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<p>Natural environments, and particularly visual stimuli in nature, are usually perceived as restorative following stress and attention fatigue. Studies extending these findings to auditory natural stimuli have used soundscapes comprising multiple types of sound. Birdsong recurs as a type of sound used in such studies, but little is known about restorative perceptions of bird sounds on their own and how these may relate to existing theories of environmental restoration. Via semi-structured interviews with twenty adult participants, bird songs and calls were found to be the type of natural sound most commonly associated with perceived stress recovery and attention restoration. However, not all bird sounds were regarded as helpful for such processes. Three themes formed the basis of these perceived relationships: affective appraisals, cognitive appraisals, and relationships with nature. Sub-themes of the acoustic, aesthetic, and associative properties of bird sounds were also related to restorative perceptions. Future studies should quantitatively examine the potential of a variety of bird sounds to aid attention restoration and stress recovery, and how these might be predicted by acoustic, aesthetic, and associative properties, in order to better understand how and why sounds such as birdsong might provide restorative benefits.</p>
<p>Using as a framework the logical treatment of causality in the Buddhist Madhyamika, a theory of the psychology of event coherence and causal connectedness is developed, and suggestive experimental evidence is offered. The basic claim is that events are perceived as coherent and causally bound to the extent that the outcome is seen to be already contained in the ground of the event in some form and the connecting link between them is seen as the appropriate means for changing the outcome-in-the-ground to the outcome-as-perceived. There are four types of such connections: (a) the identity of the object in the ground and outcome is seen as the same (as in the phi phenomenon); (b) a property is seen to be transferred from ground to outcome (as in a Michottean analysis of perceived causal motion); (c) for animate beings, a cognitive representation and a state of the world are seen to match - either the representation-as-outcome coming to match the world-as-ground (as in the folk psychology of perception) or the world-as-outcome coming to match the representation-as-ground (as in intentional action); (d) the `essence' of a category is seen to manifest itself (as in folk explanations based on personality). The standard critique of such coherence explanations is that they are tautological. We demonstrate that `nontautological' scientific accounts become convincing coherent explanations only to he extent that the outcome is re-introduced (in a disguised form) into the ground. Explanations which are noncausal altogether, such as probability or chance, are shown to be psychologically unstable. This critique suggests some new perspectives on causal thinking both in the cognitive sciences and the folk theories of daily life.</p>
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<p>Within <em>The Varieties of Religious Experience </em> lies the germ of a truly radical idea. It is that religious experience has something important and basic to contribute to the science of psychology. Yet now, a hundred years after the publication of James's monumental work, the mainstream academic fields of psychology are no closer to considering, let alone implementing, this idea than they were in James's day. Why? Surely one aspect of this is the way in which the categories and imagery of our society envisage an otherworldly religion and a naturalistic psychology which are on different planes of existence and cannot communicate with one other. I believe that the Eastern meditation traditions can bridge this divide and that had William James been as familiar with Eastern religions as he was with Christianity, he would have had a great deal more specifically to say about what religion had to offer science. The purpose of this paper is to look again at James's material through the lens of Eastern, particularly Buddhist, thought and meditation. Ideally this will serve not only to provide a new perspective on James's classic work but to show a new direction in which the study of religious experience can impact research in psychology and in the emerging cognitive sciences.</p>
<p>Eleanor Rosch discusses Buddhist themes and practices of letting go bias, developing groundedness and awareness, as well Buddhist ways of thinking about time and spontaneous action. She relates these practices and themes to common insights in other religions and to the disciplines psychology and cognitive science. (Zach Rowinski 2004-06-10)</p>
Eleanor Vogt, PhD, RPh, a professor in UCSF's Department of Clinical Pharmacy, guides you through a series of simple steps designed to decrease stress and increase well-being.
Uniquely comprehensive, this one-stop resource describes thirty-?ve distinct meditation practices, detailing their historical background and contemporary use, ways to begin, and additional resources.
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One-third of college students report past-year heavy episodic drinking, making college student alcohol use an important area for continued research. Research has consistently linked early experiences of adversity to problematic substance use in adolescence and adulthood. Given the negative health consequences associated with heavy episodic drinking, it is imperative to identify mechanisms that contribute to this relation. Low levels of mindfulness have been linked to early adversity as well as impulsivity and alcohol use, therefore, the current study aims to examine the mediating role of mindfulness in the relation between early adversity and current alcohol use and consequences. Undergraduate students (N = 385) at a Midwestern university completed an online questionnaire assessing experiences of childhood adversity, trait mindfulness, and current alcohol use and related consequences. Results indicated that increased adverse experiences and lower levels of mindfulness predicted both increased alcohol consumption and consequences (ps < 0.025), with mindfulness mediating the relationships. Mindfulness is a predictor of alcohol outcomes and appears to mediate the relation between early adversity and alcohol use and consequences. Findings suggest that students with a history of adversity are more likely to exhibit lower levels of mindfulness, which may lead to an increase in alcohol consumption and consequences in early adulthood. Targeted alcohol intervention efforts that incorporate mindfulness skills may be particularly beneficial for those who have experienced early adversity.
