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Mind Is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain
By Nick Chater. 2018
In a radical reinterpretation of how the mind works an eminent behavioral scientist reveals the illusion of mental depth…
Psychologists and neuroscientists struggle with how best to interpret human motivation and decision making The assumption is that below a mental surface of conscious awareness lies a deep and complex set of inner beliefs values and desires that govern our thoughts ideas and actions and that to know this depth is to know ourselves In this profoundly original book behavioral scientist Nick Chater contends just the opposite rather than being the plaything of unconscious currents the brain generates behaviors in the moment based entirely on our past experiences Engaging the reader with eye-opening experiments and visual examples the author first demolishes our intuitive sense of how our mind works then argues for a positive interpretation of the brain as a ceaseless and creative improviserThe Moon's Our Nearest Neighbour
By Ghillie Basan. 2001
Chasing dreams of their own photographic business, Ghillie Basan and her husband Jonathan swap the comfort of their Edinburgh home…
for Corrunich - a remote cottage at the foot of the Cairngorms. With jumping cows for company, the Basans begin their new life with no electricity and heavy snowstorms. Generators break down and roads quickly become blocked, but the couple have a series of adventures with a fascinating mix of local farmers, terrified tourists, an African president, and their two babies, Yasmin and Zeki. The Moon's our Nearest Neighbour is a heart-warming, amusing account of a life lived in the picturesque beauty of highland Scotland; of the ferocious weather and the spectacularly starry skies; and, most of all, of the tremendous strength of spirit in coming to terms with the hardships and isolation of a new lifestyle.Dimensions of Human Behavior: The Changing Life Course (3rd Edition)
By Elizabeth D. Hutchison. 2008
Hutchison (social work, Virginia Commonwealth University) examines the life-course in nine age-grade periods, from infancy through young, late, and very…
late adulthood. This third edition features material that places the human life course in a global context, and incorporates insights from neuroscience throughout the chapters. Greater attention has been given to the role of fathers, and there is new material on the effects of gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and disability on life course trajectories. Learning features include composite cases, key points and glossary terms, summaries of implications for social work practice, exercises, and discussion questions. The text was developed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on human behavior in the social environment, in departments of social work and psychology. Its companion volume is Dimensions of Human Behavior: Person and Environment. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)The Changing Nature of Happiness
By Sandie McHugh. 2017
This book shines a light on the meaning of happiness and how public perceptions of it have changed over time.…
A question that has engaged philosophers from the days of Aristotle, happiness is a subject of growing academic interest, and its recent integration into government policy is provoking increased debate into its definition and nature. Sandie McHugh and her associates build on the work of social anthropologist Tom Harrison's 'Worktown' Mass Observation study from 1938, repeating the original study today. Together these accounts show how perceptions of happiness have changed over the years for the people of Bolton, UK, and reveal major difference between its definition then and now. This unique study is a useful tool in the understanding and study of happiness, offering invaluable insights for scholars and practitioners working in the fields of social psychology, positive psychology, health psychology and wellbeing.A Legacy of Madness
By Tom Davis. 2011
The story of a loving family coming to grips with its own fragilities, A Legacy of Madness relays the author's…
journey to uncover, and ultimately understand, the history of mental illness that led generations of his suburban American family to their demise.Dede Davis had worried, fussed, and obsessed for the last time: Her heart stopped beating in a fit of anxiety. In the wake of his mother's death, Tom Davis knew one thing: Helplessly self-absorbed and severely obsessive compulsive, Dede led a tormented life. She spent years bouncing around mental health facilities, nursing homes, and assisted-living facilities, but what really caused her death? A Legacy of Madness portrays Tom Davis's captivating discoveries of mental illness throughout generations of his family. Investigating his mother's history led to that of Davis's grandfather, a top administrator at one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the country; his great-grandfather who died of self-inflicted gas asphyxiation during the Depression; and his great-great grandmother who, with her eldest son, completed suicide one tragic day. Ultimately, four generations of family members showed clear signs of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and alcoholism--often mistreated illnesses that test one's ability to cope. Through this intimate memoir, we join Davis on a personal odyssey to ensure that he and his siblings, the fifth generation,--recover their family legacy by not only surviving their own mental health disorders but by getting the help they need to lead healthy, balanced lives. In the end, we witness Davis's powerful transition as he makes peace with the past and heals through forgiveness and compassion for his family--and himself. About the author Tom Davis is the Jersey Shore regional editor for Patch.com and an adjunct professor of journalism at Rutgers University. This is his first book. He lives in Metuchen, New Jersey.How Statesmen Think: The Psychology of International Politics
