anger
Penn and Teller: Twelve Step Programs Are Bullsh** - I kind of disagree sort of
Monday, June 9th, 2008The recovering alcoholics in my life sometimes act like they’re from Jupiter. (Everyone seems to be a recovering something these days. . . ) Their default position is negative attributional bias -they constantly are attacking based on presumed negative intention of others. They then confabulate to back fill facts to match their [...]
Smoking and drinking genetics update: MAOA is methylated
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008I’ve been suspicious that most behavior is going to be non-Mendelian as far as genetic influences, (see here and here, and here for example) so here’s another study - this one by Philibert et al. - reporting that methylation dials down a gene linked to behavior — in women who smoke and drink. The [...]
“Family Annihilators”: Whether mad or sad, it’s entitlement and control
Thursday, May 15th, 2008It seems like every day the news has another story about some guy who guns down the wife and kids, optionally committing suicide. The question, “why?” is too small to ponder in view of the enormity of the evil shown by these types of mass murderers. Lately these guys who kill their kids and [...]
Heather Mills: Like Divorcing A Batterer ?
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Heather Mills “Victory” sign via Daily Mail
Heather Mills’ self-serving public statements demonstrate two major themes: lack of justification of behaviors toward her and minimization and justification of her behaviors toward Sir Paul and others. Ms. Mills is similar to men who are in batterer intervention programs — both display this type of self-deception, as [...]
Bullying and Harrassment in the Restaurant Industry Bork Bork Bork
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008When in Sweden, show your waiter some love: they may be bullied by other restaurant employees. Mathisen et al. report that workplace bullying is a serious problem in the Scandinavian restaurant industry, with significant societal consequences.
The Swedish Chef (click photo for link to Muppet Wiki)
Scand J Psychol. 2008 Feb;49(1):59-68. The occurrences and correlates [...]
What motivates child animal abusers who grow into violent adults
Monday, March 10th, 2008 I don’t know whether killing a hawk with a 9-iron
was truly animal cruelty or just a really dumb way an upset pro golfer used to banish a hawk who was interrupting the filming of a golf instructional video.
Regardless, the reports don’t indicate that John Henry “Tripp” Isenhour III was launching golf balls at the hawk [...]
Dude, chill - we’re not at war any more. Pass the chips.
Friday, March 7th, 2008Quick post: Why are people who are stoned on pot pretty mellow? (To pull a phrase out of the ’70’s). Answer: The active ingredient in cannabis ( 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)) reduces amygdala activity in response to social threats. Pot reduces anxiety — and maybe the negative attributional bias that goes along with it.
Can [...]
The Bob Dylan Committee Could Have Been A Delusion Caused By Improper Brain Connectivity
Saturday, March 1st, 2008Exhibit A: A committee of badly disguised Bob Dylan imposters?
As a child, with “Maggies’ Farm” on the record player, I asked an elder sibling why Bob Dylan looked so different on each of his (vinyl) album jackets. She calmly lied through her teeth, and explained that Bob Dylan was a committee, not a [...]
Serotonin in Finland and Russia: correlates with hostility and drinking.
Thursday, February 14th, 2008Here’s three papers (full citations and links, scroll down), two from Finland and one from Russia. These deal with being mean and drinking. And serotonin.
People have alcohol to loosen up, to remove inhibitions, to relax. But what about people who pick fights when they’re drunk? Are they tightly wound and naturally hostile — an [...]
Supermax is the new normal
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Hartman, K.E., “Supermax Prisons in the Consciousness of Prisoners,” The Prison Journal 88: 169-176 (2008) DOI: 10.1177/0032885507311001
The US prison system has over 7,000,000 prisoners participants, with about 2MM incarcerated at any given time. [thank you "jak-king" (what a nom-de-internet -- is that "car jak king"?) for the correction 02.14.08][New 03.01.08: about 1 in 100 people [...]
Anger management: Dopamine Receptor Allele and Nuclear Receptor Genes Are Associated with Anger and Aggression
Sunday, February 10th, 2008Everyone knows someone whose “default” emotion is anger. They are like a one-trick pony, they are sad, so they express anger. They are scared, so they act angry. They are frustrated, so they are angry. When in children, it is painful to watch. When in adults, it is scary.
World’s Most Dysfunctional Inspirational Poster [...]
Failure to enforce domestic violence restraining order may be a human rights violation
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008Superbowl Sunday has a bad reputation, true or not, for being one of the busiest days for people who practice domestic violence. Domestic violence — and any violence — scars not only the direct victims, but also the witnesses. That would be children watching from the stairs. Or shot in the head by the perpetrator spouse to get even with the target spouse.
Postcards from the Id, forensic psychologist blog to visit
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Postcards from the Id, self-portrait
Postcards from the Id is a new blog-roll link — I haven’t gone through the whole thing, but the posts are really a treat for me to read. This is up to the minute opinion and commentary on forensic psychology and social issues, and some fluff. But, Postcards misrepresents [...]
White matter days: Tantrums and white matter — tracking down clues
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Tantruming is a behavior found across a variety of conditions — including neurological ones. Is there a basic biological reason that tantruming is a “default” dysfunction?
Adults who tantrum, my theory is, have something going on in their wiring. Low frustrational tolerance, road rage, intermittant explosive disorder — all have some biochemical aspect or a lack [...]
The meanest grandmother lives the longest
Friday, September 28th, 2007 I bet this explains why people get worse as they get older.Have you ever wondered why an older person is unduly hostile?Could be trinucleotide repeats.
These tri-nucleotide repeat disorders really mess up your brain, probably by shutting down mitochondria (via excess iron, is one hypothesis).
See the abstracts below. Pre-Huntington’s, has elevated hostility as well as [...]
Neurological Correlates: Neuromarketing — don’t try to guilt trip the disagreeable
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007“. . .Overall, prosocial motivation is linked to (a) Agreeableness as a dimension of personality, (b) proximal prosocial cognition and motives, and (c) helping behavior across a range of situations and victims. In persons low in prosocial motivation, when costs of helping are high, efforts to induce empathy situationally can undermine prosocial behavior. . . “
Neurological Correlates: Neuroeconomics - Who is likely to sue you?
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007Or, how do you pick customers unlikely to sue you? At least with doctors, there is now a paper:
What patient attributes are associated with thoughts of suing a physician? Fishbain, et al., Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2007 May;88(5):589-96 (full abstract after the jump).
Neurological Correlates: Anger
Monday, September 17th, 2007Don’t get mad, get…an fMRI.
Neurological Correlates of Pride
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
Hieronymus Bosch, The Seven Deadly Sins, Pride (detail)
Well, the prefrontal part of the brain is at it again, this time turning down free money.
Another brain lesion symptom is exaggerated reaction to wounded pride. This was tested using the “ultimatum game” — played as follows:
Usually people take free money. But, as shown in the paper [...]
Neurobiology of The Seven Deadly Sins
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007Well, this blog is going to start off with a weasily disclaimer: I’m not a neuroscientist.
I’m interested in people who lack the empathy chip, the office-Machiavellians, white collar sub-criminals, or perhaps burned out their white matter from addiction. Perhaps I notice this in my own environs (basic middle-class America), more than the straight-forward criminal [...]