s IQ score.

In short, Vygotsky’s theory may not be as popular as Piaget’s theory; the work of each seemed to be complementary to each other’s work. In order to get a complete picture in the work of improve schooling, Vygotsky would have needed Piaget’s descriptions of development. On the other hand, if Piaget needed to modify his intuitions about collaborative learning among peers, he would have needed the theory of Vygotsky.

Reference:
Shayer, M. (2003). Not just Piaget; not just Vygotsky, and certainly not Vygotsky as alternative to Piaget. Learning and Instruction, 13, 465-485.

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of development

Discuss how Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of development has made a contribution to the field of human development. Specifically refer to research that has made use of Bronfenbrenner’s framework.

Traditionally, psychology has developed more tools for analysing individual than tools for analysing behaviour in environment context (Pervin & Lewis, 1978, as cited in Sugarman, 2001). It was usually either focus on people or environment as the locus of the developmental psychology essential. For example, there is endless debate about which factor is more important in the question of nature vs nurture (Sugarman, 2001).

Bronfenbrenner’s (1986) bioecological systems theory suggests that human development can only be understood within the various systems in which a person is surrounded. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s perspective, Chang and Fine (2007) examined mothers’ perceptions of parenting stress. It was stated that mothers’ capacity for adjustment is influenced by not only within themselves but also between people, i.e. by their children and their ecological context. The result revealed that maternal personal resources (i.e., self-efficacy and maternal depression) are important in predicting the stress experienced by low-income young mothers. Besides, maternal personal resources, child characteristics, and contextual influences explained differences between the chronically high and decreasing factors. More specifically, positive correlations were reported between difficult child temperament and parenting stress. Therefore, it was concluded that interventions programs are needed to assess maternal, child, and contextual in order to give/provide better attention to the unique needs of young mothers (Chang and Fine, 2007).

Lohman and Billings (2008) employed bioecological theory to examine protective and risk factors associated with rates of sexual related behaviors among adolescent boys from poor background. Based on the macro bioecological theory, the development of adolescents are influenced by various faceted environmental systems. Align with this, the characteristics of three microsystems: the family, school, and neighborhood, and also behaviors of adolescents were included in the study. As supported by bioecological perspective, individual behaviors, school functioning, and the family environment were key predictors of these sexual behaviors. Adolescents’ academic achievement and parental monitoring served as important protectors in influencing early risky sexual behaviors and initial sexual experience by preventing the negative behaviours, e.g., drug-alcohol use and school problems (Lohman and Billings, 2008).

On the other hand, Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory can also be used to outline the complex environmental processes that influence social support received by pregnant adolescents. The article identified macrosystem, mesosystem and microsystem in the pregnant adolescent’s context. For example, the microsystem includes stable characteristics of the adolescent that she brings to the negotiation of social support. This includes her personality, social and communication skills, age, level of stress and health. It was suggested that the bioecological model can also be used to guide mental health assessment of pregnant adolescents. Social support is a powerful strength in preventing negative outcomes among pregnant adolescents, and can be derived from several sources in the environment (Logsdon & Gennaro, 2008).

In short, the contribution of the Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory lies in demonstrating the interaction of individuals and environmental factors. Meanwhile, the theoreotical model of bioecological system continues to be the ideal framework with a high degree of explanatory power in developmental psychology.

References:

Bergen, D. (2008). Human development: traditional and contemporary theories. Pearson Education, New Jersey.

Chang, Y., & Fine, M. A. (2008). Modeling parenting stress trajectories among low-income young mothers across the child’s second and third years: Factors accounting for stability and change. Journal of Family Psychology, 21, 584–594.

Lerner, R. M. (1995). Developing individuals within changing contexts: Implications of developmental contextualism for human development research, policy and programs. In T. A. Kinderman & J. Valsiner (Eds.) Development of personcontext relations. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlaum Associates.

Logsdon, M. C., & Gennaro, S. (2008). Bioecological model for guiding social support research and interventions with pregnant adolescents. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 26, 327-339.

Lohman, B.J., & Billings, A. (2008). Protective and risk factors associated with adolescent boy’s early sexual debut and risky sexual behaviours. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 37, 723-735.

Sugarman, L. (2001). Life-spam development; Frameworks, accounts and strategies. (2nd ed.). New York: Psychology Press.

Attachment in the Dual Working/Single Parent Family

Discuss the implications of Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s attachment stages in relation to the reality of the dual working parent or single parent family.

In his pioneer work with attachment theory, Bowlby believed that attachment behaviour in infants, such as crying and searching, were adaptive responses to separation from with a primary attachment figure. The primary caregiver provided care, support and protection, which is essential for infants to survive. This is relation to the evolutionary theory, where infant who develop attachment would enjoy a higher rate of survival. Mary Ainsworth further extended the theory, and classified with several attachment styles, including secure, anxious-resistant, and avoidant (Fraley, 2004).

Attachment style is known to be linked with emotional, behavioural and psychological functioning throughout the lifespan. Thus, it is believed that security of attachment affects modulation of arousal and attention, impacts quality of environmental exploration, and may be an essential stimulus for development of certain brain regions (Lianne, 2001).

In modern days, family structure has commonly changed into dual working parent. In Singapore, dual working parent are getting working long hours or required to travel overseas frequently. As a result, parents are not considered as the primary caregiver to the children as they rarely spend time with their parents. Instead, the children are attached with other adults, including maids, grandparents, or rely on childcare providers. It is doubtful about the range of
societal options for successfully sharing the task of bringing up children. In such case, secured attachment may less likely to occur for the children and they are possibly develop anxious-resistant or avoidant attachment. Belsky and Braungart (1991, as cited in Bretherton, 1992) showed an increased risk of insecure attachment if day care begins in the first year and is extensive in duration.

There was an interesting study supported the importance of attachment bond. Wendie and Coleman (2001) examined whether children who likely reduced access to parental resources were inclined to develop stronger attachment bond with a dog, compared with children who have greater access. Single-parent families and 2-parent families were compared based on the 12 years old children’s level of attachment to their family dog. The result revealed that children in single-parent families had significantly higher levels of attachment to dogs than children in 2-parent families.

Lianne (2001) investigated the effects of attachment disruption on cognitive functioning and academic success in adolescents. The data used in the research included demographic variables that possibly linked with attachment disruptions (separation from primary caregiver for more than six months, parental divorce, single parent home, adoption, birth outside the United States, and multiple moves), a measure of cognitive ability and student grades. The result demonstrated that attachment disruptions were small but significant effect on cognitive ability and grades.

From the studies above, we may conclude that attachment theories are playing crucial roles in the children development. Secure attachment is essential for children to develop positive mindset throughout their life.

References:

Fraley, R. C. (2004). A brief overview of adult attachment theory and research. Retrieved August 14, 2008 from http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~rcfraley/attachment.htm

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28, 759-775.

Lianne , L. C. (2001). The effects of attachment disruptions on cognitive ability and academic success in adolescents. Dissertation Abstracts International, 61, 10B.

Wendie1, B., & Coleman, G. J. (2001). Child-companion animal attachment bonds in single and two-parent families. Anthrozoös, 14, 216-223.

The Matching Law

Briefly outline what the matching law is and describe two types of deviation from matching.For each of these deviations discuss one factor that may produce that type of deviation.Present experimental evidence that illustrates an application of the matching law (with animal or human participants).

