Re: [tips] Healing power of pets?

[Jim Clark]

Hi

Some cautionary notes about calling this a myth?

1. Although not clear from the article, presumably much of the research is 
nonexperimental in nature.  One should be cautious about causal conclusions 
whether results are positive (benefits of pets) or negative (no benefits of 
pets).  Not hard to imagine, for example, that people who acquire pets might be 
less well off if they had not done so, because of some selection bias.

2. As one comment noted, randomly assigning pets to some people is hardly the 
prototypical way that pets come into people's lives, raising questions about 
the generalizability of the results to more natural acquisition of pets.  
Random assignment, however, would be more characteristic of "therapeutic" use 
of pets.

3. A very large percentage of people (at least in USA) appear to have pets of 
one kind or another ... see

http://www.avma.org/reference/marketstats/ownership.asp 

What motivates this behavior and the cost if not some benefit?  Although the 
benefits need not be limited to physical well-being (i.e., health), of course.

4. If the people who commented on the article are representative of these many 
pet-owners, we certainly have a striking example of contrast between 
science-based conclusions and anecdotal evidence.  Virtually all comments 
espoused the benefits of pets for mental and physical well-being.

5.  How many other "popular" human activities would stand up to rigorous 
scientific scrutiny?  getting married?   having children?  ...

Take care
Jim



James M. Clark
Professor of Psychology
204-786-9757
204-774-4134 Fax
j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca

>>>  04-Jan-11 10:35:23 PM >>>
Not so much.

One more for the annals of psychological myth.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/opinion/04herzog.html 

And if you're observant, you'll notice a reference to the work of a 
well-known TIPster, although regrettably unnamed in the article. 

Stephen

Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.  
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus   
Bishop's University
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada   
e-mail:  sblack at ubishops.ca
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[tips] Healing power of pets?

[sblack]

Not so much.

One more for the annals of psychological myth.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/opinion/04herzog.html

And if you're observant, you'll notice a reference to the work of a 
well-known TIPster, although regrettably unnamed in the article. 

Stephen

Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.  
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus   
Bishop's University
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada   
e-mail:  sblack at ubishops.ca
-

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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Michael Smith]

Mike Burman wrote:
"Moreover, blinking to a tone that predicts an insult to the eye is
clearly a beneficial response in any sense."

Yes, I suppose so.

If it were up to me though, I think I would consider "placebo" to be a
subset of expectancy effects which are medically beneficial.

The rest I would consider expectancy and/or classical conditioning effects.

--Mike

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RE: [tips] Just World Belief and Arnold Schwarzenegger

[DeVolder Carol L]

Isn't much of this conversation parallel to what was discussed in the thread 
about zombies? It seems that some sort of dehumanization is taking place in all 
of these settings (I, too, have seen True Lies many times--more than I 
wanted,but it was on AMC and somehow I ended it up watching it repeatedly). I 
don't believe I've seen Unforgiven, though I thought I'd seen just about every 
Clint Eastwood movie at some point.

In a tangentially related vein (or maybe completely unrelated), I just finished 
reading _The Warmth of Other Suns_ about the Great Migration of African 
Americans from the South during the first half of the 20th century. I think 
what shocked me most of all was how naive I had been growing up during a 
portion of that time period. I was and am dismayed about how strongly I 
believed in a just world as a young person. Now I'm just an older cynic. I 
wholly recommend the book.

Carol


Carol L. DeVolder, Ph.D. 
Professor of Psychology
Chair, Department of Psychology 
St. Ambrose University 
518 West Locust Street 
Davenport, Iowa 52803 

Phone: 563-333-6482 
e-mail: devoldercar...@sau.edu 
web: http://web.sau.edu/psychology/psychfaculty/cdevolder.htm 

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re: [tips] Just World Belief and Arnold Schwarzenegger

[Mike Palij]

On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:14:30 -0800, Michael Britt wrote:
>I'm reading a research article on Just World Belief and somehow I can't 
>get that line from the movie True Lies out of my head.  Jamie Lee Curtis 
>asks Arnie, "Have you ever killed anyone?" and he says, in a way that only 
>Schwarzenegger can, "Yes, but they were all bad".  Perfect example.  
>Too bad some kid hasn't put that scene on YouTube (I checked of course).

