Understanding Psychopathy: Genetic and Environmental Factors, Empathy, and Behavior

Psychopathy is a disorder which frequently results in anti-social and violent behaviour due to the fact that they cannot feel guilt, remorse or empathy. Psychopaths make up around 1% of the general population but, in correctional facilities worldwide such as prisons and juvenile detention centres, it has been estimated that around 30% are psychopaths. The … Read more

Pascal’s Wager

Pascal’s Wager, written by Blaise Pascal, in essence states that it is prudent to believe in God’s existence because it is the best bet. Even if one assumes, that God’s existence is extremely unlikely, betting on it makes sense, for its results far outweighs the results from not betting on God’s existence. Pascal states that … Read more

Opportunism

In relation to opportunism, there are two main schools of thoughts, namely Transaction Cost Analysis theory (TCA) (Williamson, 1985: 47) and Social Exchange Theory (SET). TCA aims at the conceptualization of opportunism in the context of relational terms whereas SET conceptualizes opportunism in relation to relational dimensions (Rokkan, Heide and Wathne, 2003; Morgan and Hunt, … Read more

Memory

Memory plays an important role in cognition. The knowledge that we have is based on memory. From the stimuli we see to the things we hear affects our memory (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). When there is a stimulus, the brain will process that information and retrieve memories that we already have that relate to that … Read more

Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT)

Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is based on the theory that by changing by habitual and behaviors, one can be able to control and improve the symptoms of the condition. Cognitive-behavior therapy has been shown in several numerous studies to be the treatment of choice for anxiety disorders. It is particularly effective when it comes to persons … Read more

Grief models and theories

The passing of a loved one is a universal experience and every person will experience loss or heartache, at some point in their life. Some people obviously appear upset, some do not, grief is individual, dependent on; age, gender, development stage, personality, their normal stress reactions, the support available, their relationships or attachments, other death … Read more

Controversy of Videogames and Attention

Attention is a cognitive behavioral process in which people concentrate on a discrete aspect of sensory input selectively and ignore other perceivable information that is subjectively or objectively regarded as unrelated or distracting (Anderson, 2004). This process involves allocation of limited mental resources for target detection and distraction suppression. There has been a hot debate … Read more

Transforming Habits: The Impact of Cognitive Restructuring on Healthy Eating and Lifestyle

“Change your thoughts and you will change your world.” These words are true and meaningful because after changing my thoughts about eating fast food for lunch I was able to change my behavior which led to eating a healthy lunch and excising, ultimately resulting in a healthy lifestyle. Cognitive Restructuring was vital in changing my … Read more

Confidence and its role in the competence/arrogance taxonomy of decision-making and cognitive performance

Background literature Decision-making is a crucial process in which one’s choices impact their quality of life. An important factor in making decisions is confidence, the subjective experience of being correct, and appraising one’s beliefs in light of evidence and past experience (Baron, 2000; Kleitman, 2008). In fact, some researchers claim that ‘confidence controls action’ (Gilovich, … Read more

The correlation between video games and behavioral changes

There is a correlation between video games and movies and behavioral changes, especially in young adults and teenagers. Interestingly, the majority of the young adults spend the largest proportion of their time watching visual media and playing video games. Many researchers have noted that video games play a leading role in physiological and cognitive development … Read more

Criminal psychology

Have you ever wondered what causes Serial Killers and Psychopaths to do what they do? Here you may find reasons to explain the actions of these individuals as well as the findings of psychologists who specialize in this field. Psychologists that specialize in these individuals are Criminal and Forensic Psychologists. Criminal psychology is the study … Read more

The pros and cons of Person-Centred Therapy

In this essay I will be discussing the pros and cons of Person-Centred Therapy as an exclusive method of therapy for clients. I will also give asn understanding of exacntly what ‘PCT’ Person based therpay is. Itis important to describe first what we mean when discussing PCT. Person-Centred Therapy, also known as client-centred, Rogerian therapy … Read more

Memory & Memory Improvement

“Distributed vs. Massed Practice: which produces better learning” As the years progressed, cognitive neuroscientist performed miscellaneous trials bolstering valid principles on the effectiveness of distributed practice. “Spacing effects have been demonstrated in motor learning, verbal learning, mathematics learning, and in other educational settings” (as described by Cepeda et al., 2006; Kornell, 2009). Distributed practice is … Read more

Irony and sarcasm

Ironic and sarcastic comments are used to decrease the perceived threat and to create an atmosphere filled with humor when we criticize someone or something. Thus, sarcasm and irony are ambiguity which means that the speaker is saying something and intend another. It is sort of indirect speech which we use to convey a message. … Read more

Music and spatial task performance

In the October 14, 1993 issue of Nature magazine, UC Irvine researchers Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Katherine Ky published a short, one-page article entitled ‘Music and spatial task performance,’ which detailed their research involving exposing college students to 10 minutes of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448), a relaxation tape, … Read more