TV Schedule

Psychology

  • Public Topic: Everyone is invited to contribute to Psychology

    • Over A Third of Foster Parent Molestations Homosexual

      It is fashionable these days to be in favor of allowing homosexuals to become adoptive or foster parents. A typical argument is that kids need homes and that a homosexual household is better than nothing. But a new study, based on analyzing stories in the media about the sexual abuse of children, suggests that placing such children in such a situation increases the risk of them being sexually abused.

      An article in the publication "Psychological Reports" presented data analyzed by Dr. Paul Cameron. A six-year study of sexual abuse committed by foster parents in Illinois found a highly disproportionate percentage of the cases were homosexual in nature.

      About one-third were same-sex while estimates are that no more than 3 percent of people in the general population say they engage in homosexual acts.

      From 1980-1994, 57% of the victims were girls, after 1994 56% were boys.

      In 21 group homes, the molestation was homosexual in 71% and 31 of the 32+ perpetrators were male and at least 334 of 349+ victims were boys.

      He reported that he found 30 stories about molestation of foster children. In 22 of the cases, foster children were sexually abused by their foster parents. Of those, 15, or 68 percent, involved homosexual molestation. Cameron explained, "For example the Washington Post reported that an unmarried man who had had boys placed in his home for 10 years was charged with engaging in sex with one of his foster sons… The San Diego Tribune reported on an openly homosexual foster father whose live-in partner was a convicted homosexual child molester. Not only did the foster father rape his 11-year-old foster son, but offered him to others interested in sex with little boys. At least three took him up on the offer."

      Accordingly, 50% of foster parent abuse in a general population survey and 34% of abuse as determined by the Illinois DCFS was homosexual. In news stories in the 50 largest newspapers and wire services 1980-2003, 175 foster parents sexually abused 351+ charges. For the 169 whose sex of victim could be determined: 149 (88%) were men; 76 (53%) victimized homosexually; and 85 (50%) were unmarried. Men assaulted 319 (91%) victims, homosexual practitioners 222 (63%), and the unmarried 164 (47%).

      Including the addendum, an oversized homosexual footprint in the molestation of foster children has appeared in 4 different empirical databases. An Illinois bureaucracy put it at 34%, a general population survey at 50%, the news story 1980-2003 database at 63%, and the news story 2004 database at 66%.

      "Professional societies are so taken with gay rights they are ignoring the evidence," said Cameron. "Just last year, the American Psychological Association [APA] declared opposition to 'discrimination against lesbian or gay parents adoption, child custody and visitation, foster care and reproductive health services.'"

      Cameron added, "How does the APA answer this new evidence?"

      The information was acquired from Illinois Department of Children & Family (DCFS) through the Freedom of Information Act indicating most sexual abuse of children was by foster fathers, but that foster mothers were responsible for over three-fourths of physical abuse.

      This disproportionate homosexual footprint is consistent with what one might expect given the history of sodomy in general, the history of sodomy in the legal systems of Great Britain and the U.S., and what we know about teacher-pupil molestation. It is also consistent with the responses of homosexuals to studies that inquired about their involvement with and desires toward children -- carried out and reported by pro-gay investigators.

      http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/sex-abuse-and-homosexu...

      http://theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/22SxSo/PnSx/HSx/FostrAb...
      It is fashionable these days to be in favor of allowing homosexuals to become adoptive or foster parents. A typical argument is that k... more

      America_Again

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      20 responses

      4 minutes ago
    • If you’re open to growth, you tend to grow

      Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”

      Guess which ones prove to be most innovative over time.
      Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed m... more

      bshipp

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      0 responses

      1 hour ago
    • Marriage? Why?