Sometimes I laugh when I see this scene (I've seen the movie a lot of times)
because it typifies the conventional morality underlying the Just World
Belief.  In the beginning of the movie when Schwarzenegger is found out at
the party at the chateau, he kills a number of "bad guys" in an exciting chase
scene.  In somber reflection on this scene, one might ask who are these
people?  What gives Schwarznegger the warrant to kill them?  Is it because 
it's just an action adventure film and everyone is expendable except
the principle actors (though they too may die but in a poignant moment).  If
we assume they're all "bad guys" (not really human or, more importantly, like
"us" or "me") and Arnold is the good guy (good guys never do anything wrong
even if it looks wrong there has to be a good reason for the action -- reminds
me of a conversation I read somewhere about an old upper-class British
gentleman who was told that one of his classmates from "public" school
had been a spy for the Russian during the cold war: "Well, I don't believe it
but if he was, he probably had a good reason for it!").

As a counterweight to this scene, may I suggest something from Clint Eastwood.
There is a scene in "Unforgiven" that shows up the conventional, Just World
Belief viewpoint.  Let me quote the following as a set-up and the scene itself:

|Another motif in Eastwood films is the sometimes cruel meaninglessness 
|of particular truths. In Unforgiven, the character of William Muny tries 
|desperately to change his ways and forget his murderous past, but somehow 
|the trajectory of his circumstances invariably leads him to have to kill once 
|more with cold brutality even when his intentions are noble. He submits 
|himself to the fact that he cannot shake who he truly is, but simply contain 
|it until it is inevitably unleashed by forces beyond his understanding. It is 
|very powerful when Eastwood has to make the admission, pointing the 
|barrel of a shotgun in the face of a guilty, though helpless, victim, that he 
|has in his lifetime murdered every kind of living being. When he finally kills 
|him, it is apathetically, as routine as breathing. There is no explanation for 
it.
|
|[snip] So what is it Clint Eastwood is trying to say about human beings? 
|Some things are best left unsaid. Nor does Eastwood waste time trying to 
|explain. His messages are all as straightforward, direct, and economical as 
|the dialogue right before Eastwood kills Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. 
|Hackman: “I don’t deserve this, to die like this. I was building a house.” 
|Eastwood: “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” 
|Hackman: “I’ll see you in hell, William Muny.” 
|Eastwood: “Yup.” 
|That’s when Eastwood shoots him in the face.

Hackman's Lil' Bill is the representation of law and order, the keeper of the
flame, the person who through sheer will and behavior shows that the Just World
Belief, at least as he sees it, is maintained in his town of Little Whisky.  
Eastwood's
Muny is the entropy to Lil' Bill's order, he is the one who has transcended the
illusion of the Just World Belief and realizes that it is the man with the gun 
and
who isn't afraid to use it that is the true source of power in human society.  
It is,
however, fitting that Clintwood's Muny kills Lil' Bill for his "murder" of his
friend Ned (Morgan Freeman who was beaten to death by Lil' Bill in order
to get information out of him;  Ned hadn't hurt or killed anyone but, perhaps
as an example of the treatment of Black men at the hand of White Justice,
he is the only one of the trio who suffers for the crime that the others have 
committed).

For those interested in the scene where Eastwood's Avenging Angel of Death
is unloaded on the self-satisfied folks of Little Whisky, here's a clip of it 
on 
the YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SO5VO2ixWY

-Mike Palij
New York University
m...@nyu.edu





http://mansurahmed.com/?p=1378

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[tips] Just World Belief and Arnold Schwarzenegger

[Michael Britt]

I'm reading a research article on Just World Belief and somehow I can't get 
that line from the movie True Lies out of my head.  Jamie Lee Curtis asks 
Arnie, "Have you ever killed anyone?" and he says, in a way that only 
Schwarzenegger can, "Yes, but they were all bad".  Perfect example.  Too bad 
some kid hasn't put that scene on YouTube (I checked of course).