Herrnstein (1961, as cited in Shahan and Podlesnik, 2007) developed matching law.Matching law stated that allocation of instrumental behaviour to two alternatives is proportional to the relative rate of reinforcement retrieved from those alternatives.

The matching law was built on Herrnstein’s own experiment on pigeons. The experiment had a series of conditions where each key was linked with its own schedule of reinforcement. A few reinforcement schedules were occurred simultaneously is named as concurrent schedule. The experiment demonstrated that when two thirds of the reinforcers came from left key, the pigeons also responded around two thirds of the proportions on the left key too (Herrnstein, 1961, as cited in Mazur, 2006).

However, the results of the experiment not necessarily would have followed the matching law. Undermatching and bias are the two types of deviations from matching law. Undermatching means that proportion of responses are less insignificant than reinforcement proportions. A likely explanation about undermatching is that subjects may attribute a reinforcer to the wrong responses due to forgetfulness. (Davidson & Jenkins 1985, as cited in Mazur, 2006). As for bias, it refers to a subject’s response proportions are consistent on one option over the other rather than follow the matching law of equation. Bias may happen when the subject prefers a response key or a certain colour.
Kyonka (2008) examined the effects of reinforcer rate and magnitude, whether responding can be controlled. Four pigeons responded in a concurrent-schedule procedure where reinforce rate and magnitudes changed randomly across sessions. The result showed that the responding within session was comparatively higher when the higher rate and larger magnitude were coupled with the same option than when they were coupled with dissimilar options. Kyonka (2008) concluded that the results support the matching law’s assumptions of additivity and independence as applied to choice in changeover.


References:

Kyonka, E. G. E. (2008). The matching law and effects of reinforcer rate and magnitude on choice in transition. Behavoural Processes, 78, 210-216.

Mazur, J. E. (2006). Learning and Behavior. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Behaviour Genetics:Self Esteem gene?

Yes, I do agree that interaction of genetics and environment leads to individual’s behaviour. Numerous studies have supported the ideas of heritability including intelligence, temperament, athleticms and creativity. In understanding of personality traits like self-esteem, is there a gene that manipulating self-esteem? Harter (2006) argued that the answer is possibly no; but heritability is yes. When the child is inherited to be intellectually competent, so they are more likely to perform well in their studies. Thus, the child reinforced by the parents( i.e., compliments), so we won’t feel surprise that eventually the child maintain high self-esteem.

On the other hand, if there is really a so called self-esteem gene, it is less likely for the child to maintain high self-esteem while having a cold home environment (Hart, Atkins, & Tursi, 2006).

1. social consequences of highly accurate genetic diagnoses of traits such as criminality, homosexuality or high intelligence in our society?

Have you ever heard of the statement "Some people are more equal than others"? It is very unfair for certain people who are unable to choose their genes. For example, once the source of the gene like eugenics is confirmed, are you sure that the world would become better or worse?

Next, if we combine the criminality and intelligence, isn't it scary to think of the high IQ people who eventually come up with evil ideas...? For example, creating virus to destroy database can cost loss of billions in corporate world.

Many people tend to think of the simple equation and lead to the generic conclusion like:
Perform well in academic studies = good student = good character including moral values…
It is likely that there is a correlation to each other’s domain, but this does not imply of the causal effect.

References:

Harter, S. (2006). The development of self-esteem. In M. H. Kernis(Ed.), Self-esteem issues and answers: A source book of current perspectives (pp. 145-156). New York: Psychology Press.

Hart, D., Atkins, R., & Tursi, N. (2006). Origins and developmental influences on self-esteem. In M. H. Kernis(Ed.), Self-esteem issues and answers: A source book of current perspectives (pp. 157-162). New York: Psychology Press.

Internet affected people's identity

How and to what degree has the modern technology (e.g., Internet) affected people's identity?

Internet has made it possible for a person to play dual identity with split personality like the famous novel “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. In day time, a person might be quiet, shy, decent and behave in a very polite manner to everyone; but at night, he or she might be transformed to a new identity as a vulgar who can be talkative and flirt around in instant messenger with dirty jokes. Well, I think most of the people won’t have extreme difference like Dr. Jekyll which is serious to extend as personality disorder.

According to Yee (2003), computer games player tend to be close to what they actually are whether in real life or in the internet. Internet is actually bringing out the inner real self of a person as Internet allow people to feel less inhibited (Yee, 2003). We have to portrait ourselves accordingly as a positive identity in real life in order to fulfill society’s requirement. In contrast, internet is a virtual world that is remain anonymous and invisible. Thus, it allows us to reveal the other side of ourselves and release inner emotion and tension by building up own virtual social network.

Erik Erikson believed that adolescent and early adulthood is the period when they struggle to form their identities (Larrain et al., 2007; Larsen & Buss,2008). Adolescents might be beneficial from this virtual world by experimentally forming other identities and got to understand themselves better and build up their self-esteem. Adolescents work out conflicts, confess sexual identity online, and explore issues like depression and eating disorders through internet. They see themselves and their friendships as having unique online identities and codes of behavior (Bradley, 2005).

The negative effect of the internet is one couldn’t learn to understand people by direct communication with body language. This is important as a person needs to communicate and work well in daily life and their communication skill might be degraded. Besides that, this might cause isolation and less intimacy with people to form proper interaction especially those who are addicted to internet.

References:

Bradley, K. (2005). Internet lives: Social context and moral domain in adolescent development. New Directions for Youth Development, 108, 57-76.
Larsen, R. J., & Buss, D. M. (2008). Personality psychology: domains of knowledge about human nature. New York: McGraw-Hill.
M. Elena Larrain, M. E., Zegers, B., & Trapp, A. (2007). Do adolescents compromise their identity when chatting on the internet? International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 4(2), 91–109.
Yee, N. (2003). The Daedalus Project. Retrieved May 13, 2007, from http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000193.php

Punishment as behaviour modification

Describe several disadvantages of using punishment as a procedure of behavior modification. Are there ways to eliminate or minimize these disadvantages?

Punishment is one of the most common methods used in behaviour modification to reduce or eliminate unwanted behaviours. Azrin and Holz (1966, as cited in Mazur, 2006) stated that punishment is possibly to be an effective solution as reinforcement, but consequently causing a few negative side effects. First, punishment may evoke negative emotion effect, including fear, anger, or reaction of aggressiveness against punisher or others. Second, punishment may lead to suppression of all behaviours, but not limited to the unwanted behaviours. Thirdly, punishment required the constant monitoring of the individual’s behaviour (Mazur, 2006).

A recent study demonstrated that punishment could lead to long-term effects. University of New Hampshire ([UNH], 2008) investigated the association of parental punishment behaviours on childhood experiences and sexual problems as teens or adult. One of the studies focused on risky sex revealed that 25 percent of students in the highest corporal punishment group involved in the unprotected sex behaviour; but only 12.5 percent of the students had the lowest score on the corporal punishment scale did so. It was concluded that children who are victim of punishment are inclined to have sexual problems as a teen or adult. Thus, punishment is one of the roots of relationship violence and mental health problems.

Punishment can be beneficial by improving the punishment method. Punishment should be combined together with discipline, which means that teaching and guidance along with the punishment. For example, when a child misbehaves, immediately teaching by helping them understand their emotion, and explaining why their behavior was bad. Immediacy of punishment is important to decrease the frequency of unwanted behaviours (Leon, 2008). Besides, the undesired behaviour may remain rooted when nothing existed to replace the behaviour. To solve this, punishment can be paired with reinforcement for an alternative behaviour that is incompatible with the unwanted behaviour (Mazur, 2006).

