The Power of Social Connection

In 2004, when researchers asked "How many confidants do you have?"

The most common response—made by twenty-five percent of the respondents—was none. One-quarter of these twenty-first-century Americans said they had no one at all with whom to talk openly and intimately.¹

con·fi·dant = a person with whom one shares a secret or private matter, trusting them not to repeat it to others

Also published in 2004, a joint study by the World Health Organization and researchers from

Harvard University found that almost ten percent of Americans suffer from depression or bipolar

disorder. They also found that binge eating and drinking are up, and that our children are medicated for depression and attention deficit disorder to an alarming degree.²

When UNICEF surveyed twenty-one wealthy nations, the United States came in second to last in

terms of the welfare of its children, with only the United Kingdom faring worse. The United States had the very worst record in terms of infant mortality rates, and second to worst in terms of exposure to violence and bullying, chaotic family structure, and troubled relationships with family and friends. Respondents to the survey from across the United States say that their families no longer have meals together. Children say that they don’t spend time talking to their parents, and that they generally don’t find their peers kind and helpful.³

For citizens of the twenty-first century, “the way things used to be”—being bound to your village,

marrying someone chosen by your family, and otherwise doing whatever your priest or your parents or your tribal elders tell you to—is not a life plan with much appeal. However, the dismal statistics above suggest that our society may have gone overboard in its emphasis on standing alone. We pay the price, not just in terms of our mental and physical health, but in terms of the strain on social cohesion and sustainable economic progress. The corollary to being “obligatorily gregarious” is being interdependent.

“Independence,” the biologist Lynn Margulis reminds us, “is a political, not a scientific term.”⁴

And yet independence is the rallying point for our culture. We have always prized vertical mobility

and accepted “horizontal mobility” as the cost of doing business—you go where the opportunities are. By the middle of the twentieth century, however, that swashbuckling independence could be better described as rootless-ness. Executive transfers had become a staple of even the most routine and regimented corporate lives, turning managers into a new species of migrant worker. The triumph of the interstate highway system, tract housing, strip development, and the automobile encouraged the creation of interchangeable landscapes, with entire “communities” mass-produced as marketable commodities. Sales people, consultants, and even academics like me became road warriors, racking up the frequent-flyer miles.

Reference:

1. M. McPherson, L. Smith-Lovin, and M. T. Brashears, "Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades," American Sociological Review 71 (2006): 353–375.
   
2. WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium, "Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment ofmental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys," Journal of the American Medical Association 291 (2004): 2581–90.
   
3. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, An overview of child well being in rich countries, United Nations Children’s Fund, February 13, 2007.
   
4. L. Margulis and D. Sagan, What is life? (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).

Another Depression Post

Yep... this is another depression post... This is what i got after i read Atlas of Depression.

In our daily life  (hail commoners..!), medication care for depression is often not optimal. This is because the symptoms of depression itself is not easily recognized especially when the patient himself suffer for another physical illness. At least, that what the research said^[1] .  For example: if i suffer for stage 3 lung cancer, i'll be depressed as hell.. But my depression is covered by my lung cancer..

Source: Dagelan.co

Another reason that contributes to the difficulties in finding depression symptoms also cause by the behavior of the patient himself. Many people ignore depression symptoms as it's often viewed negatively as mental illness. Some people reluctant to admit it because of they're afraid of the possible side effect from medications, while other just trying make justification that they're on an normal condition (i.e: "Just another mental stress.. Overall, I'm okay..!)

The impact of such actions leads to mood disorder symptoms, despite some of the latest research state that there's no clear  correlation

Is Depression More Common Today?

The well known Lundby Study^[2]suggest an increase of depression occurrence (up to 1000% increase) for men with the aged of 20-39 years in during 1957–1972 compared to 1947–1957. Some of recent research also suggest the same phenomenon as what Lundby suggest despite the controversies regarding the limited data and methodology.

The Verdict? You don't need all of those research...  Get less stress, get less depressed be more happy... There suppose no research/scientific controversies for that statement, i suppose..