Michael

Michael A. Britt, Ph.D.
mich...@thepsychfiles.com
http://www.ThePsychFiles.com
Twitter: mbritt






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[tips] Oliver Sacks: "This Year, Change Your Mind"

[Beth Benoit]

Here's my third post of the day...(I'm catching up on past New York Times'
because our newest grandchild - our 7th! - was born on Christmas Eve, so
naturally, my NYT have piled up.)

This one is by Oliver Sacks, posted on the op-ed page on New Years Day,
about how "older brains" can grow.  Some interesting insight into how blind
people improve their senses.  Sacks is always a fascinating read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/opinion/01sacks.html

Beth Benoit
Granite State College
Plymouth State University
New Hampshire

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RE: [tips] "Visual Cliffs" in dementia treatment

[DeVolder Carol L]

Interesting. I'm not sure I like it (the "black hole"), but it reminds me of 
something a former student told me about. He was working at a nursing home and 
the dementia patients wore electronic ankle bands. One gentleman's broke and 
they had to order a new one for him. Since this patient had a history of 
wandering (elopement), the staff members were concerned about the door to the 
back lawn that was accessible through a sunroom. In order to prevent the man 
from walking into the sunroom and going right out the door, the staff painted 
the door to match the wall. The man walked in, looked around, didn't see a 
door, and got involved in something else that caught his attention. The thing I 
love about it is that this story and the article posted by Beth illustrate 
nonconfrontational ways to prevent patients from wandering. I hate the idea of 
restraints. On the other hand, since I'm afraid of heights, the black square in 
front of the elevator sounds kind of scary. (I don't like elevators either.)

Carol



Carol L. DeVolder, Ph.D. 
Professor of Psychology
Chair, Department of Psychology 
St. Ambrose University 
518 West Locust Street 
Davenport, Iowa 52803 

Phone: 563-333-6482 
e-mail: devoldercar...@sau.edu 
web: http://web.sau.edu/psychology/psychfaculty/cdevolder.htm 

The contents of this message are confidential and may not be shared with anyone 
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[tips] "Visual Cliffs" in dementia treatment

[Beth Benoit]

The following article stressed better ways to treat Alzheimer's patients,
but I found the following particularly interesting:

 ...And Beatitudes [the nursing home described in the article] installed a
rectangle of black carpet in front of the dementia unit’s fourth-floor
elevators because residents appear to interpret it as a cliff or hole, no
longer darting into elevators and wandering away.

“They’ll walk right along the edge but don’t want to step in the black,”
said Ms. Alonzo, who finds it less unsettling than methods some facilities
use, bracelets that trigger alarms when residents exit. “People with
dementia have visual-spatial problems. We’ve actually had some people so
wary of it that when we have to get them on the elevator to take them
somewhere, we put down a white towel or something to cover it up.”

When elevator doors open, Beatitudes staff members stand casually in front,
distracting residents with “over-the-top” hellos, she said: “We look like
Cheshire cats,” but “who’s going to want to get on the elevator when here’s
this lovely smiling person greeting you? It gets through to the emotional
brain.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/health/01care.html

Beth Benoit
Granite State College
Plymouth State University
New Hampshire

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[tips] Iraq may "get it" about toy guns better than other places in the world

[Beth Benoit]

The Ministry of Health in Iraq is hoping to ban the sale of toy guns.  The
article stresses the danger of these toy guns (partly because of eye
injuries from toy pellet guns), but the following two quotes caught my
attention:

---“They make it easier for a child to make the next step to real violence,
because every day he enjoys guns.”---

---“Children are no longer interested in educational games,” he said at his
store. “All they want to play with is the games that express power and
violence.”

Teachers said that living with so much violence in both their real and
fantasy lives had made students quicker to fight and less patient with their
studies.
Where students used to ask teachers to help resolve conflicts, now they
rarely do so, said Instisar Mohammed, a primary school teacher in the
Yarmouk neighborhood, where most residents are relatively well educated.
“They resolve with their fists more easily,” she said. “They fight a lot
more than they used to.” She added that “after 15 minutes in the classroom
they do not pay attention anymore and start moving around, then
fighting.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/world/middleeast/01iraq.html

Beth Benoit
Granite State College
Plymouth State University
New Hampshire

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Fwd: [tips] Bye,bye,Black bird

[David Hogberg]