      In today’s divorce-ridden society, do young people still want to get married? This pod, from the producer’s of the Emmy nominated documentary “Song of Songs,” travels to colleges across the country asking students about their take on long term commitment. In today’s divorce-ridden society, do young people still want to get married? This pod, from the producer’s of the Emmy nominated docu... more

      pstuart

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      30 responses

      19 minutes ago
    • Magic Mushrooms-Johns Hopkins Study Finds Long Lasting Positive Effects

      New study by Johns Hopkins shows that the use of psychedelic mushrooms creates long-lasting positive effects in the user.

      Who would've thought? =P
      New study by Johns Hopkins shows that the use of psychedelic mushrooms creates long-lasting positive effects in the user. ... more

      letushavepeace

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      2 responses

      3 hours ago
    • Album Armor

      Based on St. George and the Dragon, artist Ted Riederer creates a suit of armor built from punk rock records of 1986 and a wall of skulls from the top 100 of 1986. We follow this work for a year from a studio in Queens to a Gallery Show in San Francisco and finally a solo show in Berlin. www.secretshape.com Based on St. George and the Dragon, artist Ted Riederer creates a suit of armor built from punk rock records of 1986 and a wall of sku... more

      aferraro

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      43 responses

      4 hours ago
    • Too much choice makes one stupid?

      Have you ever tried to find a movie amongst your best friend's monster collection and not been satisfied? Or stared at a restaurant menu with so many choices you can't decide? If so, you're not alone. Barry Schwartz makes a good argument of how our expanding smorgasbord of choices in western culture may actually limit us...

      Could this really be affecting our culture and nation?

      Have you ever tried to find a movie amongst your best friend's monster collection and not been satisfied? Or stared at a restaurant me... more

      thisismattholt

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      2 responses

      59 minutes ago
    • Control Your Memory

      Research shows that practice can help you forget painful memories and control your memory.

      Can't go to a favorite restaurant without thinking about your ex? Better plan to eat there daily. According to research, it may be possible to push unwanted memories out of your mind—but only with repeated practice.

      Motivated by studies that found that children are more likely to forget abuse by family members than by strangers, study author Michael Anderson, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, designed an experiment to find out if memory can be consciously controlled.

      In the first 15 minutes of the experiment, participants memorized a series of 40 word pairs. Anderson then presented participants with only one word from the pair, sometimes asking them to remember the associated word and sometimes asking them to forget it. Published in the journal Science, his findings show that participants who repeatedly tried to suppress words eventually became more likely to forget them, even when offered clues and money to remember. "People forced to encounter reminders of unwanted memory find ways to adapt accordingly." Anderson says. However, Anderson is careful to clarify that "the findings don't have direct implications for forgetting trauma."

      The study sheds light on the flip side of memory research, which often focuses on how to improve recall. "There are many positive aspects of forgetting." Anderson argues. "To be unable to push out of mind outdated or painful information risks impairing your concentration and your well-being."

      By: Nicole Bode

      Psychology Today Magazine, Jul/Aug 2001
      Last Reviewed 26 Jun 2008
      Article ID: 2134
      Research shows that practice can help you forget painful memories and control your memory. ... more

      Kate_08

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      9 hours ago
    • Scientists map brain's wiring diagram

      Swiss and American researchers have drawn up the first high-resolution map of how some of the most important fibres in the human brain communicate... Swiss and American researchers have drawn up the first high-resolution map of how some of the most important fibres in the human brain... more

      berzs

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      8 responses

      3 hours ago
    • Lust Now Pay Later

      It's no secret that sex sells, but erotic ads may do more than make products sparkle: They may alter your economic decision-making in general. "If your brain's reward regions are activated at the moment of a decision—for example, through exposure to sexual cues—you become more likely to choose impulsively," says Bram Van den Bergh, a researcher at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

      Previous studies had shown that dirty thoughts make men more impulsive in the sexual domain—they discount the risk of STDs, for example—but Van den Bergh and collaborators demonstrated repercussions of "hot states" on decisions in nonsexual domains: Given the choice of 15 euros now or a larger chunk of change later, men who had just handled bras valued an immediate payoff more highly than did guys who'd been stuck fondling T-shirts. The research showed the same lingerie-induced myopia when the currency was sodas or candy bars. "Sexual desire leads to a desire to consume anything rewarding," Van den Bergh hypothesizes.