And lastly, if you're curious with the references, here they are:

1. Goldberg DP, Huxley P. Mental illness in the community.The pathway to psychiatric care. London:Tavistock, 1980 
2. Hagnell O, Lanke J, Rorsman B, Ojesjo L.Are we entering an age of melancholy? Depressive illnesses in a prospective epidemiological study over 25 years: the Lundby Study,Sweden. Psychol Med 1982;12:279–89

Mood Disorders - Classification & Treatment (DSM-IV)

Mood disorders are characterized mainly by noticeable changes in mood that interfere with the individual’s capability to work. In genreal, mood disorders can be categorized into two groups:

1. Unipolar (also called depressive), which entails depression just. Unipolar is pretty common, affecting 10% of males and about 20% of females.
2. Bipolar disorder was formerly understood and is frequently popularly known as manic depression. When compared with unipolar disorder, bipolar happens much less often, affecting  only 1% - 2% of the people and afflicting both sexes equally.

Source: http://diabeteshypertension.com

The gender disparity in depression may be an illusion, however, revealing gender differences in readiness to seek help, as opposed to a real gender difference in the prevalence of depression. The difference also reveals the existence of specific types of atypical depression that guys, including postpartum depression change.

Most patients experience multiple episodes, and mood disorders in many cases are long-term. Minimal symptoms are related to increased danger of serious impairment and subsequent episodes. Suicide tendency is also a major problem for individuals with depression, where 15% of them will commit suicide.

Myth & Controversy of Mozart Effect

Among the most commonly "propagated" trending ideas in the historical events of psychology might be the Mozart effect. It is a term for the improvement in brain growth that allegedly occurs in kids when they're exposed to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart prior to the time of three. This idea has become so broadly accepted that the governors of Tennessee and Georgia have both helped programs to offer a free Mozart CD to every newborn baby in their own respective states.

Given the attendant marketing in which the notion has received, and also the cost associated with these acts of philanthropy, the typical new parent may be forgiven for believing that the Mozart effect is a real deal and a valid scientific fact.

However, the public could be mistaken, as so frequently occurs with widely known emotional some ideas. The source behind the Mozart Effects is based on a study conducted in 1993 by a physicist, Gordon Shaw, and Frances Rauscher, a developmental psychologist. This result was misreported in lots of ways, likely as the claim that Rauscher and Shaw produced a 51 point improvement in SAT scores. However, it need to be realized that the job they used to acquire this kind of result is invloving paper cutting and folding, which definitely not the SAT!

Do You Believe in Astorology?

Astrology is among the oldest personality description system in the world. The fundamental hypothesis of astrology is pretty simple: it is based on the notion that the positions and mobility of celestial objects, including sun and moon as well as the stars and planets, at the moment of birth wield a unfathomed influence on personality and the course of one’s life. The concept of Astrology can be tracked back to Chaldeans' and Assyrians' society, centuries ago; A time when mankind hardly know the characteristic of celestial object.

That twelve-sign zodiac, commonly known as as sun-sign astrology, continues to be the most common form of traditional western astrology, different from various Asian astrological systems such as the one often seen by Americans on Chinese cafe place mats, that have almost no connection to the western format. A horoscope is basically a map of the heavens over Earth at the time of one’s birth, split into 12 zones, or signs of the zodiac.

The signs of the Zodiac, shown here, are named for
the shapes the ancients perceived in the stars

Horoscope is also a term presented to a projection centered upon that map. Each sign symbolizes the estimated position in the sky (in medieval times) of each zone’s namesake constellation. The paths of the sun, moon, and major planets are then tracked into the zodiac, and their countries at the specific event of childbirth noticed. Astrologers state that, this data pinpoints key factors of a one’s personality and works extremely well to develop projections about that their possible future.

Criticism: Precession of the Equinox

Considering a formal science, criticism to astrology is most likely originated from physics and astronomy As most people know, our cosmos is in a dynamic and functioning in 'forever-moving state'. The resulting changes in bodies’ positions relative to each other are slow and subtle, but they add up over time. One of the evidence is what we recognize as precession of the equinox, where the position of the constellations in sky have changed for about 30 degrees westward in the last 2,000 years. This phenomenon result in an undeniably fact, that the constellations which are used in the zodiac is no longer represent the same map that was designed in the era of ancient Babylonian.

