ScienceDaily (2009-02-26) — The book “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” and its gender stereotypes on how the sexes communicate remains fodder for debate, but two researchers have confirmed one thing: When men and women talk through technology, it’s the women who are more expressive.
Read the full article here.
Photo source: Waring Historical Library
Psychology Corner has started its journey presenting you with an article called “Famous Romanian Psychologists”. We have decided to make a habit out of this and once in a while to choose a nationality and dedicate an article to its most famous psychologists or contributors to the field.
This time we have focused our attention on France, for its psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists have brought a new light upon developmental psychology, psychopathology and other significant branches.
Although far from being a full presentation of their work, this article aims towards creating a general view upon the most distinguished French scientists that have enriched the domain of psychology with their discoveries.
Armand-Marie-Jacques de Chastenet, Marquis de Puységur (1751-1825) – A French aristocrat that is now seen as a pre-scientific founder of hypnosis (along with Frantz Anton Mesmer). He called that specific modified state of consciousness “artificial somnambulism”.
Jean-Martin Charcot ( 1825-1893) – Neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology at Salpêtrière Hospital, also called “The Napoleon of neurosis”. He mainly focused on hysteria as having an hereditary neurological basis and used hypnosis to induce hysteria to his patients. Charcot was the teacher of famous psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Binet, Pierre Janet and William James.
Théodule-Armand Ribot ( 1839-1916 ) – The thesis for his Doctoral Degree, “Hérédité: étude psychologique” (Heredity: Psychological Study) and “Les Maladies de la mémoire” (Diseases of the memory) are some of his most known works. He has also been a teacher of Experimental Psychology at Sorbonne and his studies guided psychology towards scientific facts and data instead of spiritualism and introspection, which meant the basis of pathological psychology, including neuropsychology. Two of his students were Pierre Janet and Alfred Binet. Théodule Ribot is also known for his law of regression in the amnesias, called Ribot’s Law.
Gustave Le Bon ( 1841-1931 ) – Social psychologist, sociologist and physicist, author of “The Evolution of Matter” and “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind” with major contribution regarding group psychology in its early form.
Alfred Binet ( 1857-1911 ) – Mostly known for creating the first intelligence test, that he also revised together with his collaborator Theodore Simon in 1908 and 1911, also naming the test Binet-Simon. Later, Lewis Terman from Standford University modified the test and changed the name into Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. The Standford-Binet stands as a basis for modern intelligence tests.
Émile Coué de Châtaigneraie ( 1857-1926) – Psychologist, pharmacist. Introduced the Coué Method of therapy and self-improvement, based on optimistic auto-suggestion.
Pierre Marie Félix Janet ( 1859-1947 ) – Janet was one of Charcot’s students and the one to introduce the terms of “subconscious” and “dissociation”. He was the first to show the connection between past traumatic events and the present psychological problems.
Paul Sollier ( 1861-1933 ) – Never actually accepted by the scientific community of his times (his opinions were in opposition with Pierre Janet’s), he developed cognitive-behavioral therapies already in the 1890s. One of his most known patients was Marcel Proust which used Sollier’s findings regarding memory as a source of inspiration for his book “In the search of lost time”.
Théodore Simon ( 1872-1961 ) – Théodore Simon’s major contribution regards the assessment of intelligence. He and Alfred Binet created the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale.
Henri Paul Hyacinthe Wallon (1879-1962) – Philosopher, psychologist, psychiatrist, teacher and politician. Henri Wallon is best known for his theories that explained the development of child’s personality. He considered five developmental stages in which the prevalence of intelligence and affectivity changes.
Paul Diel ( 1893-1972 ) – Founder of the psychology of motivation. Diel tried to rehabilitate the introspection by making it more scientific and methodical. His work also included the study of symbolism in both Greek mythology and biblical texts.
Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan ( 1901-1981 ) – Psychoanalyst and psychiatrist with major contributions in the fields of psychoanalysis, philosophy and literary theory. His main concepts include the return to Freud, the mirror stage, Other/other (A/a), the three orders (The imaginary, the symbolic and the real), desire and drives (different from instincts).
Françoise Dolto ( 1908–1988 ) – A psychologist with a certain type of charisma, due to her sense of humor and talent, that revolutionized the domain of child-psychotherapy and mother-baby dyad.
René Zazzo ( 1910-1995 ) – Zazzo conducted many studies regarding child psychology, especially related to dyslexia and debility. He proposed the concept of “”oligophrenic heterochrony” that referred to the speed at which development occurs (regarding children with developmental problems) in correlation with the psychobiological sector concerned.
Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel ( 1928 – 2006 ) – Psychoanalyst, that is probably most known for revising Sigmund Freud’s theory regarding the ego ideal and its connection to the primary narcissism. The extended version of the theory became a critique of utopian ideology.