By Robert Jervis. 2017
Robert Jervis has been a pioneering leader in the study of the psychology of international politics for more than four…
decades. How Statesmen Think presents his most important ideas on the subject from across his career. This collection of revised and updated essays applies, elaborates, and modifies his pathbreaking work. The result is an indispensable book for students and scholars of international relations.How Statesmen Think demonstrates that expectations and political and psychological needs are the major drivers of perceptions in international politics, as well as in other arenas. Drawing on the increasing attention psychology is paying to emotions, the book discusses how emotional needs help structure beliefs. It also shows how decision-makers use multiple shortcuts to seek and process information when making foreign policy and national security judgments. For example, the desire to conserve cognitive resources can cause decision-makers to look at misleading indicators of military strength, and psychological pressures can lead them to run particularly high risks. The book also looks at how deterrent threats and counterpart promises often fail because they are misperceived.How Statesmen Think examines how these processes play out in many situations that arise in foreign and security policy, including the threat of inadvertent war, the development of domino beliefs, the formation and role of national identities, and conflicts between intelligence organizations and policymakers.The 8 Motivational Challenges
By Heidi Grant Halvorson. 2013
From the author of Succeed and Focus, a quick and easy guide to motivating anyone – including yourself. There is…
no one-size-fits-all way to get people motivated. Anyone who tells you that you should do X to get the most out of your employees, your students, or even yourself, isn’t telling you that – at best – X only works for some of the people, some of the time. In this short guide Heidi Grant Halvorson identifies the eight different types of underperformers and draws on research from her books Succeed and Focus to offer tailored strategies for lighting a fire under each one. Underperformers range from the truly achievement challenged to those who are actually performing at a high level but could perform even better if someone knew the right way to motivate them. Halvorson explains how we can understand each profile in terms of the mindset and motivational focus they bring to their work, in addition to the confidence with which they approach it. For each profile, each she lays out specific, evidence-based strategies for increasing effectiveness and engagement. Succinct and focused, this prescriptive guide will appeal to readers of What Successful People Do Before Breakfast and 9 Things Successful People Do Differently.Our Cheating Hearts: Love and Loyalty, Lust and Lies
By Kate Figes. 2013
By the author known and respected for her acclaimed books on relationships.Most of us manage to be monogamous, most of…
the time, but who cannot imagine themselves committing the 'crime' of adultery? Does being 'faithful' mean the same to everyone? Why DO people have affairs?Using real life testimony alongside the most current research, Our Cheating Hearts looks at the big questions around love and commitment. It lifts taboos, asks the tough questions and shows how in our progressive time monogamy has become the new ideal.Some people manage monogamy. For the countless others that don't, Our Cheating Hearts opens the debate and provides the honest approach that's essential.Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence
By Sankar K. Pal, David Zhang, B. Uma Shankar, Kuntal Ghosh, Deba Prasad Mandal, Shubhra Sankar Ray. 2007
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence, PReMI 2007, held…
in Kolkata, India in December 2007. The papers are organized in topical sections on pattern recognition, image analysis, soft computing and applications, data mining and knowledge discovery, bioinformatics, signal and speech processing, document analysis and text mining, biometrics, and video analysis.The Bad Touch: The True Story of Harish Iyer and other Thrivers of Child Sex Abuse
By Payal Shah Karwa. 2014
Real-life stories of victims of child sex abuse who emerged victorious! Harish Iyer is a survivor…nay… he is a thriver…
of child sex abuse. He is an award winning social activist who first shared his disturbing story of his sexual abuse on the television show Satyamev Jayate and who gave voice to the issue when most would be silent. Harish’s story will tear the reader apart. He suffers abuse at the hands of his uncle Satheesh, from the time he was seven. Harish was threatened that his parents would be killed if he did not submit to his uncle’s, and sometimes his friends’ barbarism. Until one fine day when Harish musters up the courage and says ‘No!’ He takes his mother into confidence who supports him, but Harish’s woes do not end there. He is castigated by society, his own father believes Harish to be at fault, and so begins Harish’s solo battle to help other sufferers like himself. There are others: noted film director Anurag Khashyap, a victim of incest and sexual abuse, not once but many times over; Jai, living in a Mumbai high-rise suffers abuse and a now 34-year-old mother who suffered sexual abuse as a 12-year-old. The stories in The Bad Touch will shock, horrify, sadden, repulse and numb the reader. But underlying them is the small ray of hope that if the immediate family is sensitive enough to the signals a child may send out, he or she may be rescued from being victimized. This book is a mission: to help ebb the trauma of survivors and inspire them with stories like Harish’s, and to create awareness of the issue of child sex abuse amongst parents/guardians.Making Sense of Change Management