References:
Leon, V. (2008, Jul 28). LOVE TAPS: Parents who believe a little swat on the rear end is a good teaching tool defend themselves against those who believe there's no reason to spank a child. Spokesman Review, p.1.
Mazur, J. E. (2006). Learning and Behavior. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
University of New Hampshire (2008, March 2). Spanking kids increases risk of sexual problems as adults. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 11, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/02/080228220451.htm

'Overwork' kills Toyota employee

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7499280.stm

(published in Singapore Today- 11 July 2008)

The engineer was working on a new version of the popular Toyota Camry. One of Toyota's senior car engineers died from working too many hours, a Japanese labour bureau has found.

The 45-year-old man was developing a hybrid version of Toyota's successful Camry line at the time of his death. In the two months leading up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, his wife's lawyers said.

Workers in Japan often put in very long hours and "sudden death from overwork" is referred to as karoshi. The ruling will allow his family to collect benefits from his work insurance, his wife's lawyers said.

The worker, whose name was not given, regularly worked nights and weekends and was frequently sent abroad. He died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006. In a statement, Toyota offered its condolences and said it would monitor the health of its employees.

Workplace stress is common all over the world, but it is a huge problem in Japan, where karoshi was first recognised as a phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a 30-year-old Toyota employee who collapsed at work and died in 2002.


http://www.gt.com.sg/press/press_290507StressRelease.html

Seven in ten Singapore business leaders are more stressed compared to previous year

29 May 2007, Singapore – In Asia, Singapore ranks 4th in the stress league table with 69% (7 out of 10) of the respondents indicating that they are more stressed this year than the previous year. Globally Singapore is in 6th position. Out of top 10 countries with the greatest increase in stress level, 7 are from Asia. This highlights the mounting stress levels in this region.

Mainland China’s business leaders report the highest level of stress in the world with eight out of ten (84%) reporting higher levels of stress compared to a year ago. Mainland China is followed by Taiwan (82%), India (79%) and Russia (76%). The Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) which covers the opinions of 7,200 privately owned businesses in 32 countries found that 56% of business leaders worldwide feel their stress levels have increased in the last year.

The increased stress level can be attributed to the favourable economic growth. In the Grant Thornton International Super Growth Index released in March 2007, Singapore ranked 9th globally; up from previous year’s 17th position. The number of “super growth” companies in Singapore increase by a significant 10% in 2006 to 21% in 2007; chalking-in the highest percentage in Asia. A big worry for businesses is raw material costs. 60% of Singapore businesses identify this as having a major impact on cost pressures

Business confidence is at an all time high in the Asian region with Singapore amongst the top four Asian economies with India, Philippines and Mainland China in the Optismism/Pessimision findings reported in the IBR January 2007, where business leaders were surveyed on their views and outlook for 2007. Such high business confidence is likely to lead to a manpower crunch as businesses compete for manpower skill. And combined with worries about competition from other emerging markets such as China and India, stress felt by Singapore business leaders are inevitably pushed up.

Mr Kon Yin Tong, Managing Partner, Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton interpreted: “The need to grow their business and improve the bottom line has put an ever increasing pressure on the senior executives in Singapore. The stress level appears to be a reflection of the pace of growth in Singapore as these leaders strive to take advantage of domestic and global economic expansion.”

In comparison European business leaders are the least stressed with just 27% of Swedish business leaders reporting an increase in stress level, followed by Ireland (35%) and the UK, the Netherlands and France (all 37%). European Union (EU) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) regions show an average of 43% claiming increases in stress, compared to 73% of respondents in East Asia.

Working hours

Despite the significant increase in the amount of stress, Singapore business leaders do not clinch the top positions for the average number of hours worked in the IBR research. At an average of 54 working hours per week, Singapore is ranked 9th. In contrast, Australia ranks 4th, with an average working week of 56 hours but has a stress increment of only 41%, below the global level of 56%. This suggests that the stress level is not necessary directly linked to the number of hours worked.

The 54-hour work week that Singapore business leaders have is almost the global average of 53 hours. Business leaders in emerging economies tend to work the longest hours with India and Argentina at the top of the league table, both at 57 hours a week, followed by Armenia, Australia and Botswana (all 56 hours a week). Italian business leaders work the shortest hours (47) a week in the world.

Commenting on the findings, Mr Kon Yin Tong, Managing Partner, Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton said: “Globalisation and increasing technological advances have increased the pressure on business leaders to 'always be contactable'. The challenge for business leaders is how they can improve modern working practices to allow time to 'switch off' from the strains of increasingly demanding business lives - while remaining competitive.”

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Obviously, we are "selling" our health to the companies. Do you think that these companies would appreciate your sacrifice after you paying the cost of your life?

It doesn't means that I am not serious in my work. Just feel a bit sad to encounter such news...

Singapore is well known as a kiasu country, and last year I came across a news report headline in Today:"Singapore has become one of the top country in Asia-in terms of long working hours..."

Another news reported that there is a higher demand in Singapore Orthopedic Surgeons nowadays. It has been noticed that growing in numbers of office workers to complaint about backache and related problems (thanks to PC).

Ironically, you work so hard, and later spend $ to cure your illness related to the side effect of overwork. This is similiar to the obese problems: you spend $ to buy slimming products while you eat too much...

Born into brothels

"The men who enter our building are not so good.They are drunk, they come inside and shout and swear. "

"The woman asked me:" When are you going to join the line?" They say it won't be long."

"I keep thinking that if i could go some place else and get education, I wonder what I could become."

"We don't have the money to live, let alone for studies."

"One day I went to Puja's house and saw her dad was beating up her mom, I asked Puja about it, she said:"My mom didn't give money to my dad for his drinking, so he beat her."

"He smokes all day, but even then, I try to love him a little."

"One has to accept life as being sad and painful. That's all. "

In Calcutta's red-light district, there over 7,000 women and girls working as prostitutes. Often forced into the trade by poverty, abandonment or the rampant kidnapping business which transports young girls into the sex industry from Nepal and Bangladesh, they come from all castes. But they all descended the social scale to the status of pariahs, without any government protection.

Only one group, perhaps, has a lower standing: Their children. Living inside the rat-infested brothels, routinely beaten, made to work, to leave their rooms when their mothers have a customer, they are children without hope, without childhoods. The girls are often "turned out" as prostitutes by their own parents at the age of fourteen or younger, and the boys frequently become drug dealers or pimps. They are children alone in the world, without advocates.

Zana Briski, became involved in the lives of these children in 1997 when she first began photographing sex workers in Sonagachi. Living in the brothels for months at a time, she quickly developed a relationship with many of the kids who, often terrorized and abused, were drawn to the rare human companionship she offered. Photography helps to boost their self-esteem and confidence.

Fascinated by her camera, she let them shoot some pictures. It would be great, she thought, to see the world through their eyes. It was at that moment that she gave birth to the idea of offering a photographic workshop for the children of prostitutes. To do so would involve overcoming nearly insurmountable obstacles -- brothel owners, pimps, police, local politicians, mafiosi, and corrupt NGOs. "No one wants to empower the children. No one wants them to use a camera," Briski said.

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November 2007 – Zana Briski http://www.zanabriski.com/

When I first went to the brothels of Calcutta I had no idea what I was doing. Circumstances had led me there and I had a deep visceral reaction to the place. It was as if I recognized it on a very personal level.