However, this kind critics are often considered as irrelevant, especially when we willing to look deeper about astrology. The terminology used in astrology is ‘sign of the zodiac’, not ‘constellation of the zodiac’. These are two very different things, and that the signs of the zodiac doesn't align with the constellations through which the ecliptic passes.

The signs of the zodiac are simply a method of portraying ecliptic longitude. The first 30 degrees circling westward are labeled Aries 0 – 30. For example, the 12th degree of Gemini would be ecliptic longitude 72 degrees and the 2nd degree of Sagittarius goes along to ecliptic longitude 242 degrees. This approach began since the ancient time and was used in scientific literature in the 19th century.

Scalar Quantities Vs Vector Quantities

Physics involves measuring and predicting various quantities (or physical values) like force. mass. and velocity.These values can be classified into those having only magnitude and those having both magnitude and direction. A quantity that has magnitude without a direc­ tion is referred to as a sea/or quantity. Mass is a scalar quantity. Energy and work are also scalar quantities.

On the other hand. force is a value with a direction. You can see that from the fact that the motion of an object changes if you apply force from a different direction.

A quantity that has a direction is called a vector. Velocity and acceleration and momentum are also vector quantities, as they have direction. You may forget the terms scalar and vector, but you should keep in mind that there are two types of values in physics:

1. Those with just a magnitude 
2. Those with both a magnitude and a direction

Vector: Basics

A vector is represented using an arrow.The length of the arrow represents the magnitude of the vector. and the point represents its orientation. or direction.Two vectors with the same magnitude and direction are equivalent to one another. even if they do not have the same origin.

 

Also note that the magnitude of a vector (represented by the length of the arrow) can be noted with absolute value symbols, like |a| or simply as a.

The sum of two vectors (a + b) is shown by joining the head of vector a to the tail of vector b. and then extending a line from the tail of a to the head of b, as shown in the figure. As this vector is a diagonal of the parallelogram in the figure, it is obvious that it is also equivalent to b + a. Therefore, we know that the following is true:  

Commmunitative Law: a + b = b + a

 

Negative Vector

Vector -a or a preceded by a minus sign, yields a sum of zero when added to Vector a. In an equation, the relationship looks like this: a + (-a) = 0

In terms of geometry, Vector -a is simply vector of the same magnitude as Vector a, but in the exact opposite direction. The 0 on the right side of this equation represents zero as a vector, referred to as a zero vector. When vectors cancel each other out in this way. an object is said to be in equilibrium.

 

Difference between Two Vectors

The difference between two vectors (a - b) can be defined as follows:

Commmunitative Law: a - b = a + (-b)

Thus, we can find the result of the equation using the same process for summing vectors:

 

Multiplying Vectors By Scalars

Doubling vector -a means doubling its magnitude without changing its direction. The result is represented as 2a.

Generally, k multiplied by a (k.a) represents vector with magnitude k times greater than a but in the same direction.

nb: this is a nostalgic note of mine from a book Manga Guide to Physics

It's Your Mood..! Let's See how We Can Manage it

What you'll receive from life heavily relied on  your effort, and your emotional states aka moods. By the time you are in a positive mood, everything just seem perfect - you can be more productive, doing an effective multi-tasking, and any obstacle you face just feels like nothing. But when you are in a bad mood, you tend to perceive much of everything in negative ways - even a barking dog can turns you into a grumpy cat.  So, most people will agree if I say that mood gives a significant effects on your daily life.

So, if such a thing gives a significant impact to our life, how can we control it? How can we stabilized our emotional states? Many people think that mood is created by external events. When things go as your positive expectation, you are in a good mood, but when things go awfully unexpected  you're going to be in a bad mood, right?

Actually, the statement is neither a valid argument, nor fact. Robert Thayer, a psychologist and the author of Calm Energy, said that mood develops from internal events rather than external events. Robert also said that  

Events are random. Even if you try to plot them down in to a good looking chart, you will find that the correlation between an event and your emotional states is little to none.