The Placebo Effect

       A placebo has been defined as " a substance or procedure that is objectively without specific activity for t     he condition being treated"
when patient feels improvement in health without an actual treatment, that calls Placebo Effect.
and we wonder what is actually making us feel better without any treatment but pieces of sugar pills?
the answer is our beliefs. From article- Just A Sugar Pill, we got know that every mental process is represented in the brain. A placebo can not makes you feel better unless your brain tell you so.  Therefore, while you think you are taking the right medicine, your brain already make the decision that you must feel better after the medicine, even though none of you nor your brain know it is just a sugar pill, and that is how placebo effect works.  Anyway, there are two positive placebo effect calls : 1. Inert Placebo 2.  Active Placebo .  For Inert Placebos are  those really devoid  of action, be it pharmacological, surgical... For Active Placebos are those that actually have actions, although these actions are not relevantly specific to the disease for which they are administrated.  however, there are also some issues about placebo. for example, there is a negative effect called Nocebo Effect,  when patients report that they are getting worse or that unpleasant sude-effects has occurred, Nocebe is a word derived from the Latin nocere, meaning inflicting damage. it often happens when the patients don't believe the medicine works well on them. 
nevertheless, scientists have made many experiments, afterward they found out all they are about Subject- expectancy Effect.  that occurs in experiments or medical treatment, when a research subject or patientexpects a given result and therefore unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected result. Because this effect can significantly bias the results of experiments (especially on human subjects). 

PTSD treatments

* CBT( Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)


     1. Explain the process of the treatment...
        this therapy helps to solve 2 main issues from PTSD
      - Cognition ( thinking): because of PTSD, patients minds have being trapped in a cycle, that makes they think that they can not ever get rid of it. The cognitive part of CBT break down these harmful thought patterns to helps patients feel free again.
     - Behavior( acting）:  this part of CBT helps patients to spot and correct these behavior( PTSD)  and to replace them with behaviors that work for you.


     2. How does it work????
          CBT helps patients to make sense of overwhelming problem, by breaking them apart .
          then they will see how does those thing affect you.
         by watching your :
                                   Thoughts
                                    Emotions
                                   Physical feelings
                                      Actions



* Medicine treatment ( drug treatment)


   1. the process of the treatment :
    A type of drug known as Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a type of antidepressant medicine. These can help patient relief their painic 
emotion  . They appear to be helpful, and for some people they are very effective. SSRIs include citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (such as Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft).
Stop a crisis from escalating, for example, medications can help patient regain control when they are suicidal, unable to workk, or in danger of hurting other people.Work fast,  reduce your anxiety   


2 how does that works for PSTD


       doctor uses some kind of medicine to comfort some in serious illness  patient to help them control their emotion.
   


   how to combine these 2 treatment together??


it is helpful if the doctor use both for the patient who has serious PSTD. because they need medication to make them feel better, then the doctor can use CBT to release their pain.


 but for some not that serious PSTD, CBT is just fine, to help.

Memory and Emotion in Real-life: PTSD

What is PTSD?


   Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an emotional illness that that is classified as an anxiety disorder and usually develops as a result of a terribly frightening, life-threatening, or otherwise highly unsafe experience.

What are the symptoms?
 1 symptoms: the sufferer re-experiences the traumatic incident
ex. nightmares, flashback
Class 2 symptoms: the sufferer displays avoidance, wants to stay away from anything that may possibly remind her/him of the trauma. May also display lack of responsiveness or interest to all life circumstances
ex. sights, smells, sounds, conversations associated or reminding of trauma, unable to enjoy once joyful activities or have loving feeling
Class 3 symptoms: hyperarousal
ex.  irritable all the time or inability to sleep.
What causes PTSD?



it can be caused by some highly unsafe experiences

 
Briefly explain how memory and emotion relate to PTSD.

Emotion and Memory = Flashbulb Memory? -copy right from Mr. D

At first i think we need knw what is a Flashbulb Memory.
A flashbulb memory is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard.