      Because appetites for sex, money, and food appear to mingle in the brain, it could be that shopping with any craving will send you on a spending spree. Van den Bergh says the implications are clear. "If you're pondering fruit versus cake, or saving versus spending, make sure that sexual stimuli are absent, and that you're not desiring something at the moment." In other words, guys, don't bring your credit card to Victoria's Secret on an empty stomach.


      By: Matthew Hutson

      Psychology Today Magazine, May/Jun 2008
      Last Reviewed 25 Jun 2008
      Article ID: 4585
      It's no secret that sex sells, but erotic ads may do more than make products sparkle: They may alter your economic decision-making in ... more

      Kate_08

      added this

      0 responses

      2 days ago
    • The future of our world and the changing of our generations

      Baby boomers, generation Xers, and now the Millennials. Just what does our future generations have in store for us? In our rapidly changing world how is our culture evolving?

      This video explores our young and the ideals brought into the workplace. Watch as the baby boomers freak out at the new view brought to work ...







      Baby boomers, generation Xers, and now the Millennials. Just what does our future generations have in store for us? In our rapidly c... more

      TheCocoon

      added this

      6 responses

      1 day ago
    • The power of the itch

      So strong, she scratched through her skull and into her brain...

      '"Scratching is one of the sweetest gratifications of nature, and as ready at hand as any,” Montaigne wrote. “But repentance follows too annoyingly close at its heels.” For M., certainly, it did: the itching was so torturous, and the area so numb, that her scratching began to go through the skin. At a later office visit, her doctor found a silver-dollar-size patch of scalp where skin had been replaced by scab. M. tried bandaging her head, wearing caps to bed. But her fingernails would always find a way to her flesh, especially while she slept.

      One morning, after she was awakened by her bedside alarm, she sat up and, she recalled, “this fluid came down my face, this greenish liquid.” She pressed a square of gauze to her head and went to see her doctor again. M. showed the doctor the fluid on the dressing. The doctor looked closely at the wound. She shined a light on it and in M.’s eyes. Then she walked out of the room and called an ambulance. Only in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, after the doctors started swarming, and one told her she needed surgery now, did M. learn what had happened. She had scratched through her skull during the night—and all the way into her brain.'

      Gotta love the New Yorker!
      So strong, she scratched through her skull and into her brain... ... more

      abbym0308

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      3 responses

      4 days ago
    • Ecstasy is the key to treating PTSD

      At last the incurably traumatized may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And controversially, ecstasy may be key to taming their demons. At last the incurably traumatized may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And controversially, ecstasy may be key to taming ... more

      Ogmin

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      10 responses

      10 hours ago
    • Child sexual abuse: suffering years of unrelenting sorrow

      The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law that allowed the execution of people convicted of a raping a child. The decision evoked an unyielding rebuttal from four members of the court, as well as strong condemnation from both presidential candidates.

      This article presents photographs and two videos (including an absolutely staggering documentary about the life-long legacy of child sexual abuse in Alaska).
      The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law that allowed the execution of people convicted of a raping a child. The decision ev... more

      disembedded

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      4 responses

      11 hours ago
    • Attachment Issues?

      "Mankind’s inner chimpanzee refuses to let go. This matters to everything from economics to law.

      The endowment effect was controversial for years. The idea that a squishy, irrational bit of human behaviour could affect the cold, clean and rational world of markets was a challenge to neoclassical economists. Their assumption had always been that individuals act to maximize their welfare (the defining characteristic of economic man, or Homo economicus). The value someone puts on something should not, therefore, depend on whether he actually owns it. But the endowment effect has been seen in hundreds of experiments, the most famous of which found that students were surprisingly reluctant to trade a coffee mug they had been given for a bar of chocolate, even though they did not prefer coffee mugs to chocolate when given a straight choice between the two.

