treatments for PTSD

There are three types Cognitive Behavioral Therapies for PTSD, exposure therapy, Stress-Inoculation Training and cognitive processing therapy. exposure therapy is used to help reduce the level of fear and anxiety felt by on individual , this is done by having the patient confront (be exposed to) what they fear. By doing this the anxiety and fear will gradually being to lessen. Stress-Inoculation  is used in oder for the patient gain confidence in their ability to cope with anxiety and fear that comes from trauma reminders. This is done by making the patient aware of what is causing anxiety and fear, and teaching them coping skills. Lastly Cognitive-Processing Therapy, like in exposure therapy, the patient  is told to repeatedly in and outside of sessions to tell the story of what happened aloud, in order for the therapist to help the client identify and address stuck points and errors in thinking, Cognitive-Processing Therapy can also be known as "cognitive restructuring”. Medical and drug treatments include: Antipsychotics, which are used to relieve severe anxiety and related problems, such as difficulty sleeping or emotional outbursts. Antidepressants which can help the symptoms of both depression and anxiety. also They can help improve sleep problems and concentration. Anti-anxiety medications which also help improve feelings of anxiety and stress. Proposing should be taken if  symptoms include insomnia or recurrent nightmares. A combination of both forms of treatment is best because it  not only improves your symptoms but also teaches you skills to cope better with the traumatic event.

flashbulb

Brown & Kulik (1977)

The Brown & Kulik study was done in order to investigate whether dramatic, or personally significant events can cause "flashbulb" memories. The study used a retrospective questionnaire who assessed their memories of actual events that had happened. The participants were asked about the assassination of JF Kennedy, and Martin Luther King junior. They were also asked about any significant event that had happened to them. The conclusion showed that, out of 80 participants, 73 reported flashbulb associated with personal events. JF Kennedy assassination was recalled most vividly. This showed that flashbulb memory is more likely to occur if the event was unexpected or happened to someone of importance. However Data that was collected came from questionnaires, so it is impossible to verify the accuracy of memories reported.

Neisser & Harsch (1992)

106 people filled out questionnaire the day after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded (1986). 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. The results showed that out of 220 ‘facts’ produced in the original questionnaire, they were partially or completely wrong on 150 of them. however participants were not aware of this fall off in performance, being highly confident in their ability to recall accurately. In conclusion That study showed that flash-bulb memories are no more accurate than other memories. The results suggest that what is different is the confidence that people have in their memories associated with significant events. Although it can be questioned weather participants accurately reported their memories

Talarico & Rubin (2003)

On September 12 Talarico & Rubin gave 52 student volunteers a questionnaire about their memory of September 11 and an ordinary event of their choosing from the preceding few days. Talarico and Rubin then analyzed the responses to see if September 11 was remembered better than an ordinary event. In conclusion Participants were more likely to think their memories of 9/11 were accurate compared to their ordinary memories, and they reported those memories as being equally vivid, even months after the event. One flaw with this experiment is that it was done from memory which, can be altered very easily

Gender Differences

Social Relationships

Adolescent and adult women are more trusting (3.0%), agreeable and tender (17.2%). Women are more likely to smile (3.8%), especially in social situations (5.0%). Though they are also more neurotic and anxious (2.5%). Women are better at speaking (2.7%) and recognizing the emotions of others (3.0%). Men are more likely to interrupt during a conversation (2.7%). At least when others are around, men are more likely to help others in distress (12.0%).

Sexuality

Body image is a greater concern for women in forming their self-esteem (7.8%). Men are more likely to masturbate (18.7%). Casual sex is more appealing to men than women (14.1%).

the forgetting

Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s is the most common type do dementia, that affect memory and behavior.  The symptoms develop slowly at first, but get worst over time. While the loss of memory with age is a common  and normal thing, Alzheimer’s is not. Alzheimer’s symptoms worsen over time, first just affecting a persons ability to remember things but in later stages of the disease individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimer’s is also the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, people with Alzheimer’s are likely to live only 8 years after symptoms become visible. The majority of people with Alzheimer’s are 65 year or old, however Alzheimer's also has  younger-onset, which appears at the ages of 40-50.  Alzheimer’s is caused by Two abnormal structures called plaques and tangles that block communication among nerve cells and disrupt the processes that cells need to survive.  Alzheimer’s affect is worst on the family members of a patient, having the disease is bad, but having to watch some you love slowly forget who you are and than who they are is why this disease is so awful. I person thing that Alzheimer’s is a sad disease because of the affect it has on family and friends of a patient, however I do believe that there are more important disease out there.

H. M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac

As a child H.M. suffered from Seizure disorder called Epilepsy. In 1953 he underwent an experimental brain operation in Hartford, to try an correct his seizures, however the operation while it did stop the seizures also affected his memory. He could remember every thing that had happened in his life before the operation, but all his memories of what was happening to him, he could not remember. Every time he met a friend, ate something, read something, went some where it was for the first time. He lived this way for 55 years, at the age of 82 he died. H.M. is a very important patient in the history of brain science, his case helps scientists understand the biology of learning, memory and physical dexterity. Before him, Many scientist believed that memory was widely distributed throughout the brain, that it was not in one place or region, H.M. case however showed that this was not true. Scientists later began to see that at least two systems in the brain are use for creating new memories,declarative memory, which is things like records names, faces and new experiences, are stored in these systems until they are consciously retrieved. This system needs the use of medial temporal areas, chiefly a organ called the hippo-campus.

Schema theory

The schema theory is how we organized knowledge in our mind according to it’s importance, in our mind. However this many not always be as helpful as we think. It is very easy to distortion, because Schemata influences so unique to each individual. For instance in Ronald cottons case study, Jennifer’s memory changed it fit the most possible picture in steed of the actual picture. Schema is designed to make things easy for you, so if things get complicated our mind/schema will change it to make it easy. You could say, that every time you retrieve a memory, you put it back slightly altered. When ask a question, which, to give the answer your memory is needed, the words used in the question can have a large affect on the way you remember thing, like in the Loftus & Palmer, 1974 study simply changing the word smash in steed of hit made people think/remember the hit as being harder than it was, which furthermore when asked the question “did you see broken glass” would got them thinking “well it was a hard collision so there should be broken glass” which would lead them to the thought “there was broken glass.” if we didn't have schema it would almost impossible to remember, so in a way it is helpful, but more often then not schema will change the way we see things.

Eyewitness

On July 1984 a man broke the house of Jennifer Thompson, took things from her home and sexually assaulted her.  Jennifer went to the police and told her story; the police showed her a photo line up of possible offenders. Out of the group, Jennifer picked a man named Ronald cotton, and again when looking at the psychical line choose Ronald cotton. He was found guilty and sentenced a lot life and fifty years in jail. After while cotton hear talk of a new prisoner (bobby pool) talking about how her raped this girl Jennifer, but when he was given a second trial, Jennifer still said the he was the rapist even though, she was looking in to the eyes of her real rapist, bobby pool.

When Jennifer first went to the police, they worked and a sketch up of what the offender might look like.  While Ronald cotton did some what resemble the sketch up there were small differences. While if she had looked at the picture one by one she may have realized the differences between the sketch and cotton, but since booby pool was not in the original line up, Jennifer’s memory/ eye changed to fit the closest possible person.

After living in jail for many years, Ronald cotton asked for a DNA test, the test showed that he was innocent and that the real rapist was bobby pool. This was a huge shock to Jennifer; at first she had truly believed that the rapist was Ronald cotton, now she works with cotton make sure mistakes like that are made. The case of Ronald cotton was not the one of it’s kind.