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Understanding Mental Health Apps: An Applied Psychosocial Perspective (Palgrave Studies in Cyberpsychology)
By Lewis Goodings, Darren Ellis, Ian Tucker. 2024
This is the first book to look exclusively from at the use of MHapps from an applied psychosocial perspective. Much of…
the academic literature on MHapps in psychology focuses on the clinical efficacy of using apps (e.g., depression reduction as result of using a certain app) and will typically report on the use of randomised controlled trials (or a similar method) to illustrate the use of apps as a tool for improving a psychological condition. Therefore, the main benefit of this book is that it recognises the impact of apps from a social perspective and will aim to show how everyday forms of distress are embedded in the use of these apps and the broader set of relations that constitute people’s everyday lives. The content of this book will identify how an applied social perspective can offer insight into the power of apps to shape our sense of ourselves and of others. This book will be of use to educators and students in psychology, sociology, health studies, media studies andcultural studies.The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions
By Esther M. Sternberg. 2001
A thrilling scientific detective story, The Balance Within tells how researchers finally uncovered the elusive mind-body connection and what it…
means for our health. Since ancient times humans have felt intuitively that emotions and health are linked, and recently there has been much popular speculation about this notion. But until now, without compelling evidence, it has been impossible to say for sure that such a connection really exists and especially how it works. Now, that evidence has been discovered.In this beautifully written book, Dr. Esther Sternberg, whose discoveries were pivotal in helping to solve this mystery, provides first hand accounts of the breakthrough experiments that revealed the physical mechanisms - the nerves, cells, and hormones - used by the brain and immune system to communicate with each other. She describes just how stress can make us more susceptible to all types of illnesses, and how the immune system can alter our moods. Finally, she explains how our understanding of these connections in scientific terms is helping to answer such crucial questions as "Does stress make you sick?" "Is a positive outlook the key to better health?" and "How do our personal relationships, work, and other aspects of our lives affect our health?"A fascinating, elegantly written portrait of this rapidly emerging field with enormous potential for finding new ways to treat disease and cope with stress, The Balance Within is essential reading for anyone interested in making their body and mind whole again.The Face of Emotion: How Botox Affects Our Moods and Relationships
By Eric Finzi. 2013
William Shakespeare famously wrote that "a face is like a book," and common wisdom has it that our faces reveal…
our deep-seated emotions. But what if the reverse were also true? What if our facial expressions set our moods instead of revealing them? What if there were actual science to support the exhortation, "smile, be happy?" Dermatologic surgeon Eric Finzi has been studying that question for nearly two decades, and in this ground breaking book he marshals evidence suggesting that our facial expressions are not secondary to, but rather a central driving force of, our emotions. Based on clinical experience and original research, Dr. Finzi shows how changing a person's face not only affects their relationships with others but also with themselves. In his studies using Botox, he has shown how inhibiting the frown of clinically depressed patients leads many to experience relief. This work is a dramatic departure from the neuroscience-based thinking on emotions that tends to view emotions solely as the result of neurotransmitters in the brain. Part absorbing medical narrative, part think piece on the nature of emotion, this is a bold call for us to rethink the causes of unhappiness.Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature
By Alva Noë. 2015
A philosopher makes the case for thinking of works of art as tools for investigating ourselvesIn his new book, Strange…
Tools: Art and Human Nature, the philosopher and cognitive scientist Alva Noë raises a number of profound questions: What is art? Why do we value art as we do? What does art reveal about our nature? Drawing on philosophy, art history, and cognitive science, and making provocative use of examples from all three of these fields, Noë offers new answers to such questions. He also shows why recent efforts to frame questions about art in terms of neuroscience and evolutionary biology alone have been and will continue to be unsuccessful.The Sage Handbook of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience: Cognitive Systems, Development and Applications
By Gregory J. Boyle, Georg Northoff, Aron K. Barbey, Felipe Fregni, Marjan Jahanshahi, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Barbara J. Sahakian. 2024
Cognitive neuroscience is the interdisciplinary study of how cognitive and intellectual functions are processed and represented within the brain, which is critical…
