Autor: Luis Niño

IN THIS

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PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction The study of psychology in a philosophical

context dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India , and Persia. Historians point to the writings of ancient Greek philosophers, such as Thales, Plato, and Aristotle (especially in his De Anima treatise),as the first significant body of work in the West to be rich in psychological thought.[As early as the 4th century BC, Greek physician Hippocartes theorized that mental disorders were of a physical, rather than divine, nature

Resilience The results showed that students who were more resilient

(about a fifth) were more satisfied with life and also believed

they had control over their emotions and state of mind.

Resilience seems to be correlated positively with satisfaction

with an individual's life. Dr Joaquín T Limonero, professor of the UAB Research Group

on Stress and Health at UAB who coordinated the research

said: "Some of the characteristics of being resilient can be worked

on and improved, such as self-esteem and being able to

regulate one's emotions. Learning these techniques can offer

people the resources needed to help them adapt and improve

their quality of life." The study was published in Behavioral Psychology and also

included UAB researcher Jordi Fernández Castro; professors

of the Gimbernat School of Nursing (a UAB-affiliated centre)

Joaquín Tomás-Sábado and Amor Aradilla Herrera; and

psychologist and researcher of Egarsat, M. José Gómez-

Romero.

Why is Laughter Contagious?

Why does one person pick up another's emotions so

easily? It seems that human emotions are highly contagious.

For example, one person's laughter is soon shared by

another's. The explanation is that strong emotions

synchronize the brain activity of different individuals

according to research by Finland's Aalto University and

Turku PET Centre research published in the Proceedings of

The National Academy of Sciences

Seeing emotional expressions such as smiles and laughter

in someone else often triggers a corresponding emotional

response in the watcher. This may be a basic element of

social interation: synchronyzing a common emotional state in

all members of a group whose brains process what they see

of the environment around themin a similar fashion.

The Finnish researchers measured brain activity with

functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants

were looking at short pleasant, neutral and unpleasant

movies.The researchers found that strong and unpleasant

emotions synchronized participants brains’ emotion

processing networks in the frontal and midline regions while

highly arousing movies synchronized activity in brain

networks supporting vision, attention and sense of touch.

Bullying A study of 17,000 Vancouver, BC students has found

that schoolyard bullying and cyber-bullying have very different characteristics. Jennifer Shapka, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at UBC said:

"There are currently many programs aimed at reducing bullying in schools and I think there is an assumption that these programs deal with cyberbullying as well. What we're seeing is that kids don't equate cyberbullying with traditional forms of schoolyard bullying. As such, we shouldn't assume that existing interventions will be relevant to aggression that is happening online."

UBC studies show that 25-30% of the students have been involved in cyber-bullying - as perpetrators or victims - compared with 12% in schoolyard bullying. Most (95%) cyber-bullying consider it to be 'joking'. Jennifer Shapka says "It is clear that youth are underestimating the level of harm associated with cyberbullying. Students need to be educated that this 'just joking' behaviour has serious implications."

Whereas 'traditional' bullying has three components: power differential between bully and victim proactive targeting of a victim ongoing aggression cyber-bullying appears to lack planned targeting of

the victim and the same individuals can be victim, witness and perpretrator.

-Jokes - Mum, mum, in school

everybody tells me that I'm confused!

- Hey, kid, this is not your house... you live opposite the street!

bibliography

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