-- Forwarded message --
From: David Hogberg 
Date: Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 4:17 PM
Subject: Fwd: [tips] Bye,bye,Black bird
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <
t...@acsun.frostburg.edu>


The myth about lemmings jumping of cliffs began when it was portrayed in a
1958 Walt Disney film.  (snopes.com)

-- Forwarded message --
From: David Hogberg 
Date: Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 4:02 PM
Subject: Re: [tips] Bye,bye,Black bird
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <
tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu>



Lemmin

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 3:24 PM, michael sylvester wrote:

>
>
> Has  anyone been following the story of blackbirds falling off the sky to
> their deaths.If we are to follow the Hans Selye model fireworks' stress may
> be one of the culprits.
> Anyway how is this different from lemmings falling over cliffs in Norway?
> Any indication that zombies could be a plan B explanation?
>
> Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD
> Daytona Beach,Florida
>
>
> ---
>
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-- 
David K. Hogberg, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Department of Psychological Science
Albion College
Albion MI 49224

Tel: 517/629-4834, Mobile: 517/262-1277

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-- 
David K. Hogberg, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Department of Psychological Science
Albion College
Albion MI 49224

Tel: 517/629-4834, Mobile: 517/262-1277



-- 
David K. Hogberg, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Department of Psychological Science
Albion College
Albion MI 49224

Tel: 517/629-4834, Mobile: 517/262-1277

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Re: [tips] Bye,bye,Black bird

[David Hogberg]

Lemmin

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 3:24 PM, michael sylvester wrote:

>
>
> Has  anyone been following the story of blackbirds falling off the sky to
> their deaths.If we are to follow the Hans Selye model fireworks' stress may
> be one of the culprits.
> Anyway how is this different from lemmings falling over cliffs in Norway?
> Any indication that zombies could be a plan B explanation?
>
> Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD
> Daytona Beach,Florida
>
>
> ---
>
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: dhogb...@albion.edu.
>
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-- 
David K. Hogberg, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Department of Psychological Science
Albion College
Albion MI 49224

Tel: 517/629-4834, Mobile: 517/262-1277

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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Michael Burman]

Rick writes: I could see how taking a pill could, through repeated pairings, 
become 
associated with a particular effect. However, with the placebo effect, it would 
seem that there are two additional concerns. 1) If a person has taken a number 
of pills over the years for various conditions, and the pills had various 
effects, wouldn't this dilute the placebo effect in the case of any particular 
effect? On the other hand, if every pill you ever took had analgesic effects, 
it would seem that a pill could come to elicit a conditioned response. But that 
leads us to 2) Would the placebo response be congruent with or opposite of the 
original effect? For example, if a stimulatory effect is predicted by the 
delivery of a CS, the CR can often be the opposite of the UR (a depressant 
effect) allowing the organism to maintain homeostasis. In that case, the 
placebo effect would be the opposite of the effect of the drug.

Both great questions.  As to the different effects of types of drugs that we've 
had experience with, this would be an example of discriminative conditioning.  
It's not hard to classically condition different responses to the same CS, 
using different USs in different contexts.  Thus, the context (including 
perhaps cognitive expectations) could play a role in determining which effect 
we see.  As to whether the CR should be the same as the UR, opposite or 
unrelated; as I'm sure you know, classical conditioning can produce all three 
patterns.  in Domjan's text, he suggests that the CR is affected by the CS, US, 
timing between them and the context.  Often the rule seems to be that the CR 
that is exhibited is the one that best prepares the animal for the anticipated 
occurrence of the US.  Thus, I would guess the direction of the placebo effect 
would depend upon the nature of the drug and the speed of its onset of action.  

Mike


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[tips] Bye,bye,Black bird

[michael sylvester]

Has  anyone been following the story of blackbirds falling off the sky to their 
deaths.If we are to follow the Hans Selye model fireworks' stress may be one of 
the culprits.
Anyway how is this different from lemmings falling over cliffs in Norway?
Any indication that zombies could be a plan B explanation?

Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida

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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Michael Burman]

Michael Smith wrote: I think this is incorrect. The original question was "why 
any classically conditioned stimulus could not be viewed as a  placebo". The 
original question was not about the mechanism of placebos (Michael Burman's 
response) or some of the other issues raised by Rick and Claudia, interesting 
though they may be."