to building understanding of core psychological and behavioural processes such as learning, memory, behaviour, perception, and consciousness. Understanding these processes not only offers relevant fundamental insights into brain-behavioural relations, but may also lead to actionable knowledge that can be applied in the clinical treatment of patients with various brain-related disabilities. This Handbook examines complex cognitive systems through the lens of neuroscience, as well as providing an overview of development and applications within cognitive and systems neuroscience research and beyond. Containing 35 original, state of the art contributions from leading experts in the field, this Handbook is essential reading for researchers and students of cognitive psychology, as well as scholars across the fields of neuroscientific, behavioural and health sciences. Part 1: Attention, Learning and Memory Part 2: Language and Communication Part 3: Emotion and Motivation Part 4: Social Cognition Part 5: Cognitive Control and Decision Making Part 6: IntelligenceThe Sage Handbook of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience: Cognitive Systems, Development and Applications
By Gregory J. Boyle, Georg Northoff, Aron K. Barbey, Felipe Fregni, Marjan Jahanshahi, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Barbara J. Sahakian. 2024
Cognitive neuroscience is the interdisciplinary study of how cognitive and intellectual functions are processed and represented within the brain, which is critical…
to building understanding of core psychological and behavioural processes such as learning, memory, behaviour, perception, and consciousness. Understanding these processes not only offers relevant fundamental insights into brain-behavioural relations, but may also lead to actionable knowledge that can be applied in the clinical treatment of patients with various brain-related disabilities. This Handbook examines complex cognitive systems through the lens of neuroscience, as well as providing an overview of development and applications within cognitive and systems neuroscience research and beyond. Containing 35 original, state of the art contributions from leading experts in the field, this Handbook is essential reading for researchers and students of cognitive psychology, as well as scholars across the fields of neuroscientific, behavioural and health sciences. Part 1: Attention, Learning and Memory Part 2: Language and Communication Part 3: Emotion and Motivation Part 4: Social Cognition Part 5: Cognitive Control and Decision Making Part 6: IntelligenceLockdown on Rikers: Shocking Stories of Abuse and Injustice at New York's Notorious Jail
By Mary E. Buser. 2015
Mary Buser began her career at Rikers Island as a social work intern, brimming with ideas and eager to help…
incarcerated women find a better path. Her reassignment to a men's jail coincided with the dawn of the city's "stop-and-frisk" policy, a flood of unprecedented arrests, and the biggest jailhouse build-up in New York City history.Committed to the possibility of growth for the scarred and tattooed masses who filed into her session booth, Buser was suddenly faced with black eyes, punched-out teeth, and frantic whispers of beatings by officers. Recognizing the greater danger of pointing a finger at one's captors, Buser attempted to help them, while also keeping them as well as herself, safe. Following her promotion to assistant chief, she was transferred to different jails, working in the Mental Health Center, and finally, at Rikers's notorious "jail within jail," the dreaded solitary confinement unit, where she saw horrors she'd never imagined. Finally, it became too much to bear, forcing Buser to flee Rikers and never look back - until now.Lockdown on Rikers shines a light into the deepest and most horrific recesses of the criminal justice system, and shows how far it has really drifted from the ideals we espouse.The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves
By Siri Hustvedt. 2009
In this unique neurological memoir Siri Hustvedt attempts to solve her own mysterious conditionWhile speaking at a memorial event for…
her father in 2006, Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. Despite her flapping arms and shaking legs, she continued to speak clearly and was able to finish her speech. It was as if she had suddenly become two people: a calm orator and a shuddering wreck. Then the seizures happened again and again. The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves tracks Hustvedt's search for a diagnosis, one that takes her inside the thought processes of several scientific disciplines, each one of which offers a distinct perspective on her paroxysms but no ready solution. In the process, she finds herself entangled in fundamental questions: What is the relationship between brain and mind? How do we remember? What is the self? During her investigations, Hustvedt joins a discussion group in which neurologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and brain scientists trade ideas to develop a new field: neuropsychoanalysis. She volunteers as a writing teacher for psychiatric in-patients at the Payne Whitney clinic in New York City and unearths precedents in medical history that illuminate the origins of and shifts in our theories about the mind-body problem. In The Shaking Woman, Hustvedt synthesizes her experience and research into a compelling mystery: Who is the shaking woman? In the end, the story she tells becomes, in the words of George Makari, author of Revolution in Mind, "a brilliant illumination for us all."Academic Success in Online Programs: A Resource for College Students (Springer Texts in Education)