This chapter explores the raja yoga tradition of Hinduism and it is a spiritual tradition within Hinduism as such it does not require allegiance to a theistic deity. The methodology of yoga psychology can be divided into two categories: theoretical and experiential. The theoretical category includes the exploration of the essential nature of the human psyche. The experiential category consists of various practices that are tremendously helpful in the gradual development of the self and Self-realization. Yoga-based psychotherapy enables the person to develop somatically. The therapist can assess the degree to which the client be a good candidate for a yoga-based psychotherapeutic approach. The majority of the therapeutic/medical uses of yoga have to do with medical complaints such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and so forth. Ancient India adopted a system of psychospiritual training that spanned the life of the individual. Indian science-through exchange of scholars, cooperative research projects, and energetic exchange of literature-has increasingly identified with contemporary worldwide scientific tradition.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW:Mood regulation problems, such as severe chronic irritability or short episodes of mania-like symptoms, are common, impairing and a topic of intense recent interest to clinicians, researchers and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-5 process. Here, we review the most recent findings about these two presentations and discuss the approaches to their treatment.
RECENT FINDINGS:
Longitudinal and genetic findings suggest that chronic irritability should be regarded as a mood problem that is distinct from bipolar disorder. A proportion of children with short (less than 4 days) episodes of mania-like symptoms seem to progress to classical (Type I or II) bipolar disorder over time in the US clinic samples. In a UK sample, such episodes were independently associated with psychosocial impairment. The evidence base for the treatment of either irritability or short-lived episodes of mania-like symptoms is still small. Clinicians should be cautious with extrapolating treatments from classical bipolar disorder to these mood regulation problems. Cognitive and behavioural therapy (CBT)-based approaches targeting general mood regulation processes may be effective for cases with severe irritability or short episodes of mania-like symptoms.
SUMMARY:
There is increasing research evidence for the importance of mood regulation problems in the form of either irritability or short episodes of mania-like symptoms in youth. The evidence base for their drug treatment has yet to be developed. CBT-based interventions to modify the processes of mood regulation may be a useful and well tolerated intervention for patients with these presentations.
<p>Five studies investigated the cognitive and emotional processes by which self-compassionate people deal with unpleasant life events. In the various studies, participants reported on negative events in their daily lives, responded to hypothetical scenarios, reacted to interpersonal feedback, rated their or others' videotaped performances in an awkward situation, and reflected on negative personal experiences. Results from Study 1 showed that self-compassion predicted emotional and cognitive reactions to negative events in everyday life, and Study 2 found that self-compassion buffered people against negative self-feelings when imagining distressing social events. In Study 3, self-compassion moderated negative emotions after receiving ambivalent feedback, particularly for participants who were low in self-esteem. Study 4 found that low-self-compassionate people undervalued their videotaped performances relative to observers. Study 5 experimentally induced a self-compassionate perspective and found that self-compassion leads people to acknowledge their role in negative events without feeling overwhelmed with negative emotions. In general, these studies suggest that self-compassion attenuates people's reactions to negative events in ways that are distinct from and, in some cases, more beneficial than self-esteem.</p>
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This essay is the basis of a lecture given to the American Psychological Association (APA) by Eleanor Rosch, a well known cognitive psychologist, on how Buddhist perspectives on the mind and awareness might be relevant to contemporary psychology. (Zach Rowinski 2004-05-20)
This chapter explores the raja yoga tradition of Hinduism and it is a spiritual tradition within Hinduism as such it does not require allegiance to a theistic deity. The methodology of yoga psychology can be divided into two categories: theoretical and experiential. The theoretical category includes the exploration of the essential nature of the human psyche. The experiential category consists of various practices that are tremendously helpful in the gradual development of the self and Self-realization. Yoga-based psychotherapy enables the person to develop somatically. The therapist can assess the degree to which the client be a good candidate for a yoga-based psychotherapeutic approach. The majority of the therapeutic/medical uses of yoga have to do with medical complaints such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and so forth. Ancient India adopted a system of psychospiritual training that spanned the life of the individual. Indian science-through exchange of scholars, cooperative research projects, and energetic exchange of literature-has increasingly identified with contemporary worldwide scientific tradition.