Research each of the studies listed below relating to FBM (flashbulb memory) and post your responses on your blog.  Post each one as a separate entry and include one picture along with links to the sites where you acquired your information.

Explain the study – Brown & Kulik (1977)

• What was the aim of the study?

         Investigate whether dramatic, or personally significant events can cause "flashbulb" memories

• Explain in 2-3 sentences, the procedure of this study

            the procedure of this study was using a  retrospective questionnaire assessed the memories of 80 US past for the conditions when the surprise news was learned from public events.

• What were the findings of this study?

     flashbulb memory more likely for unexpected and personally relevant shocking events

• What is the conclusion from this study?

   Dramatic events can cause a physiological imprinting of a memory of the event

• Explain one limitation (weakness) of this study.

     Data collected through questionnaires, so it is impossible to verify the accuracy of memories reported.

Explain the study – Neisser & Harsch (1992)

• What was the aim of the study?

            suggest that FBMs may not be as accurate or permanent as the theory states.

• Explain in 2-3 sentences, the procedure of this study

             A questionnaire was administered to 106 participants on the day after the space-shuttle exploded (Jan 1996). Among the questions asked were 5 about how they heard the news: where they were, what they were doing, who told them, what time it occurred etc. Thirty-two months later the participants were asked to complete the questionnaire again and their results compared to the original.

• What were the findings of this study?

               the participants' memories of how they learned the news about challenger changed over time. Assuming Paticipants were more accurate one day after the disaster, it can be concluded that their memories about how they had heard the news deteriorated significantly during the subsequent two and half years. This suggests that FBMs are not very reliable.

• What is the conclusion from this study?

               FBMs may be ordinary memories.

• Explain one limitation (weakness) of this study.

            They do not include a control condition to allow for a comparison between normal memories and flashbulb memories. They simply assume that flashbulb memories are better remembered than other kinds of memories.

Explain the study – Talarico & Rubin (2003)

• What was the aim of the study?

• Explain in 2-3 sentences, the procedure of this study

           participants to recall the events of 9.11 2001 on 4 occasions: 1, 7 ,42 and 224 days after the attack. they also tested the participants' memory for an everyday with the attack. once more, memory was tested 4 times, following the same time arrangements used for the recall of the attack.

• What were the findings of this study?

            FBMs remained very vivid throughout the study.

• What is the conclusion from this study?

• Explain one limitation (weakness) of this study. 

seneca on Anger VS Lazarus- Appraisal theory of emtion

Lazarus apprisal theory is how we assess the events that cause arousal determines which emotion we experience, and how we reacted to what we have being through. 
there is 2 appraisals in this theory.
primry apprisal is a event personally relevant?  and this result is basic positive/ negative approach/ avoidance responses.
Secondary appraisal procide information about a person's coping option in a situation. for example people would think as : can i chang the situation to make it less threatening? or can i change the situation by how i feel?  And  the Lazarus' result have been support in many studies but these studies are often ecologically invalid.

The video Seneca on Anger have made many cases to help us to understand how  to change our emotion by our mind, to less the anger or to feel more positive.
Philosopher Seneca identified his belief about the source of emotions such as anger: we don't think enough about the things that could go wrong and therefore, we are surprised when they occur.  As a result of surprise we feel angry over our disappontment or feelings of helplessness - it is then that emotions are the strongest.

 If people can just have some bad preparation before everything happens so people can have less anger or disappiont than its suppose be. Because in this world , in your life, nothing is going be perfectly just as you have planed to be.

When we are putting these both of philosophy and Lazarus theory together, things become more clear and more reasonable.they have a same common is its all can help people to control our emtions instead of let people be mieserable for little things. it can help people think in a more positive and happily way. !

Facial Expressions Show Language Barriers, Too

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090813142131.htm)

This article is represent that people who are from different country and different culture have different facial experience.
they found that people from east Asia have a tougher time to express their emotion on face than  European
people from different culture are expressing their facial expressions more on different parts, for example eastern people express more on the eye, But the western people more express on the mouth and cheek.