Importance of Brain Studies in Psychology, Guest Lecture

This is a lecture given on the need to study and understand the functioning of the brain in the discipline of Psychology.

PSYHRM REVISITING THE WORLD OF WORK: The Interface of Psychology & Human Resource Development

A conference organized by at Christ University, Bangalore 

Department of Psychology

On: Feb 25th & 26th, 2011

At: Christ University Campus, Hosur Road, Bangalore -560029

About the Conference:

The National Conference focuses on the fine synthesis of micro and macro approaches of both disciplines. This blending is adopted to provide professionals, theoretical and application based perspectives relevant to understanding HRM. Organizations at this stage of development are confronted with multicultural and diverse workforce, rapid technological innovations, working across different time zones including financial uncertainties. Given this, it is inevitable that there are recurrent mental health demands on the workforce. Revisiting existing models or frameworks would bring in fresh ideas, approaches and researchable areas in the fields of OB and HRM for strategic implications benefitting both organizational growth and psychological wellbeing in the world of work. 


For more details visit http://psyhrm.blogspot.com/

CHILDREN

Just when I was beginning to lose my focus on Psychology, I witnessed an incident that put me back into perspective. A child crying in the hospital as her mother was wheeled into the emergency room. One often hears of the fragility of a child's mind but seldom sees it firsthand. Children work in strange ways that is beyond our comprehension. What we can understand is when they imitate our behavior and try to be like adults. We can also understand them when they behave like the opposite of adults and throw childish tantrums, but what we fail to grasp is when the blend in their adult-like maturity with their childlike innocence.

They have their mother's blue eyes and their father's sharp sense of hearing but what they see and listen is entirely different from what we look at or hear.Most importantly, their perceptions and reactions to situations are unfathomable. The little girl shrieks in pain, her face turns red and she cannot wrap her head around the fact that her mother is injured. Yet, when her mother is wheeled out, she inhales deeply and looks into her eyes and says- "get well soon". Strength radiates through her small four feet frame, even as she wipes those endless tears away.

"You are strong" is a phrase that people have been consoling me with for the past few weeks, given the recent hospital experiences that I have been through, and I cannot think of a less befitting phrase than that. Over the months, I have mastered,shall I say, the art of repressing feelings and ignoring those questions and doubts that are bursting through the surface of my sub-conscious. It is somehow easier to pretend that these questions of an uncertain future and the moral dilemmas, are of no importance and it is best to forget them altogether. It is easier to suppress the turmoil brimming inside, threatening to burst into my consciousness and engulf me in a process of self-realization. Instead, I put on a smile on my face, a cheer in my voice and live out my day through its mundane routines. For this, I am complimented each day as being "a strong girl."

The little girl did not hesitate to face her fears. She cried in pain in spite of the stares from strangers. She embraced her pain and felt it pierce into her. She allowed herself to be honest with her feelings but when her mother came in she knew she had to be there for her and so she wiped her tears and looked at her. Her eight year old mind was still unable to accept that her mother's condition and yet she displayed the unnerving strength of a mature adult. This blend of emotions is so becoming of the children around us. They work in strange ways and we continue to be baffled by them.

It is this wonderful nature of children that enthralled me to unravel their psychological mysteries.

INSANITY

That. It is a disease.
A disease of the mind
That will allow you to overcome who you are
In order to become something that you are not.

That. It is a change
A change so different that it terrifies you
more than those around you
who cannot stand to see you this way

That. It is a belief
A belief so untrue
but it fuels you
and your delusions.

That. It is a system
to which you unwillingly submit
because you enjoy the pain it transmits
even though you know it hurts you.

That. It is your life now
Even though it is something you never dreamed of
It is your worst fear and you can't even look into a mirror
For you have now entered your black world

And you believe you will never be rescued.

MIRRORS OF CULTURE

Culture has always been a fluid, dynamic term that is conventionally associated with art, literature, architecture, language, tradition and ancestry. One working definition of culture, as given by the Britannica Encyclopedia, is the totality of socially transmitted behavioral patterns, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Through the ages, culture has been defined in terms of aesthetics, social norms and linguistics but what if there was a neurological explanation to this complex system?

Italian researcher Giacomo Rizzolatti and his colleagues have identified a group of neurons called Mirror Neurons in the frontal lobe of the brain. A mirror neuron is fired when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action being performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in primates, humans and other species including birds. This is the basis of imitative behaviour. Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, Director of Cognitive Research Center, University of California, believes that the mirror neurons are the basis of culture and civilization.

The mirror neurons are a subset of the motor neurons and they are triggered when an individual observes another performing an action. However, not all the observed actions are imitated, as the sensory receptors of our skin send a stronger message to the brain, inhibiting the signals triggered by the mirror neurons. V. Ramachandran and his colleagues devised an experiment where the skin receptors of the participants were desensitized. As hypothesized, the desensitized participants were found making involuntary movements when they were made to observe individuals performing certain actions. This established the role of the mirror neurons in imitative behavior or as V Ramachandran puts it “the neurons are adopting to the other person’s point of view.”

V Ramachandran then made a historical observation. Seventy five thousand years ago there was a sudden emergence and rapid spread of a number of skills that are unique to human beings like tool use, the use of fire, the use of shelters, language, the ability to understand an individual’s mind and interpret behaviour. Even though the human brain had achieved its present size almost three or four hundred thousand years ago, the emergence of mirror neurons was seen only seventy five thousands year ago. V Ramachandran attributes the rapid development of human civilization to this sudden emergence of a sophisticated mirror neuron system, which allowed one to imitate other people's actions. Hence, when there was a sudden accidental discovery by one member of the group, like the use of a particular tool, it spread rapidly across the population, and was transmitted down the generations.

The imitation of complex skills is now known as culture and it is the basis of civilization.

Psyched!

Once I had multiple personalities, but now we are feeling well.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute.
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
The best thing about being schizophrenic is that I'm never alone.
Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you!
Hypochondria is the only illness that I don't have.


Hello, welcome to the psychiatric hotline:
If you are obsessive-compulsive; please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3,4, and 5
If you are paranoid delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.
If you are depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.

"I see you were last employed by a psychiatrist," said the employer to the applicant. "Why did you leave?"
"Well," she replied, "I just couldn't win. If I was late to work, I was hostile. If I was early, I had an anxiety complex. If I was on time, I was compulsive."

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