It took me two years to get inside, to be able to live in a brothel. I knew this was the only way I would move from visitor to resident, to fully experience, as much as possible, what it was like for the women and children living there. It was a difficult but precious experience and one for which I will always be grateful. I had the opportunity to understand lives lived behind closed doors, to help — when it was asked of me — in any way I could, and to communicate powerful stories with the outside world.

It has been my dream, since the beginning of the project, to inspire others to feel, to notice, to challenge, to take action. Some of the most inspiring moments I have had are at screenings of Born into Brothels at schools across the country. American children are riveted by the kids from Calcutta. They connect with them through the film in a way only kids can. Kids want to share, to know more, to get involved. This is why I wanted to build a curriculum around the film, so that it can be a catalyst for awareness and change. Amnesty International, in partnership with Kids with Cameras, has made this happen. I am deeply grateful to them for this.

In the film I say that I am not a social worker, or even a teacher. I am someone who follows my heart and puts myself in the 'shoes' of others. This is something we all can do. You don't need to go to Calcutta to notice what is happening around you, who needs your compassion, be it an animal, a friend, a stranger.

After all, it is up to us to make the world a better place.

After earning a master's degree at the University of Cambridge, Zana studied documentary photography at International Center of Photography in New York. In 1995 she made her first trip to India, producing a story on female infanticide. In 1997 she returned to India and began her project on the prostitutes of Calcutta's red light district, which led to her work with the children of prostitutes. Zana has won numerous awards and fellowships including George Soros' Open Society Institute Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism and first prize at the World Press Photo Foundation Competition.

========================================================================

"I used to want to be a doctor.
Then I wanted to become an artist.
There is nothing called hope in my future. "
After got to learn photography, he said:"Now I want to be a photographer". Avijit, 19, began studying in the U.S. three years ago. He is currently finishing his senior year at a private high school. Over the past two summers, he has participated in prestigious film programs through the Sundance Institute and NYU Tisch. He plans to attend university in the U.S. this fall and is interested in studying both medicine and film. In the website, it is noted that he has been accepted into NYU.

Kochi, 16, stayed at the Sabera Home for Girls for five years. She has chosen to continue her studies in India and she will enroll in school this spring.

Manik, 16, and Shanti, 17, are both still studying at FutureHope, where they are doing very well. Zana:" Auntie teaches us so well that everything goes into our brain. We like doing photography so much that we forget to do our work!"I love Shanti's photos.

Puja and Gour are believed to still be living in the red-light district but have lost contact with Kids with Cameras. Gour's work:" Running" is used by the website. Gour:" want to show in pictures how people live in this city. I want to put across the behavior of man." The old man on the street is Puja's work. Puja is a bold girl to take pictures and got away from people's scolding. Few generations of her family, her great grandmom, grandma, mother are prostitutes. She dress well, and obviously not poor, but would lead to prostituition. The documentary mentioned that Puja's mother withdrew her from the school. I really don't understand why would her mother hope that her daughter to be stucked in the vicious cycle. Perhaps they simply get used to the prostitution life.

Watch this documetary "Born into Brothels" for free: 83 minutes film~ http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=125 I have watched it last sunday night on Arts Central Channel(Singapore TV). It is a great documentary that one should not miss. For more information or make a donation to improve their life, please visit : http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/

(note: the writing above are mostly adapted from relevant website & documentaries. )

Alone~ random thoughts

"We are alone, we live alone, we die alone.
Only through our love and friendship, we can create the illusion for the moment that we are not alone."

Orson Welles (1915-1985)
American motion picture actor, director, producer, writer

I saw these words posted on the wall of Esplanade Library while waited for the free mini concert (piano, violin & cello).

The words touched my heart. So, i took out my pen and newspaper (that is the only choice) and jotted down. Recently, my sister took a picture for me ~ portrait of being alone or loneliness. At that point, I just felt that it was fun to take photos with different postures. Then, I suggested to take a view of my back. Woh, I just love it, more natural look rather than the typical smiling face of pictures.

At the beginning of a new life or close to the death, we come to this world and leave this world alone. Sometimes people tend to worry too much about daily hassle, let it be work, studies, family, relationship...etc. We may put too much emotion in something else, and later on realise that it is just a small matter. Things are for us to experience but not to understand. We afraid to lose face, not being competitive to fight with others... and the end of the day, people tend to worry for own problem rather than bother your stuff.

I always love writing. I appreciate my readers to look beyond words. For instance, recently I wrote about an article about dad's childhood on Father's Day. Then, the response was overwhelming ~ I know I am not a popular blogger, but I was very happy to learn that one of my reader felt the urge to write for her dad too. Later, I saw her dad had left comment in her blog. This is what I treasure - the power of a person's words influence others to make a change of his or her life, by writing an article to express feeling and thought.

I think I am getting out of topic...haha. Alone is not neccessarily means lonely, can be viewed as freedom, independent. However, for psychiatry fields, being alone is not good for depressive patients, as they may getting depress and make their clinical symptoms worsen. I treasure the time when I am alone at home, let it be reading newspaper, cooking, watching tv or shopping alone following my own timing. So relax.

In Singapore, I treasure the availability of free music concerts throughout the year, ranged from pop music, Chinese Orchestra to Symphony Orchestra. I always attend these concerts/shows alone, occasionally I get my music friend to companion me. It is not easy to expect people to appreciate this kind of music, so sad :(

I don't know what I write now, no sense of direction to organise my writing. This piece of writing is a bit like so called "bo-liao" kind. Initially I created this blog is meant for serious readers who want to know more about psychology and life. Right now, I just feel like want to write some casual stuff. Hopefully you don't mind :) Good night.

Preference for sons in Asia could have severe social consequences, UNFPA studies warn

http://intranet.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/popheadline/321/art3.asp

Prenatal son selection in several Asian countries could result in severe social consequences – such as a surge in sexual violence and trafficking of women – in the coming years, according to new studies commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

As girls and women become outnumbered by men as a result of ultrasound or amniocentesis to determine the sex of foetuses and abort unwanted females, more males will be unable to find wives and pressures to conform and comply will increase, the studies noted.

“Sex ratio imbalances only lead to far-reaching imbalances in the society at large”, UNFPA Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said in a statement delivered by Deputy Executive Director Purnima Mane at the Fourth Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights held in Hyderabad, India from 29 to 31 October (see page 4).

“And in response, we must carry forward the message that every human being is born equal in dignity, worth and human rights.”

Preference for sons is deeply rooted in many Asian countries for both cultural and economic reasons. If dowries must be paid, daughters could be viewed as a liability, and older parents typically rely on their sons for support and to perform last rites or ancestor worship.

The above-cited studies (available from http://www.unfpa.org/gender/case_studies.htm) warn that unless Viet Nam and Nepal adopt response measures, they, too, will face problems similar to those of India and China, the countries with the most dramatic imbalance between the births of boys and girls.

In China, 120 males – and up to 130 in several provinces – were born for every 100 females in 2005, while in India, the 2001 census revealed that 108 males – and up to 120 in some northern and western areas – were born for every 100 females.

“Viet Nam is in almost the same situation now as China was 10 years ago,” the studies said, adding that the South-East Asian nation’s sex ratio at birth could become gravely imbalanced within a decade.