By Mike Green, Esther Cameron. 2015
The world we live in continues to change at an intense rate. In order to succeed over the next few…
years, organizations must adapt to tough market conditions by changing their strategies, their structures, their boundaries and of course their expectations of staff and managers.Ideal reading for anyone who is currently part of or leading a change initiative, Making Sense of Change Management, 4th edition, is the definitive text in the field of change management. Aimed at students and professionals alike, it provides comprehensive coverage of the models, tools and techniques of successful change management with a focus on individual, team and organizational change to help the reader apply each concept to unique situations.Now with a new chapter exploring the integration of change management with project management, it also contains a completely revised and updated chapter on culture change that takes into account emerging thinking and practice.The Management of Conflict: Interpretations and Interests in Comparative Perspective
By Marc Howard Ross. 1993
Losing Amma, Finding Home: A Memoir about Love, Loss and Life's Detours
By Uma Girish. 2014
Uma Girish s Losing Amma Finding Home is a heart-rending narrative of losing a parent living…
through the pain and transforming it to discover one true-calling and life s purpose This is a breathtaking inspirational and personal memoir that will ring true with every reader When Uma arrives to start life in a Chicago suburb with her husband 14-year-old daughter and her dreams in the spring of 2008 she has no clue of the cosmic wheels in motion Barely four weeks later her 68-year-old mother in India is diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer Eight months later she passes away Losing her mother plunges Uma into the deepest despair but more importantly awakens a sudden clarity and knowing that there has to be more to life than this As she begins to navigate a new country and culture she is also called on to navigate the lonely terrain of grief Life begins to open doors and Uma finds comfort connection and purpose in working with seniors at a retirement community Every relationship that she forms with the seniors opens her heart a little wider as she seeks answers to the only questions that matter Who am I Why am I here What am I meant to do with this life Interweaving two cultures through a textured narrative Uma uncovers the truths of her inner journey as she transforms one event one person at a timePretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny
By Jessica Queller. 2008
A timely, affecting memoir from the front lines of medical science: When genetics can predict how we may die, how…
then do we decide how to live? Eleven months after her mother succumbs to cancer, Jessica Queller has herself tested for the BRCA “breast cancer” gene mutation. The results come back positive, putting her at a terrifyingly elevated risk of developing breast cancer before the age of fifty and ovarian cancer in her lifetime. Thirty-four, unattached, and yearning for marriage and a family of her own, Queller faces an agonizing choice: a lifetime of vigilant screenings and a commitment to fight the disease when caught, or its radical alternative—a prophylactic double mastectomy that would effectively restore life to her, even as it would challenge her most closely held beliefs about body image, identity, and sexuality. Superbly informed and armed with surprising wit and style, Queller takes us on an odyssey from the frontiers of science to the private interiors of a woman’s life. Pretty Is What Changesis an absorbing account of how she reaches her courageous decision and its physical, emotional, and philosophical consequences. It is also an incredibly moving story of what we inherit from our parents and how we fashion it into the stuff of our own lives, of mothers and daughters and sisters, and of the sisterhood that forms when women are united in battle against a common enemy. Without flinching, Jessica Queller answers a question we may one day face for ourselves: If genes can map our fates and their dark knowledge is offered to us, will we willingly trade innocence for the information that could save our lives?A World Within: A Remarkable Story of Coping with a Parent's Dementia
By Minaksh Chaudhry. 2014
This story is an unfinished one The story of a man dying in slow motion …
He clings to flashes of memory and grapples with his reality As he chases the mirage of his memory his world disappears fragment by fragment It is not just his being his self that disintegrates every moment it is the universe as he knew it that fades into oblivion This is a tale of a man building bridges to nowhere Everything around you changes when you take care of a parent with dementia This person who had been bedrock of your strength to whom you looked up to and who was always there for you is now nothing close to his former self His enquiring glances puzzlement doubts and demand for answers signal a total shift in relationship The despair also reveals the person you are temperamental and escapist But this journey has life lessons too When drama of life ends you will have nothing today is all you have so enjoy life With tears there is laughter and amidst confusion there is clarity that life goes on and we must flow with it Here is A World WithinBirth Order: What your position in the family really tells you about your character
