|
|
|
|
Home
|
Written by Harvard Mental Health Letter
|
|
A lot of psychologists regard heightened self-esteem as a worthy aim, but some worry that its significance and value are overrated,according to the June 2007 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. There is strong evidence that people with high self-esteem are happier, as well as more likely to undertake difficult tasks and persevere in the face of failure. Some studies have failed to confirm the virtues of high self-esteem, however. One way to understand these different views is to distinguish various kinds of self-esteem. Researchers are beginning to examine differences between "explicit" and "implicit" self-esteem. The explicit form is judged by what we say about ourselves, while implicit self-esteem is measured by automatic responses, such as how we associate words that have favorable or unfavorable connotations with ourselves. When does it makes sense to treat high self-esteem as a goal in itself? Critics suggest that even when self-esteem is associated with something desirable - such as happiness - there is no proof of a causal link. A genetic predisposition to feeling good might be the source of both happiness and high self-esteem. Making self-esteem a primary goal could remove an incentive for genuine self-improvement and encourage self-centeredness. However, other mental health clinicians say that long-term studies provide sufficient evidence that self-esteem is a source of good things and not just a by-product. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Leonard Holmes, Ph.D.
|
|
A 2004 study of major depressive disorder in children and teens that showed that sertraline is slightly more effective than placebo. It also had more side effects. This really is an important study. Kids are already taking Zoloft, and we need to understand the implications of this. Some of the results are troubling, though. Should children be prescribed Zoloft on a regular basis? Of course not. We don't know the long term effects of prescribing such powerful medications to children. Zoloft, like the more famous Prozac, is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). The mechanism of action of these medications is not completely known. We do know that they increase levels of serotonin in the brain and body. New research suggests that they also stimulate the hippocampus to grow new brain cells. Since this 2004 study came out the FDA has agreed that antidepressants should be used with extreme care in children an adolescents. While growing new brain cells sounds like a good thing, we don't know the long term implications of this. Children are actively learning and their brains are reorganizing at a high pace. What effect will more serotonin and new brain cells in the hippocampus have? Candace Pert, the neuroscientist who discovered endorphins, also cautions against large scale reliance on SSRIs in her book The Molecules of Emotion. Pert is one of the foremost experts on "messenger molecules" - molecules that convey information from one cell to another. She notes that cells in the heart contain serotonin receptor sites - places for serotonin to attach in order to relay a message to the cell. We don't know why these sites are there, but serotonin appears to play some role in cardiac function. How would months or years of extra serotonin affect the heart? Nobody knows. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Why do Young People Murder? |
|
Written by Leonard Holmes, Ph.D.
|
|
Increasingly in recent years Americans and others around the world have tried to make sense of a senseless mass murder. When the victims and perpetrators are teenagers or young adults the act is even harder to comprehend. Why would high school or college students murder their classmates and teachers? What do such events say about our society? Sometimes it's an individual with a problem. In the case of the Virgnia Tech killings we are beginning to learn about problems that may have been unique to Cho Seung-Hui. Even before the April 1999 events at Columbine High School the American Psychological Association (APA) and MTV had joined forces to develop a campaign to stop youth violence. The APA Website includes materials developed from this campaign. Drawing from this material and other sources I have put together some factors that I believe contribute to the current climate of violence.
The easy availability of guns in the U.S. - The United States has some of the most liberal gun laws in the world. While events like this have happened in other countries, only in America are the weapons easily available in quantity. The availability of information on explosives on the Internet - The Internet allows information to come into our living rooms that was once very difficult to obtain. We have always been able to go to the library and find some of this material. Today volumes of it is available in your home at the touch of a button. Some of the Online material is more detailed than anything you'd find at the library.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
| | << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next > End >>
| | Results 13 - 16 of 27 |
 |
|
|
|