Meanwhile in southern Nepal, researchers found that most people are aware that they could access ultrasound clinics and abortion providers in India willing to defy laws prohibiting sex selection. In both Viet Nam and Nepal, researchers interviewed officials and held focus groups, concluding that the preference for sons was pervasive, and that those who wanted to avoid bearing daughters could do so easily.

Currently in China, the “Care for Girls” programme which combines public education with practical steps such as bolstering support for older people could soon be rolled out nationally, and in India, civil society groups are making great efforts to raise public awareness and new laws are being codified to slash discriminatory inheritance rules and curb domestic violence.

Similar initiatives are necessary to stem the tide of the issue in both Viet Nam and Nepal, the studies said.

Kids in new generation?

I notice that ever since I open this new English blog, nobody dares to give feedback/comment. Perhaps, this psychology blog sounds too serious as I mostly either dumped in the psychology research or my psychology studies' writing. :) I guess there might be someone that I do not know, using Google to search certain psychology key terms and got into my website. If so, you are welcome too, but I wonder if you would give citation to my blog :).

Enough craps. Tomorrow is mother's day. If possible, I am trying my best not to duplicate information in my Chinese and this English blog. Let me copy my favorite columnist's story in Today newspaper,. I got a shock when I read it on MRT. Voice- Budget Tai Tai - Tabitha Wang, page 34, 25 Apr, 2008.

"There was a five year-old boy throwing a tantrum right in the middle of a supermarket aisle. Nothing unusual, you'd say. But what made passersby do a double take was the fact that the boy was taking it out on his father by punching him repeatedly in the crotch. It gets even stranger. The father was wincing in pain but instead telling the boy off, he merely tried to block the blows.The mother stood to one side, not saying anything. When she realised that people were giving her son strange looks, she remonstrated gently with him:" Boy, don't hit your papa in his you-know-what.""B***s," her son and heir said. I don't know whether he was trying to be anatomically-correct or plain rude. Personally, I'd plump for the latter, as the boy totally ignored his mother and continued pummeling his father. It's probably an extreme case but not an isolated one. I have seen so many Singaporean kids behaving badly in public that I have lost count."

I fully agreed with Tabitha Wang. I cannot imagine such a young kid would be so horrible, and what's more surprising, is the attitude of parents. Let me share my personal experience. In the shopping mall's toy section of Orchard, I saw one 4 year-old boy kept crying and begging his dad to buy a set of expensive toys, cost more than hundred bucks. Noticing that I was observing the scene, his dad told me that his son has more than enough toys at home. " You know la, what to do? Buy loh, hard to push him away." The father shrugged and grabbed the toy. His son stopped crying instantly. This little boy knew that this trick works well, and he is likely to use it again next round.

Tabitha Wang blames the parents. The deadly combination of declining birth rate and the fact that Singaporeans are having babies later is giving rise to a multitude of a little princess and emperors. Children are so precious that no one dares to interfere with these little treasures. The result? We 're nurturing a generation of spoilt brats.

Yeah, this is the so-called new generation of the kids. Well, we can notice the drastic change of the teenagers who were born after 1990s, compared to the older generation as 1980s or earlier. Materialistic, short-sighted, self-centered..... Each newer generation seems getting worsen, but not getting better. My dad, likes to point out that our Chinese society is no longer holding Confucianism values. Although I don't like Confucians ideas as he categorize woman as lower status, it is undeniable that some of the traditional values are good to preserved.

It is dangerous to let the kids to go all the way as they demand. They would think that they are like the sun in the central position, others have to follow and treat them nicely. As a result, they developed a childish attitude, Ego centrism. This is supposedly belongs to Jean Piaget's theory regarding cognitive development of 2-6 years old. They are unable to think from others' perspective. This attitude will create a big problem when they grow up, facing interpersonal issues in work, family or relationship. Learning to tolerate and being understanding are probably not found in their life dictionary.

Reducing quantity doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice the quality. As for me, I believe that parents are not just to produce babies without proper guidance. Parents have to take care of their children physically and mentally. At least, in future they won't bring problem to others.

"Bosses of the future might just need groin guards", this is the last sentence of the article that I quoted. It simply sounds too sad. As long as the parents do not wake up, it is indeed hard for their kids to be well-behaved by nature. I have had read enough psychology research papers discussing the parenting role and family influence on the children's personality, behaviours....and all these often correlates with a long list of headaches. It is much harder to fix the problems later on. Rome was not built in a day.

Please...Be responsible to raise your own kids!

Motivation in education system

Motivation, is part of the drive to get people to be more hardworking, more persistent to work out towards his or her goal. Learning behaviours is a product of either intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Hayamizu, 2007). Just thinking of how Thomas Edison able to keep on trying to invent light bulb after failed for uncountable times. His famous quote:” "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration" might reveal his belief on hard work contributing success, and what is motivating him to be the great inventor in history? Motivation is an interesting topic to explore.

Concerning the question in studying university, I would think that studying a degree is like a culture norm. It is a trend in Malaysia, and Singapore. If someone finishes his or her secondary school education, it is almost inevitably to further studies to specialise in a particular field unless the result is too poor. Without a good qualification, it is hard to negotiate with the boss to get higher pay, and demand for promotion. However, in olden days, there were fewer university graduates, and very few women getting higher education. The olden society doesn’t take university certificate as a requirement to get into job market, especially before industry revolution. Woman was not encouraged to study smart in school as well. As globalisation supports knowledge economy, the modern culture trend needs more high skill people with specialisation to have a university degree.

Initially, taking psychology course was not my first choice. Previously I studied Computer Science, and my degree is an external US degree that required to study liberal arts subjects: Sociology and Drama. From there, I started to grow interest into Psychology as I learnt to analyse personality in the different drama plots , and got to know more about social knowledge and human behaviour. “A Streetcar Named Desire” drama script caught my attention by contrasting the culture clash of two social class. A so-called high-class lady who developed personality problem and got into schizophrenia eventually. This drama is not just a movie, but it reflexes the culture, social and psychological problems. Few years later, I came to Singapore to work and decided to study part time in Psychology. I study psychology as an interest, and this motivation is closed to Abraham Maslow’s self-actualisation needs. Self-actualisation is associated with human fulfillment and personal satisfaction (Shiraev & Levy, 2007). Psychology is meaningfulness, with depth sense of critical thinking. I appreciate psychology knowledge that allows me to be a better person and improve my English too. Personally, I always stumble in English as it is not as good as my first language, Mandarin. This motivates me to improve my English language by reading and writing more.

Should motivation be an important factor to be considered in designing our curricula (schooling system in general)? Yes, definitely. Without motivation, it is harder to get a better achievement and improvement in studies. Facilitating motivation and success in school is strongly encouraged. For instance, a Self-Regulation Empowerment Program (SREP), that school professionals can use to allow adolescent students to take on in more positive, self-motivating way of learning. Consequently, students learn to set goals, select and monitor strategy effectiveness, make strategic attributions, and adjust their goals and strategies (Cleary & Zimmerman, 2004). In fact, students who learned self-regulation processes during learning such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and self-reflection processes have better achievement and motivation (Schunk as cited in Cleary & Zimmerman, 2004).

This is not surprising fact as self-control people might have better intrinsic motivation but not comes from external environment. For example, students who only study harder when the parents offers reward. In my personal experience in teaching secondary students, those who score good marks are typically have full concentration in lesson, teacher’s attitude in rewarding seems does not affect much in their motivation to get good result. In contrast, poorer results were associated with poor class students who only get motivated to pay more attention in class if I promised some rewards or showed a fierce look. Hayamizu (2007) supported this situation. It was stated that intrinsic reasons were significantly not related to attributions of external causes and ability.