By Linda Blair. 2013
On the basis of over 25 years' clinical experience and psychological research, Linda Blair reveals how your birth order position,…
as well as the spacing between you and your siblings and the sex of your siblings, impact your childhood, your adult life and your relationships.Packed with new research and written in a lively, personal style, Birth Order will inform and intrigue. By reading this unique book you will quickly understand yourself, your family and your partner better. It will also shed light on the dynamics of your other relationships, explain why you may repeat patterns within relationships, and suggest helpful strategies for dealing with other people. Chapters cover birth order and what being the eldest, middle, or youngest child reveals about you, the effect of large or small age gaps between you and your siblings, family size, the sex of your siblings, parental attitudes to each child, being an only child, being a twin, the impact of step-siblings, and much more.Attachment Theory in Clinical Work with Children
By David Oppenheim, Douglas Goldsmith. 2007
Attachment research has tremendous potential for helping clinicians understand what happens when parent-child bonds are disrupted, and what can be…
done to help. Yet there remains a large gap between theory and practice in this area. This book reviews what is known about attachment and translates it into practical guidelines for therapeutic work. Leading scientist-practitioners present innovative strategies for assessing and intervening in parent-child relationship problems; helping young children recover from maltreatment or trauma; and promoting healthy development in adoptive and foster families. Detailed case material in every chapter illustrates the applications of research-based concepts and tools in real-world clinical practice.Couples: How We Make Love Last
By Kate Figes. 2010
These days, many of us enjoy unrivalled freedom and equality when it comes to choosing and building a relationship. Yet…
new myths about how to live and love compromise that happiness.Kate Figes argues that, whether married or cohabiting, gay or straight, remarried or a couple living apart, the quality of our intimate relationship is fundamental to our long-term health and happiness, because our need for commitment and love hasn't changed.This is not a handbook. There are no easy 'Mars and Venus' universal recipes for success, because relationships are far too complicated, individual and important for easy answers. But learning how others sustain lifelong love, and what really goes on in other people's lives can help us to understand our own partnerships and take responsibility for making them work. Couples is an incisive and important look at how we can learn to make love endure.Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
By Scott Lilienfeld. 2003
This book offers a rigorous examination of a variety of therapeutic, assessment, and diagnostic techniques in clinical psychology, focusing on…
practices that are popular and influential but lack a solid grounding in empirical research. Featuring chapters from leading clinical researchers, the text helps professionals and students evaluate the merits of novel and controversial techniques and differentiate between those that can stand up to scientific scrutiny and those that cannot. Reviewed are widely used therapies for alcoholism, infantile autism, and ADHD; the use of EMDR in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder; herbal remedies for depression and anxiety; suggestive techniques for memory recovery; and self-help models. Other topics covered include issues surrounding psychological expert testimony, the uses and abuses of projective assessment techniques, and unanswered questions about dissociative identity disorder. Offering a balanced, constructive review of available research, each accessibly written chapter concludes with a glossary of key terms.Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain
By Paul W. Glimcher. 2003
Winner in the category of Medical Science in the 2003 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of…
American Publishers, Inc. In this provocative book, Paul Glimcher argues that economic theory may provide an alternative to the classical Cartesian model of the brain and behavior. Glimcher argues that Cartesian dualism operates from the false premise that the reflex is able to describe behavior in the real world that animals inhabit. A mathematically rich cognitive theory, he claims, could solve the most difficult problems that any environment could present, eliminating the need for dualism by eliminating the need for a reflex theory. Such a mathematically rigorous description of the neural processes that connect sensation and action, he explains, will have its roots in microeconomic theory. Economic theory allows physiologists to define both the optimal course of action that an animal might select and a mathematical route by which that optimal solution can be derived. Glimcher outlines what an economics-based cognitive model might look like and how one would begin to test it empirically. Along the way, he presents a fascinating history of neuroscience. He also discusses related questions about determinism, free will, and the stochastic nature of complex behavior.