The mirror test (sometimes also called the mark or rouge test ) is used to assess self-awareness in babies. A smudge of red colouring is placed on the infant’s nose and then they are placed in front of a mirror. If the infant responds by touching the mirror they have no self-awareness whereas if they touch the […]
Read morePsychology
You know I keep thinking about the face on that cheese toastie that Jean Marc wrote about a while back. We seem to have an immensely strong urge to see faces everywhere: on the moon, in clouds, even in the most abstract of shapes and doodles. In our minds, the most random of patterns or stimuli seem to […]
Read moreI have been sent a query about core and optional sleep as there is some contradiction between what we said in the 1st and 2nd editions of the A2 Complete Companion. Looking around the other A2 textbooks, there seems to be a wide variety of explanations – most of which are not correct. Jim Horne […]
Read moreSome interesting material online lately regarding Alistair Campbell’s battle with depression, especially discussion regarding the notion that the condition might be somehow ‘good for you’ . Speaking on BBC Breakfast , Mr Campbell said it was the best thing that happened to him as “he sorted himself out after it” but that “it is a horrible, intense experience”. I don’t want to overstate Campbell’s point – in […]
Read moreA slice of human cerebrum freezes in dry ice, embedded in a stabilizing coat of blue carboxymethylcellulose. (Creating An Atlas Of The Human Mind)
Read moreThe Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you […]
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I got sent details of a lovely new website a while back. It has test questions, resources, filmclips, a shrine to Sigmund Freud… what more could you want? Less pleasingly, it carries on the preoccupation with cats that has so bedevilled psychology of late. I appreciate the marketing genius of designating a textbook ‘The Cat Book’ – it is, after […]
Read moreWe recently received the question above from Claire Matthews of The Castle School in Bristol and thought some of you would be interested in the answer: The SAM system concerns the adrenal medulla and the release of adrenaline/noradrenaline which has the effect of creating physiological (sympathetic) arousal and producing the fight or flight response. The HPA access concerns […]
Read moreSigmund Freud argued that aggression could be represented as an ‘energy’ that somehow builds up inside of us, causing us to experience tension and psychological discomfort and maybe ultimately mental disorders, unless we could somehow ‘release’ it, by indulging in aggressive behaviour…. So if you’ve ever found yourself ‘boiling over with rage’ and have ‘taken it out […]
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