Understanding motivation also helps to know more about student behaviour. It was found that students who had more extrinsic motivation, such as external reasons, inclined to explain their failure is due to external causes. They tend to use maladaptive coping behaviour as well. However, for the students who scores lower than the means for all types of motivation were classified into the amotivational group. Amotivational group were motivated nether extrinsically nor intrinsically. The self-awareness of amotivational persons is lower, thus do not have self-evaluation (Hayamizu, 2007). It is necessarily to explore more on the amotivational students who are not motivated easily by other persons,. This is especially crucial to motivate amotivational students who scores less satisfactory academic result.

References:

Cleary, T. J., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2004). Self-regulation empowerment program: A school-based program to enhance self-regulated and self-motivated cycles of student learning. Psychology in the Schools, 41, 537-550.

Hayamizu, T. (2007). Between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: Examination of reasons for academic study based on the theory of internazation. Journal Psychological Research, 39, 98-108.

Shiraev, E., & Levy, D. (2007). Cross-cultural psychology: Critical thinking and comtemporary applications (3rd ed.). Boston: Ally and Bacon.

Display rules in M'sia/Singapore

Emotion is an interesting topic for social scientific investigation as it explains as a notion about our true selves; the self that, after all the thinking and interacting are done, feels the rage, love, despair (Boellstorff & Lindquist, 2004). In terms of methodological individualism, emotions are framed as the property of persons. Emotion can be universal, or are influenced by its social experience which namely ‘context.’ Emotion’s location in culture are acknowledged in broad terms (Wierzbicka, 1999).

Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural society, which consists of 3 main ethic Asian communities, Chinese, Malays, Indian and other races. English is the main language used in Singapore, followed by Chinese language. However, Chinese culture in south East Asian countries still deeply rooted with Confucianism. Emotional and psychological matter may be affected by the mother tongue culture (Woo et. al., 2004). Confucian cultures emphasize on the social order and show respect for higher rank people, like the elderly. For example, one should not shout at parents, especially in public places. However, it is common to see the other way round like as what Sonja pointed out, scolding and beating kids in public when they are disobedient. Anyway, expressing emotion freely is possible within same ranking like friends or colleagues.

Besides, languages often considered as part of culture, and researchers found that all speakers of a language share a cognitive structure for emotion (Wierzbicka, 1999). I agree on this point. In the national secondary school for Malaysia, Chinese students are generally from two types of education stream. One type receives Chinese primary school education where chinese is the medium of instruction, and study Malay and English as second and third language subjects; another type study in a national Malay school, majority Malay students where malay language is the medium of instruction, and study English as a second language. It is widely recognized that two groups of Chinese students have differences in their emotion, way of communication and behaviour. The first group are typical Chinese who are more indirect communicator where emotions are hidden and subtler. In contrast, the latter group who are mixing with Malay classmates are more straightforward and blunt in communication and express emotions more directly. They are more outgoing and easy going as it is easier to understand and get along well compared with the typical Chinese students.

Public display of affection is different across culture and countries. When I first came to Singapore, I was a bit startled to see couples hugging and kissing freely in public. In my home country, Malaysia as an Islamic country, dominated by Malays, public display of affection is very rare and forbidden by Islamic law. Few years ago, a Chinese young couple aged around 23 years old was prosecuted by the local town council. The town officers claimed that the couple was hugging and kissing in a park was indication of indecent behaviour. This case was eventually brought up to the court and became a hot topic for debate at that time. I believe that such event sounds queer to westerner. Conservative culture doesn’t encourage openly express of emotion.

Anthropical study of this topic makes interesting reading. It may explain why westerners’ common comment of Asians being inscrutable.

References:
Boellstorff, T., & Lindquist, J. (2004). Bodies of emotion: Rethinking culture and emotion through southeast asia. Routledge Journals, 437–444.

Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wooa,B. S. C., Chang, W. C., Funga, D. S. S., Koh, J. B. K., Leong, J. S. F., Kee, C. H. Y., Cheryl, K.F., & Seah, C. K. F. (2004). Development and validation of a depression scale for Asian adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 677–689.

Nature And Nurture Are Both To Blame For Depression

ScienceDaily (Jan. 16, 2008) — Depression is one of the most common forms of psychopathology. According to diathesis' stress theories of depression, genetic liability interacts with negative life experiences to cause depression.

Traditionally, most studies testing these theories have focused on only one component of the diathesis' stress model: either genetics or environment, but not their interaction. However, because of recent advances in genetics and genomics, researchers have begun using a new design that allows them to test the interaction of genetic and environmental liabilities -- the G x E design.

Studies suggest that the neurotransmitter dopamine may play a role in the risk for depression. Early negative interpersonal environments (i.e. rejecting parents) have also been implicated. So, University of Notre Dame psychologist, Gerald Haeffel, and colleagues investigated whether a gene associated with dopamine interacted with maternal parenting style to predict episodes of depression.

The researchers studied 177 male adolescents from a juvenile detention center in Russia. These participants were ideal candidates for the study because depression rates rise so dramatically during this period in life. The researchers used a structured diagnostic interview to diagnose depression and a questionnaire to assess aspects of maternal parental rearing (i.e. physical punishment, hostility, lack of respect for the child’s point of view, and unjustified criticism in front of others).

The results are fascinating. While neither factor alone predicted depression, the boys with especially rejecting mothers, and a specific form of the dopamine transporter gene were at higher risk for major depression and suicidal ideation. This study, which appears in the January issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is among the first to support the role of a dopamine related gene in the onset of depression.

By the year 2020, depression is projected to be the 2nd leading cause of disability worldwide. Identifying factors that contribute to risk and resilience for depression is vital to our society. The results suggest that using psychosocial interventions to increase dopamine activity in the brain, helping patients focus on identifying and pursuing new goals and rewards could prove beneficial to lowering depression rates.

Adapted from materials provided by Association for Psychological Science.

Association for Psychological Science (2008, January 16). Nature And Nurture Are Both To Blame For Depression, Study Says. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/01/080115102642.htm

Childhood Mental Health Problems Blight Adult Working Life

ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2008) — Mental health problems in childhood blight adult working life, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. And problems in working life are associated with mid life depression and anxiety.

The findings are based on over 8000 participants of the 1958 Birth Cohort, all of whom were born during one week in March 1958, and whose health has subsequently been tracked.
Their long term mental health was reviewed during childhood at the ages of 7, 11, and 16, using information from teachers and parents, and into adulthood at the ages of 23 and 33, based on personal interviews.

At the age of 45 the participants were then invited to discuss their working lives and mental health. Living in rented accommodation, having a longstanding illness, no qualifications, and no partner were all linked to depression and anxiety in mid life.

But so too were workplace stressors, including little control over decisions, low levels of social support, and high levels of job insecurity. These stressors doubled to quadrupled the risk of depression and anxiety.

Internalising behaviours in early childhood and adulthood strongly predicted poor quality working life, with many work stressors. Internalising behaviours are usually defined as depression or lack of concentration, as opposed to externalising behaviours, such as bullying and disruption.