Serge Moscovici ( b. 1928 ) – A French psychologist of Romanian origins; Currently holds the position of director of the European Laboratory of Social Psychology (which he co-founded in 1975). His major works regarded the field of social psychology where he also provided a new view upon the influence of the minority.
The list of famous French psychologists also includes the following: François Simonet de Coulmier/ Abbé de Coulmier (psychotherapy; the director of the asylum in which Marquis de Sade has been institutionalized), Jean-Gabriel De Tarde (social psychologist, sociologist, criminalist), Georges Dumas (wrote “The Treatise of Psychology”), Robert Desoille (studies on waking dreams), Rudolph Loewenstein (Ego psychology), Éliane Amado Levy-Valensi, Jean-Charles Gille, Michel Gauquelin (psychologist, statistician who tried to appoint a scientific basis for astrology), Juan-David Nasio (first psychoanalyst inducted into the French Legion of Honor), Joseph Doucé (the psychology of sexual minorities), Jacques Fradin, Odile Jacob, Christian Lujan and Jacques-Alain Miller.
Article by Lucia Grosaru
ScienceDaily (2009-02-23) — By using fMRI to map brain activity of college students as they listened to a variety of tunes from their younger years, then comparing the activity to the students’ responses to questions about each tune, a researcher has found that the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex is a hub that responds to music, memory and emotion.
Read full article here.
Photo source: DryIcons
How many times have you found it hard to concentrate while one of your friends was trying to tell you about the latest happenings in his life? Remember these phrases? “Hey, are you still following my story?”, “Earth to Jim (or place your name here)” or “Okay, I’ll just stop talking, you’re not paying attention.”. If you do, try to recall what exactly were you doing prior to hearing the sentences above. Yes, you were probably daydreaming, thinking about that shiny sports car you saw earlier, mentally talking to your boss about that promotion you deserve or any other action or issue that had nothing to do with your friend and his story. And yet, you know you really wanted to listen to him and be there next to him and not “there” inside your own mind. What happened? Why do you sometimes find it hard to focus on a person speaking? Why are there moments when you want to assimilate relevant information from an oral presentation and yet you cannot, because somewhere down the road the lights go out and takes some time until you turn them on again?
Well, my dear reader, listening in an efficient manner is an art on its own. Retrieving the most relevant data using the act of listening it is not as easy as it may seem. There are so many books about how to be a great speaker, yet not so many about how to be a great listener. However, when a message is not received in a proper manner, you don’t always find the problem in the listener’s part of the court. A low voice speaker, an incoherent form of the speech or a message that is just too complex might also influence the efficiency of communication. But this is not the theme of this article, so I will bring the ball into the listener’s court and share with you a few tips on how to become a better listener.
Define the area of interest. You will pay more attention when the information presented regards your own fields of interest, activity or performance. So, when listening, ask yourself “How can I use this information ?”, “Is there anything that I can use from this speech in order to make my life better?”, etc.
Message, not presentation. Judge the content, not the skills of the speaker. While the person in front of you may not be the best orator, try to understand the core of his display, the message.
Attitude: cooperative. Be receptive and place yourself on the same side with the speaker; Even though his oppinions are different from yours, listen with respect and be open-minded regarding ideas or theories supported by strong arguments.
Main ideas. Discover the main ideas in the presentation and focus your attention on them.
Flexibility. If you decide to take written notes, use more systems of encoding the message: diagrams, spider-maps, roman numerals, etc.
Distraction to the minimum. Try to block the disturbing factors around you, such as background noises, great views outside the window, etc.
Be less emotional. Feel but do not let yourself overwhelmed by emotions. I am not saying that you should be insensitive, just try not to respond to words in an emotional manner.
Remain cool.Yes, I know you may be really excited about the speaker’s point of view, theory and arguments. Yet, try to remain calm and listen to everything he has to say, before jumping to conclusions (or worse, interrupting the display).
Exercise your listening skills. Participate to as many presentations, courses, conferences, etc. Meet your friends and ask them to talk about themselves.
Exercise your concentration. There are many ways to improve your level of concentration. I recommend you a 5 minutes state of meditation. Mentally focus for 5 minutes on a word or object. See it in your mind and if distraction occurs, bring the mental image of the object/word back as primary.
Diversity. Find or create situations that can help you exercise the process of listening. Change speakers, subjects, places, etc.
Feel free to add to this list any methods, activities or techniques that may help you or others to become better listeners.
Improve your listening skills by trying the tips above, but most of all, listen to what life has to say to you for that may hold the key to your moments of happiness!
P.S. I wonder how many times have you stopped from reading this article and engaged in some other activity?
Article by Lucia Grosaru
ScienceDaily (2009-02-12) — Researchers have discovered that brain imaging can identify mental illness before it starts. Until now, detecting mental illness before symptoms appear has been nearly impossible.
Read full article here.