      The endowment effect has nothing to do with wealth or transaction costs. Not even emotional attachment, whatever that means, can really be called in as an explanation, since the effect is both instantaneous and sometimes felt even by those who buy and sell for a living.

      . . .

      To put flesh on the idea, Dr Jones and Dr Brosnan have been trying to overcome Smith’s observation by training chimpanzees to trade. In 2006 Keith Chen of Yale University showed that capuchin monkeys could learn to do so, and also seemed to exhibit the endowment effect. Chimps, it turns out, can manage to truck too. In the chimp study, tubes of peanut butter and frozen juice bars were used. Both treats were designed to be difficult to eat quickly. This makes it possible for animals that would otherwise consume any food they were given at the first opportunity at least to consider the idea of an exchange.

      When presented with a choice, 60% of the chimps preferred peanut butter to juice. However, when they were endowed with peanut butter, 80% of them chose to keep it instead of exchanging it for juice. It was as if the peanut butter became more valuable as soon as it was possessed. And an opposite endowment effect was observed when the chimps were given juice.

      All in all, the rational conclusion is that humans are irrational animals."

      -economist.com
      http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story...
      "Mankind’s inner chimpanzee refuses to let go. This matters to everything from economics to law. ... more

      2 responses

      9 hours ago
    • Mina's Way

      Overall, Mina has an interesting life full of highs and lows. He has great friends, a great disposition, and a great story to tell. He has challenges in his life may it be social, financial, cultural, or school-related. Although he seems to live double life, Mina has plenty of time to be Mina.

      Mina looks like your average student. He is creative, witty, and wears American Eagle. However, there is more than meets the eye with this young man. Moving to California from Minnesota gave Mina more freedom to find himself and be the man he is inside on the outside.

      From partying five nights a week to performing in drag, Mina will help us experience gay culture in Ventura, California. We will see the good, the bad, and the ugly in this film. This is a culture that many do not see.

      Overall, Mina has an interesting life full of highs and lows. He has great friends, a great disposition, and a great story to tell. He has challenges in his life may it be social, financial, cultural, or school-related. Although he seems to live double life, Mina has plenty of time to just be Mina.
      Overall, Mina has an interesting life full of highs and lows. He has great friends, a great disposition, and a great story to tell. He... more

      Ryan_Lough

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      7 responses

      6 hours ago
    • Sam Taylor-Wood: A Portrayal of Moments with Crying Men

      Sam Taylor-Wood is an English experimental photographer and filmmaker. "Crying Men" is her treatise about sadness. It has very recently been "discovered" in the United States and is attracting considerable attention.

      Her series of photographs in "Crying Men" attempts to capture an unusual liminal space, the moment between the real and the unreal, the imitation and the authentic. By her deliberate use of celebrity actors as models, the viewer is led to wonder whether and to what degree their tears of sadness (and therefore their emotions) are genuine.

      This article presents great photographs, a photo-gallery of all the "Crying Men" portraits and three videos. The videos include a video-slideshow of the "Crying Men" photographs and Taylor-Wood's short avant-garde film, "Pieta", which stars Robert Downey, Jr.
      Sam Taylor-Wood is an English experimental photographer and filmmaker. "Crying Men" is her treatise about sadness. It has very recen... more

      disembedded

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      1 response

      4 hours ago
    • Barack Obama: A Manner of Thinking

      This very detailed article examines the conceptual manner in which Barack Obama presented his broad visions for America in speeches that he gave during the early phase of his presidential campaign. The evolution of Obama's thought processes since having become the Democratic presidential nominee is contrasted, from a psychological perspective, to the nature of his earlier conceptualizations.