Although mental health problems in early childhood and adulthood did not fully explain the mid life depression, these could have a knock-on effect, suggest the authors. Mental health problems in childhood could affect the ability to pass exams and gain qualifications, so blighting an individual's prospects of getting well paid and satisfying work.

And people who have experienced mental illness early in their lives may also opt for less demanding, low status work, because it might be more manageable, but at the same time, less rewarding and more stressful.

Adapted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

BMJ-British Medical Journal (2008, April 5). Childhood Mental Health Problems Blight Adult Working Life. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/04/080402194355.htm

Importance of cultural context in defining and understanding intelligence

Despite much controversy over the accurate definition of intelligence, most researchers agree that it is only a concept labelled by a word, or several related concepts represented by a word (Howard, 1993). This theory defines concept as a person’s unique and individual information about a category, where the category is considered as a set of things in the world. Generally, there are three major concept of intelligence: Spearman’s g, as a property of behaviour and as a set of abilities. Each concept have different information, and should be used in various ways (Howard, 1993).

I took the Koori Test and could not understand almost all questions. Everything sounds like ‘alien’ language to me. As expected, I scored badly with merely 40 marks, which stands for below average intelligence. Of course, this test clearly demonstrated that intelligence is bounded by the culture context. Sternberg (2004) further supported this by stating that work on intelligence within a single culture may fail to fairly acknowledging range of skills and knowledge that may constitute intelligence broadly defined. It is also more likely to draw wrong conclusion with over generalisation problem. The knowledge, which is learned in one culture context may not applicable to others who have different culture. For example, long time ago I took a IQ test online from a popular website, which claimed to be scientifically accurate IQ test. I thought I am supposed to be a language type who shouldn’t score badly for language ability, but the IQ test only able to test my English standard, which is second language for me. In the way, I believe that IQ test is very hard to determine one’s actual ability by using one standard test of intelligence for universal.

In terms of individual differences, everyone may have different knowledge regarding a particular category. Thus, it is inevitably creating a culture-free standard IQ test seems to be impossible mission. Even psychologist manages to come out with a measure standard of intelligence, doing translation into different language might be slightly different from the original text, which cause test bias. From the Koori Test, it shows that culture shapes language. For example, in Chinese language, it comes up with a complex vocabulary with detail classifications to address different relatives as Chinese culture emphasize on big family and stronger kinship. In contrast, in English, we use very general terms such as uncle, aunty, and cousins to describe relatives. This is probably due to western culture is more individualistic on one nucleus family compared to Chinese culture.

Different racial will probably have different culture, and whether racial differences in IQ are due to differences in intellectual ability, or to differences in exposure to information is a question (Fagan & Holland, 2007). Intelligence, was defined by Fagan and Holland (2007) as information processing. In fact, this definition is encouraging a better awareness of racial equality in intelligence, hence provides a multidisciplinary and broad understanding of intelligence. They concluded that cultural differences in the condition of information explain for racial differences in IQ. This might be helpful to explain why certain racial have higher intelligence and cognitive achievements than the other racial. Lynn and Longley (2006) suggested that the over-representation of Jews among Nobel prize winners possibly partly due to the higher average Jewish IQ. The reason behind it could be due to environmental and genetic theories of the high Jewish IQ, as for other ethnic and racial differences (Lynn & Longley, 2006).


References:

Fagan, J. F., & Holland, C. R. (2007). Racial equality in intelligence: Predictions from a theory of intelligence as processing. Intelligence, 35, 319–334.
Howard, R. W. (1993). On what intelligence is. British Journal of Psychology, 84, 27-37.
Lynn, R., & Longley, D. (2006).On the high intelligence and cognitive achievements of Jews in Britain. Intelligence, 34, 541–547.
Sternberg, R. J. (2004). Culture and intelligence. American Psychologist, 59, 325-338.

What Breed of Dog Are You? vs The Barnum Effect

I took a fun test- What Breed of Dog Are You? and I got my answer as:

you're a German Shepherd!

No bones, about it, you're a loyal, hard-working German Shepherd. Dedicated and always low-maintenance, people flock to you — they know they can count on you to get any job done, and done well. That focus and attention to detail spans from your personal to your professional life, too. Although you can be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the projects you tackle, you still manage to keep cool and laid-back in social situations. You get a kick out of the little things and thrive when you're constantly busy and on-the-go. Easygoing and unpretentious, you don't need constant pampering and reassurance. A genuine, carefree pup, you're a true-blue friend, employee, and partner. Woof!

http://web.tickle.com/

Well, you can try this website for a lot of free test, if you don't have better things to do.

Ever since I study psychology- first term, I learnt about Barnum effect, I rarely trust these personality tests' validity and reliability.

he Barnum Effect is based upon P.T. Barnum, a master showman's famous saying 'There's a sucker born every minute.' “there is something for everybody”

http://www.paranormality.com/barnum_effect.shtml

http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/barnum_demo.htm

http://richardgpettymd.blogs.com/my_weblog/2006/10/the_barnum_effe.html

It confirm my doubts about daily highlight of your horoscope- on newspaper, or some zodiac animals character. In simple word, Barnum effect means people commonly accepting over generalizing description about their personality. For example, it always claim that:" you are friendly, will throw temper when you are in a bad mood.....etc" Then, you mistakenly think:" Woh, it sounds accurate!" But wait a minute, don't you think that this is applicable to anyone? It is understood, most of the people would think themselves are friendly and not happy, surely have throwing temper sometimes....

In fact, given a choice between individual personality description actually based on a real test, most people choose the phony generic description as being more accurate. Ironic.

Share with you a famous experiment:

French Psychologist, Michael Gauguelin placed an ad in a Paris newspaper offering a free personal horoscope. Ninety-four percent of those receiving the horoscope praised the description as accurate. Whose horoscope had they all actually received? That of France's Dr. Petiot, a notorious mass murderer.

So, do you still want to read horoscope now? =)

Should a different teaching style be designed for aboriginal children?

To discuss about indigenous education, the first thing comes to my mind is majority versus minority. This brings up my thought about left-handed and right-handed children. The education systems are developed for the majority group who are right handed. Teachers do not receive formal training on how to teach left-handed students properly because methods are developed for right-hand learners, unless they are also left-handed who are able to understand the difficulties (Milsom, 1995). Consequently, these left-handed children, generally are identified as right brain dominance people, may not fully utilise of the learning style, which learnt in the classroom setting.

The aborginal child is similar to the situation of left-handed children in a mainstream education system, who have some differences in memories and cognitive or learning styles. Educators are supposed to maximise the students’ learning potential regardless of their cultural background. Overall, challenges of teachers from mainstream society to work with culture diversity, especially working with aboriginal children have not been adequately examined (Nickels & Piquemal, 2005). Aboriginal children may have difficulties in their studies as they do not conform to the mainstream culture on how schools defines what constitutes learning (Delpit & Dowdy, 2002).

According to the report of Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching (1998), teacher training seems not in depth for guiding aboriginal students. It is stated that beginning teachers agreed the addition of mandatory elements in their courses relating to aboriginal education, multicultural education, gender education and special education. They reported that the courses have focus on issues faced by targeted populations. However, the specific strategies on how to address the issues were deficient.