Fair enough.  If the question is whether all classical conditioning should be 
viewed as identical to the placebo effect, then the answer is no.  Classical 
conditioning is too broad.   If the question is whether the placebo effect can 
be viewed as a special case of classical conditioning, then I think the answer 
is clearly yes.  To the extent that one stimulus (a US; drug) coincides with 
and is predicted by another (the CS; stimulus properties of a pill) we see a 
novel response being learned.  This has the requisite properties of classical 
conditioning (contiguity and contingency between two stimuli).  

By the way, I think your example needs some clarification.  In the eyeblink 
paradigm, a tone is paired with a puff of air to the eye.  The tone then 
produces a blink on it's own.  Thus, the tone is the stimulus comparable to the 
placebo pill in a drug situation.  Moreover, blinking to a tone that predicts 
an insult to the eye is clearly a beneficial response in any sense.

Mike Burman  


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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[michael sylvester]

A placebo may not have medicinal value but that does not imply that it  has no 
other effective value.Please note that the stimulus complex under the classical 
conditioning paradigm extend s to the temporal as well as its spacial 
connectivity.A good example of this is the recognition and construction of the 
fear hierarchy in systematic desensitization.As Bonnie Raitt would sing
"Something to talk  about."

Michael "omnicentric"  Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida
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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Michael Smith]

Michael Burman wrote:
"I think no one has answered this because it is essentially correct.
Classical conditioning is a likely mechanism for the placebo effect.
Robert Ader gave a talk at the Pavlovian Society Meeting a couple of
years back showing that the immune system in rats could be classically
conditioned to respond to a CS via pairings with an immuno-suppressent
drug."

I think this is incorrect.

The original question was
"why any classically conditioned stimulus could not be viewed as a  placebo"

The original question was not about the mechanism of placebos (Michael
Burman's response) or some of the other issues raised by Rick and
Claudia, interesting though they may be.

In the traditional conditioned eye-blink response the stimulus is a puff of air.
Now, could a puff of air be conditioned to produce a placebo effect
(i.e. physically or psychologically beneficial response)?
I suppose it's "possible", but I think unlikely.

Not every pairing can be learned with equal efficacy and some
presumably cannot be learned at all.
(For example, a feeling of increased well-being is unlikely to be
induced by severe electrical shock).

Hence my original response highlighted the beneficial aspect of the
placebo effect, and not every stimulus capable of inducing a
classically conditioned response would result in a placebo effect.

--Mike

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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Claudia Stanny]

Rick raises some big questions, all of which are interesting.

A careful examination of the mechanisms associated with placebos should also
include conditioning mechanisms that produce attenuation of the
pharmacological effect of active drugs (like the tolerances that are
classically conditioned to alcohol, opiates, and other drugs that create
dramatic changes in physiology).

The effect of conditioning is probably not uniform.  It might vary with the
degree to which the substance ingested can produce homeostatic imbalances.
And the association with environmental cues during conditioning will play a
role, as evidenced by the problems with ODs when the large tolerance dose of
an opiate is ingested in a novel envrionment.

I expect sorting all this out will take some time and the answer won't
be simple!



Claudia Stanny

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RE: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Rick Froman]

I could see how taking a pill could, through repeated pairings, become 
associated with a particular effect. However, with the placebo effect, it would 
seem that there are two additional concerns. 1) If a person has taken a number 
of pills over the years for various conditions, and the pills had various 
effects, wouldn't this dilute the placebo effect in the case of any particular 
effect? On the other hand, if every pill you ever took had analgesic effects, 
it would seem that a pill could come to elicit a conditioned response. But that 
leads us to 2) Would the placebo response be congruent with or opposite of the 
original effect? For example, if a stimulatory effect is predicted by the 
delivery of a CS, the CR can often be the opposite of the UR (a depressant 
effect) allowing the organism to maintain homeostasis. In that case, the 
placebo effect would be the opposite of the effect of the drug.