      This article includes many great, high-quality photographs. In addition to the written review detailing the evolution of Obama's thinking, five video are presented to illustrate the changes.
      This very detailed article examines the conceptual manner in which Barack Obama presented his broad visions for America in speeches th... more

      disembedded

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      0 responses

      8 days ago
    • Shifting the paradigm

      A Conversation with Dr. Na'im Akbar and Viv Ahmun. Black Psychology.

      globalfaction

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      1 response

      1 day ago
    • Paraplegic Wannabes

      Actor Nick Stahl discusses the real psychological phenomenon of Body Integrity Identity Disorder, aka as "paraplegic wannabes," shown in his current film, "Quid Pro Quo." Actor Nick Stahl discusses the real psychological phenomenon of Body Integrity Identity Disorder, aka as "paraplegic wannabes," shown ... more

      chapinyoung

      added this

      0 responses

      4 hours ago
    • The conditioned insanity of corporations

      I think the danger of corporate structures is that too many of them shut out criticism from the people who do the actual work, many are organized as a series of mini-dictatorships. As an interactive designer/programmer in the advertising industry, I’ve been mostly tertiary to this decision making process, but I have on occasion seen how the authoritarian nature of corporate hierarchies can be harmful on a number of levels.

      First and foremost, I’m quite simply someone who hates to do something that I find to be illogical or pointless, or the worst reason of all “because I say so”. Over the years, though, I’ve conditioned myself to know what battles to fight in order to maintain a career and “go along to get along”, but my battles usually consisted of merely having to “make the logo bigger”, change this button from blue to red, etc–nothing I’ve ever “gone to the mat” over.

      But now that I’ve been on my own freelancing for the past year, this self-conditioning process looks more and more like collective insanity to me.

      For instance, a old college friend of mine is now a data-analyst for a major pharmaceutical company. On many occasions he has casually explained how his job is essentially to participate in a highly sophisticated system of targeted payola aimed at getting doctors to prescribe his company’s drug. Never once does it occur to him that his drug may be less effective than his competitors and that it is (in my opinion, at least) fairly amoral for such an aggressive system of coercion of professional medical opinions to be implemented at all. Unfortunately, it’s all about his “team”, not the positive or negative effects of his job upon society.

      Of course, I’ve been acutely aware of my personal relationship to authority figures and a keen observer others' ever since reading Bob Altemeyer’s long-term psychological study of authoritarian tendencies, The Authoritarians (link to a free pdf copy of the book in the comments). In a super-small nutshell, we all must struggle against our desire to grant certain authorities unquestionable fealty. Authority can be defined as just about anything, a parent, an idea, a religious leader, hell a can of soup. It’s been one of the most enlightening reads I’ve had in my ongoing struggle to understand our ongoing struggles, and everyone I’ve recommended to has tended to agree that the book changed the way they see their enemies and allegiances. Ironically, the book has become my authority on the value of questioning authority, especially of my own in-group and finding the most effective means of communicating with "outsiders".

      So while I do agree with the fundamental critiques of the film “The Corporation”, I would not necessarily personify them as BEING insane, but rather they condition people to working against their own interest, often without ever realizing it. This is largely accomplished by the mere fact that most large corporations prevent honest and pointed criticism at the bottom from rising to the failing leadership at the top (something that most people would call democracy).

      They seem to forget that unions exist merely to get the bosses to sit at a table listen. It's only their fevered egos that require us to amass such great numbers just to attain their presence, but usually not their respect. I don't know why this is, other than some people just didn't have the experiences necessary to understand the value of and invite criticism. When someone says you suck, just see it as an opportunity to either improve, or justify your actions when questioned. Don't just tell them to shut up.

      Perhaps a good regulation would simply be for every employee to be required by law to read independent analysis of their corporation's behavior. I do believe that we can all only be expected rise to the level of our awareness. Unfortunately, many corporations take an active roll in propagandizing from within and to without.
      I think the danger of corporate structures is that too many of them shut out criticism from the people who do the actual work, many ar... more

      beedee

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      11 responses

      1 day ago
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Psychology

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