For example, group goals attained by working together in cooperation are encouraged by aboriginal culture, whereas western culture would regard it as permissive and lack of independent. This might have negative effect on the student learning and influence their interaction with non-aboriginal students (Armstrong & Patterson, 1975). Without understanding of aboriginal culture, cultural discontuity occurs as aboriginal students being forced to behave in ways that are incompatible with the values and norms of their own culture (Nickels & Piquemal, 2005). In addition, their research also demonstrated that aborignal students did not take initiative to raise their hands to answer a questions as often as non-aboriginal children. Showing ability of knowing knowldge was often contrary to aborginal behavoral norms as one should not showing oneself is better than others (Philip, as cited in Nickels & Piquemal, 2005).

In order to solve these issues, experienced teachers were modifying their teaching to meet the varied needs of students in their classrooms. For instance, team-teaching with English as a second language (ESL) teachers and literacy support for aboriginal students (MACQT ,1998). Murtagh (1982) investigated about Creole-speaking aborginal-Australian children in education. They were divided into two groups, bilingual school that has medium of language instruction through English and Creole, and monolingual purely instruction through english only. The result showed that the superiority of bilingual schooling over monolingual schooling for Creole-speaking students in terms of oral language proficiency in both the mother tongue, Creole and the second language, English. In fact, Cummins (cited in Murtagh, 1982) supported similar finding by discovered that students schooled bilingually had progressively greater success in learning compared with their counterparts schooled monolingually.

All in all, it is suggested that a different curricula and teaching style should be designed for aboriginal children. Teachers needs to understand their culture difference and playing important role in helping these aboriginal children to absorb knowledge effectively.


References:

Armstrong, H., & Patterson, P. (1975). Seizures in Canadian Indian children: Individual family and community approaches. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 20, 247-255.
Delpit, L., & Dowdy, J. K. (2002). The skin that we speak. New York: New Press.
Milsom, L. (1995). Left handed children are they losing out? Education Medica International, 32, 107-108.
Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching(1998). Towards Greater Professionalism: Teacher educators, teaching and the curriculum. Retrieved March 30, 2008, from https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/reviews/macqt/macqfi.htm
Murtagh, E. J. (1982). Creole and English used as languages of instruction in bilingual education with aborginal australians: some research findings. International Journal Social Language, 36, 15-33.
Nickels, B., & Piquemal, N. (2005). Cultural congruence in the education of and research with young aboriginal students: Ethnical implications for classroom researchers. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 51, 118.

The Left-Handed Advantage:They May Have Higher Health Risks, But Lefties Enjoy Element of Surprise

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Story?id=498707&page=1

By AMANDA ONION
Feb. 17, 2005

It's not easy being a lefty.

Statistics show left-handed people are more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, delinquent, dyslexic, and have Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as mental disabilities. They're also more likely to die young and get into accidents. So if evolutionary theory dictates survival of the fittest, why do lefties still exist?

According to new theories, what left-handed people (and other animals) may lack in fitness, they make up by being different.

Researchers in France recently took an interest in the disproportionately high number of left-handed athletes who thrive in sports involving direct one-on-one contact, such as baseball (think Babe Ruth), tennis (think John McEnroe) and boxing (think Oscar de la Hoya or the fictional Rocky Balboa).

Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond of the University of Montpellier in France figured the same reason so many left-handed people are successful in such sports could also explain a possible higher success rate among lefties in primitive combat.

This means that, back in the days when fighting was an important part of survival and winning mates, the rare left-hander may have come out on top more often.

Watch That Left Hook

Here's the thinking: Most left-handed people would be practiced in fighting right-handed people (since right-handed people make up the majority), while most right-handed fighters would not be as prepared to fight someone who favors their left side. Advantage: lefties.

"The fact that left-handers are less common means they have a surprise effect," said Faurie.

To prove their theory, Faurie and Raymond surveyed nine primitive societies in five separate continents. Through a mix of direct observation and existing data, they estimated the number of left-handed people within each population. They also looked at murder rates, thinking that those communities with higher murder rates might favor populations with more left-handed people. The more violence, the more chances lefties would have at issuing their unexpected left hook, or other such weapon, and come out on top.

Among these samples, they found strong support for the idea that, at least in primitive societies with higher levels of violence, lefties thrive.

For example, when they singled out the Dioula of Burkina Faso in West Africa, where the murder rate was only 0.013 murders per 1,000 residents each year, they found only 3.4 percent of the population were left-handers. Data from the Eipo of Indonesia, meanwhile, where there are three murders per 1,000 people each year, show 27 percent of the population is left-handed.

Other research is suggesting that humans aren't the only species who have minorities of certain side-favoring individuals. The equivalent of lefties has been observed in chimpanzees, toads, even among schools of fish.

Favoring one side -- a result of something called lateralization of the brain -- was once thought to be a uniquely human trait linked to language. The ability to speak comes mostly from left regions of the brain, so the assumption was this would correspond with increased motor control on the opposite, or right side. In motor control, activity on one side corresponds to the opposite side of the brain. So this could explain why about 70 percent to 90 percent of people are right-handed.

But lately, researchers who study animals have been poking holes in that idea.

William Hopkins, a psychologist at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center, has found most chimpanzees use their right hands for a number of functions, from throwing a ball to scooping peanut butter from a tube. Furthermore, he and his colleagues have linked this handedness to the KNOB, an area of the brain associated with motor activity, not language.

Hopkins further points out that chimps don't have language, so why would there be a majority of right-handed chimps? As among humans, being in a minority when it comes to handedness has its advantages.

"The advantage is at the individual level," said Giorgio Vallortigara, a psychologist at the University of Trieste in Italy. "The advantage is observed only until the minority group remains a minority. If the number of individuals that do not share the side preference that most do increases, then the advantage is lost."
Swimming Their Own Way

Vallortigara has studied how this works in certain schools of fish. Some fish swim in large groups, or shoals. Traveling in a pack provides individuals with extra protection from predators. Most of the fish in the group share the same tendency to keep an eye out on one side or the other for predators and to flee in a particular direction if a threat is seen.

Minority-sided fish, meanwhile, are likely to watch the other way and turn and flee in the opposite direction. While these fish miss out on the protection of the group, they gain the element of surprise -- predators don't expect them to turn in the opposite direction from the group.

Similar examples can be found among birds and toads. In each case individuals that favor an unusual side find some benefit, be it surprising predators with the direction of their flight or by finding resources that might elude the majority.
Still, researchers point out that, at least among humans, genetics is not the only factor behind left-handedness.

Evidence has shown a link between trauma during gestation or during birth, as well as in the age of the mother and so-called pathological left-handedness. Numbers show that mothers who are over 40 at the time of their child's birth are 128 percent more likely to have a left-handed baby than a woman in her 20s.

"Handedness is controlled by a whole lot of pathways in the brain and if any one of these pathways is mucked up during gestation, then handedness becomes a cosmic dice game," said Stanley Coren, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia and author of "The Left-Handed Syndrome." "We believe this accounts for about half of all left-handers."

It could be that this early trauma is also the trigger behind health problems linked to left-handedness. Coren points to two famous left-handers, Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, as evidence. Both had histories of birth stress and have health issues from Clinton's severe allergies to Bush's Graves' disease.

Then again, as many lefties might point out, being left-handed can also offer intellectual prowess. Tests conducted by Alan Searleman from St Lawrence University in New York found there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people. Famous left-handed thinkers in history from Albert Einstein to Isaac Newton to Benjamin Franklin seem to underline the point.As Hopkins says, it may be that left-handed people occupy the extremes when it comes to health and ability.

"The anomaly is left-handed people make up the extremely gifted and the extremely compromised," said Hopkins. "The rest of us make up the middle ground."