Rick

Dr. Rick Froman, Chair
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences
Professor of Psychology
Box 3055
John Brown University
2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR  72761
rfro...@jbu.edu
(479)524-7295
http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman

"The LORD detests both Type I and Type II errors." Proverbs 17:15

From: Michael Burman [mailto:mbur...@une.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 11:12 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot





No one has really addressed my question as to why any classically conditioned

stimulus could not be viewed as a  placebo (or nocebo).
I think no one has answered this because it is essentially correct.  Classical 
conditioning is a likely mechanism for the placebo effect.  Robert Ader gave a 
talk at the Pavlovian Society Meeting a couple of years back showing that the 
immune system in rats could be classically conditioned to respond to a CS via 
pairings with an immuno-suppressent drug.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12615187

In humans, there are other plausible mechanisms involving cognitive 
expectations, but those certainly wouldn't rule out a role for classical 
conditioning.

So - I think the answer is "yes".  Placebo's work because a taking a little 
pill is so often associated with effective drugs.  The more pills we take, the 
larger the placebo effect will become.  Perhaps we are already seeing evidence 
of this.

Mike


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Michael A Burman Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Psychology
328 Decary Hall
University of New England
11 Hills Beach Rd
Biddeford ME 04005

207-602-2301

mbur...@une.edu




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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Michael Burman]

> No one has really addressed my question as to why any classically conditioned 
> stimulus could not be viewed as a  placebo (or nocebo).

I think no one has answered this because it is essentially correct.  Classical 
conditioning is a likely mechanism for the placebo effect.  Robert Ader gave a 
talk at the Pavlovian Society Meeting a couple of years back showing that the 
immune system in rats could be classically conditioned to respond to a CS via 
pairings with an immuno-suppressent drug. 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12615187

In humans, there are other plausible mechanisms involving cognitive 
expectations, but those certainly wouldn't rule out a role for classical 
conditioning.  

So - I think the answer is "yes".  Placebo's work because a taking a little 
pill is so often associated with effective drugs.  The more pills we take, the 
larger the placebo effect will become.  Perhaps we are already seeing evidence 
of this.

Mike


---
Michael A Burman Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Psychology
328 Decary Hall
University of New England
11 Hills Beach Rd
Biddeford ME 04005

207-602-2301

mbur...@une.edu



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Re: [tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Michael Smith]

> No one has really addressed my question as to why any classically
> conditioned stimulus could not be viewed as a  placebo (or nocebo).

Not being a behavioral specialist I see my opportunity here :)

I would imagine that any stimulus used to entrain a classically
conditioned response
would not be considered a placebo in general, because a placebo
implies, in general,
a beneficial physical or psychological effect.

Conditioning an eye blink response, while being a physical response,
is nevertheless not beneficial.

--Mike

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[tips] On The Bystander Apathy Effect or Remembering Ohio

[Mike Palij]

For some reason I'm reminded of the following lyrics from Crosby, Still, Nash, &
Young after reading the following forwarded message:

What if you knew her, and found her dead on the ground,
How can you run when you know?


Below Craig Haney's name is used.  It might be familiar to some Tipsters
because he was one of researchers involved in the Stanford Prison Experiment. 
(SRE). He was one of the original authors of the SRE report:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=64810
Co-authored with Zimbardo the 25 years review of the SRE:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9699456
And Haney on the effect of long-term solitary confinement:
http://cad.sagepub.com/content/49/1/124.abstract

I'm reminded of another song lyric by Phil Ochs:
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends
See:http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/small-circle-of-friends.html

-Mike Palij
New York University
m...@nyu.edu


- Original Message - 
From: Anthony Marsella 
To: di...@lists.apa.org 
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 9:38 AM
Subject: [DIV52] Fwd: PsySR Open Letter on Solitary Confinement

Begin forwarded message:

  From: Roy Eidelson 
  Date: January 3, 2011 7:58:18 AM EST
  To: sp...@lists.apa.org
  Subject: PsySR Open Letter on Solitary Confinement
  Reply-To: Roy Eidelson 



  Psychologists for Social Responsibility is deeply concerned about the 
pretrial detention conditions of alleged Wikileaks source PFC Bradley Manning, 
including solitary confinement for over five months, a forced lack of exercise, 
and possible sleep deprivation. It has been reported by his attorney and a 
visitor that Manning's mental health is suffering greatly from his treatment. 