By Jacqueline S. Stephen. 2024
This book provides higher education students with a comprehensive resource to assist them in their academic persistence in an online…
course or program. It addresses a wide selection of topics emphasizing a myriad of factors that impact a student’s persistence, and ultimate success, in an online program or course. The book helps students to gain insight into the skills, knowledge, and attributes needed to succeed in the autonomous nature of an online learning environment. Thus, this book helps students to proactively engage in activities to prepare for online learning. Information presented in each chapter is drawn from theory and recent research centered on persistence of online students in higher education. It incorporates hands-on practical activities to promote application of theory and research, and encourages students to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities through the use of reflective and thought-provoking activities. Hence, this book provides online students with an up-to-date resource they can use to develop an awareness of their readiness and preparedness for online learning. Additionally, this book equips students with information and strategies aimed at helping them to address gaps in their skills and knowledge that may present them with barriers to academic success. The content of this book is aligned with widely used student learning outcomes and objectives of first-year student seminar courses and orientation programs for graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in online programs. Furthermore, it is deliberately organized and structured to support an online student’s academic journey as they navigate the online learning environment. As such, these features make it an ideal book for use by students, instructors, and academic advisors or college and university academic support staff.Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide
By Charles Foster. 2016
A passionate naturalist explores what it’s really like to be an animal—by living like themHow can we ever be sure…
that we really know the other? To test the limits of our ability to inhabit lives that are not our own, Charles Foster set out to know the ultimate other: the non-humans, the beasts. And to do that, he tried to be like them, choosing a badger, an otter, a fox, a deer, and a swift. He lived alongside badgers for weeks, sleeping in a sett in a Welsh hillside and eating earthworms, learning to sense the landscape through his nose rather than his eyes. He caught fish in his teeth while swimming like an otter; rooted through London garbage cans as an urban fox; was hunted by bloodhounds as a red deer, nearly dying in the snow. And he followed the swifts on their migration route over the Strait of Gibraltar, discovering himself to be strangely connected to the birds. A lyrical, intimate, and completely radical look at the life of animals—human and other—Being a Beast mingles neuroscience and psychology, nature writing and memoir to cross the boundaries separating the species. It is an extraordinary journey full of thrills and surprises, humor and joy. And, ultimately, it is an inquiry into the human experience in our world, carried out by exploring the full range of the life around us.Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People
By Elizabeth A. Fenn. 2014
Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for HistoryEncounters at the Heart of the World concerns the Mandan Indians, iconic Plains…
people whose teeming, busy towns on the upper Missouri River were for centuries at the center of the North American universe. We know of them mostly because Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805 with them, but why don't we know more? Who were they really? In this extraordinary book, Elizabeth A. Fenn retrieves their history by piecing together important new discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, geology, climatology, epidemiology, and nutritional science. Her boldly original interpretation of these diverse research findings offers us a new perspective on early American history, a new interpretation of the American past. By 1500, more than twelve thousand Mandans were established on the northern Plains, and their commercial prowess, agricultural skills, and reputation for hospitality became famous. Recent archaeological discoveries show how these Native American people thrived, and then how they collapsed. The damage wrought by imported diseases like smallpox and the havoc caused by the arrival of horses and steamboats were tragic for the Mandans, yet, as Fenn makes clear, their sense of themselves as a people with distinctive traditions endured. A riveting account of Mandan history, landscapes, and people, Fenn's narrative is enriched and enlivened not only by science and research but by her own encounters at the heart of the world.Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants
By Peter D. Kramer. 2016
Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified dummy pills? How can we tell?In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist and author…
Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients’ dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light.Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference that readers have come to expect in his books, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks the “inside baseball” of psychiatry—statistics—and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions.Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications’ influence on his patients’ symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. He updates his prior writing about the nature of depression as a destructive illness and the effect of antidepressants on traits like low self-worth. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well.Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control
By Dominic Streatfeild. 2007
Vivid and disturbing, Brainwash is essential insight into the modern practice of interrogation and torture. With access to formerly classified…
documentation and interviews from the CIA, U.S. Army, MI5, MI6, and British Intelligence Corps, Dominic Streatfeild traces the evolution of mind control from its origins in the Cold War to the height of today's war on terror. Behind the front lines of every war in the world, prisoners are forced to sit for interrogation: manipulated, coerced, and sometimes tortured--often without ever being touched. Brainwash is a history of the methods intended to destroy and reconstruct the minds of captives, to extract information, convert dissidents, and lead peaceful men to kill and be killed.Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All
By Erno Rubik. 2020
The first book by the reclusive inventor of the world’s most iconic puzzle THE RUBIK’S CUBE. Erno Rubik inspires us…
with what he’s learned in a lifetime of creating, curiosity, and discovery.Erno Rubik was a child when he first became obsessed with puzzles of all kinds. “Puzzles,” he writes, “bring out important qualities in each of us: concentration, curiosity, a sense of play, the eagerness to discover a solution.” To Rubik puzzles aren’t just games—they’re creativity machines. He encourages us to embrace our inner curiosity and find the puzzles that surround us in our everyday lives. “If you are determined, you will solve them,” he writes. Rubik’s own puzzle, the Cube, went on to be solved by millions worldwide for over forty years, become one of the bestselling toys of all time, and to be featured as a global symbol of intelligence and ingenuity.In Cubed, Rubik covers more than just his journey to inventing his eponymous cube. He makes a case for always being an amateur—something he has always considered himself to be. He discusses the inevitability of problems during any act of invention. He reveals what it was like to experience the astonishing worldwide success of an object he made purely for his own play. And he offers what he thinks it means to be a true creator (hint: anyone can do it). Steeped in the wisdom and also the humility of a born inventor, Cubed offers a unique look at the imperfect science of creation.The Impostor Phenomenon: Psychological Research, Theory, and Interventions
By Kevin Cokley. 2024
This book offers a scientific investigation into the impostor phenomenon, a concept that has long been misunderstood in popular culture.…
Much of the conventional wisdom about the impostor phenomenon is driven by intuitive, common-sense based recommendations about how to cope with and conquer impostor feelings. Unfortunately, much of this discourse is neither rooted in nor informed by empirical research. There are many important theoretical and methodological questions regarding the impostor phenomenon that remain unanswered, such as whether the impostor phenomenon is a personality trait at the core of one's identity, or merely a predisposition triggered by circumstances or fears of being evaluated. This book describes the theoretical underpinnings of the impostor phenomenon along with common measurement issues, implications for mental health and achievement, its relative prevalence among various population groups, and practical applications of the concept in psychotherapy and mental health treatment more broadly.Understanding Mechanisms of Change in Psychotherapies for Personality Disorders
By Ueli Kramer, Kenneth N. Levy, Shelley McMain. 2024
This book presents a holistic approach to treating patients with personality disorders that seeks to inspire psychotherapists and encourage innovation.…
Focusing on core mechanisms of change that span different therapeutic approaches, this book invites clinicians and researchers to join a dialogue with the authors, as they examine personality disorders from different theoretical perspectives, including dialectical behavior therapy, transference‑focused therapy, plan analysis, clarification‑oriented, and emotion‑focused therapies. The authors explore five functional domains that underlie assessment and treatment for personality disorders: emotion dysregulation, disturbed social interaction, identity problems, impulsivity, and cognitive disturbances. Each domain is analyzed through an in‑depth case example, with case conceptualizations and the careful evaluation of clinical decisions that must be made at key points in therapy. The authors then compare their different approaches, emphasizing commonalities among them while also pointing out notable differences. They also offer clear and compelling recommendations for maintaining and strengthening the therapeutic alliance. The final chapter synthesizes key takeaways from across the book to create a clear path towards enhancing clinical practice.