  As a response, PsySR has issued the Open Letter below to Secretary of Defense 
Robert Gates expressing our concerns about this misuse of solitary confinement 
and alerting him to the psychological literature on its harmful effects. It has 
been sent to the Secretary and PsySR is now releasing it publicly, The text of 
the letter and a PDF version are also available on PsySR's website at 
www.psysr.org/gates-manning-letter.

  We would welcome your assistance in helping obtain the widest visibility for 
this letter by distributing it in any venues available to you. Thanks.


 Roy Eidelson

  *** 

  PsySR Open Letter on PFC Bradley Manning's Solitary Confinement

  January 3, 2011

  The Honorable Robert M. Gates
  Secretary
  100 Defense Pentagon
  Washington, DC 20301

  Dear Mr. Secretary:

  Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) is deeply concerned about the 
conditions under which PFC Bradley Manning is being held at the Quantico Marine 
Corps Base in Virginia. It has been reported and verified by his attorney that 
PFC Manning has been held in solitary confinement since July of 2010. He 
reportedly is held in his cell for approximately 23 hours a day, a cell 
approximately six feet wide and twelve feet in length, with a bed, a drinking 
fountain, and a toilet. For no discernable reason other than punishment, he is 
forbidden from exercising in his cell and is provided minimal access to 
exercise outside his cell. Further, despite having virtually nothing to do, he 
is forbidden to sleep during the day and often has his sleep at night disrupted.

  As an organization of psychologists and other mental health professionals, 
PsySR is aware that solitary confinement can have severely deleterious effects 
on the psychological well-being of those subjected to it. We therefore call for 
a revision in the conditions of PFC Manning’s incarceration while he awaits 
trial, based on the exhaustive documentation and research that have determined 
that solitary confinement is, at the very least, a form of cruel, unusual and 
inhumane treatment in violation of U.S. law.

  In the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court case Medley, Petitioner, 
134 U.S. 1690 (1890), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Freeman Miller wrote, 
"A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, 
into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse 
them, and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; 
while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in 
most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent 
service to the community." Scientific investigations since 1890 have confirmed 
in troubling detail the irreversible physiological changes in brain functioning 
from the trauma of solitary confinement.

  As expressed by Dr. Craig Haney, a psychologist and expert in the assessment 
of institutional environments, “Empirical research on solitary and 
supermax-like confinement has consistently and unequivocally documented the 
harmful consequences of living in these kinds of environments . . . Evidence of 
these negative psychological effects comes from personal accounts, descriptive 
studies, an

[tips] Placebos: stirring the pot

[Pollak, Edward]

No one has really addressed my question as to why any classically conditioned 
stimulus could not be viewed as a  placebo (or nocebo). Humans are remarkable 
in a) the speed with which they can learn associations b) our ability to learn 
by observing others, and c) our ability to learn associations simply by being 
told that they exist. See, for example,



Behaviourally conditioned modification of T cell subset ratios in rats

A.J. Husband, M.G. King, and R. Brown



Abstract

Levamisole injection resulted in an elevation in the T helper:T suppressor 
(H:S) subset ratio in rats at 24 h after injection due to a selective 
depression in the cytotoxic/suppressor subset. This response was shown to be 
conditionable and could be reenlisted 14 days later by re-exposure to the 
conditioned stimulus. Rats were conditioned using a taste aversion paradigm by 
pairing levamisole injection with the novel taste of saccharin. Fourteen days 
later, after a second exposure to saccharin without levamisole injection, H:S 
ratios were elevated in the blood of these rats compared to control rats 
injected with levamisole but fed normal water or rats fed saccharin without 
levamisole injection.



And just to add another facet to the question: One of my favorite quotes is 
from Martin Gross' book "The Psychological Society: A Critical Analysis of 
Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis, and the Psychological Revolution" in 
which he refers to clinical psychologists as the "institutionalized dispensers 
of placebos."  I love to rattle my students' cages with that quote. But I then 
go on to demonstrate that placebo effects are real and powerful and that to be 
an expert in the administration of placebos is no trivial thing.



Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/home.htm

Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, & bluegrass fiddler.. in 
approximate order of importance.

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[tips] Anniversaries

[michael sylvester]

But will they still need you,will they still feed you,when you are 64.

Michael
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