Fascinating Scientific and Psychological Effects
Allee effect
The Allee effect is a biological phenomenon where the per capita population growth of a species (or a population within that species) drops when the total number of members of the species drops. Stated differently, each female gives birth to more offspring when density is higher within a population. Named after American zoologist Walter Clyde Allee, the effect changed the common understanding of population growth.At the time of his studies, it was believed that populations would, in fact, thrive at a certain lower population, because more resources would be available to those fewer specimens. In other words, population growth would slow with higher numbers, and grow with smaller numbers. However, the work of Allee (and others) demonstrated that as population drops, so does the number of available mates—and the amount of group protection—and thus, the population growth slows. Conversely, the more members of a population there are, the faster growth occurs.
Audience effect & drive theory
The audience effect is the effect an audience has on a person—or a group of people—who are attempting to perform a certain task while being watched. An effect first studied by psychologists in the 1930s, it primarily shows up in two opposite extremes; many performers (athletes in particular) will actually raise their level of play when a large crowd is watching, while others will succumb to stress and self-consciousness and end up performing worse than their true talent level.In 1965, social psychologist Ribert Zajonc suggested that the drive theory could account for the audience effect. Zajonc suggested that what determines whether a passive audience causes a positive or a negative effect on the performer depends upon the relative “easiness” of the task being performed. If the performer believes that she should win a fight, for instance, the audience effect will tend to motivate her to perform at a high level. If she is unsure to begin with, the audience effect may facilitate a loss due to lower self-esteem.
Pygmalion effect
Related to the audience and drive effects is the Pygmalion Effect, which connects the positive expectations placed upon a performer to the resulting high quality of that performance. Named after the classic George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion (upon which the film “My Fair Lady” is based), and sometimes called the “Rosenthal effect,” the effect is essentially a type of self-fulfilling prophecy. The opposite of the Pygmalion effect, which states that lower expectations may lead to lower performance levels and success, is known as the “golem effect.”The effects of Pygmalion have been studied at length in the world of athletics, business, and especially education. In business, the effect is seen most often in the way managers get results based on their expectations of their own employees; as former business professor J. Sterling Livingston noted in his studies of the effect, “The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them.” Similarly, the research conducted by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson on the Pygmalion effect in the classroom suggests that when teachers expect higher performance from certain students, those students would more likely than not deliver.
Bizarre Psychological Disorders
Landau-Kleffner Syndrome
Landau-Kleffner Syndrome is an odd disorder; children who suffer from it—generally between the ages of five and seven—frequently lose the ability to properly express and understand language. Some people with this syndrome also suffer from seizures, and scientists are yet to understand why the disorder occurs. It’s all made stranger by the fact that the children usually develop their language skills just fine, and then seem to lose them randomly. Certain speech therapies can be helpful in managing the condition, but it is fairly difficult to treat.
Aboulomania
Aboulomania isn’t a very well-known disorder; essentially, it involves the occasional onset of crippling indecision. Aboulomania sufferers are normal in practically every other way, physically and mentally—they simply run into very serious problems whenever they’re faced with certain choices, to the extent that they struggle to regain normal function. Some aboulomania sufferers face incredible difficulties in everyday life, finding it nearly impossible to do simple things; even wondering whether or not they should go out for a walk can paralyze them with indecision. Many sufferers report that their incapacity to do what they want comes in spite of that fact that they’re aware of being physically fine—and so they seem to be imprisoned by the inability to fulfill their own will.
Mary Hart Syndrome
If you wanted bizarre, then you’re about to get it. It turns out that there are reported cases of people experiencing seizures upon hearing the voice of Mary Hart, a TV personality. A doctor who studied one of these claims said that the woman concerned really did fall into a seizure at the sound of Hart’s voice; he reported that the woman would also grip her head, looking distracted and confused. It is important to note, however, that this strange syndrome seems only to affect those who already have seizures for other reasons.
Common Misconceptions About Psychology
There is only one type of amnesia
Many people are only familiar with the popular culture version of amnesia, whereby someone forgets their past but can remember new things with no trouble; this is indeed a real condition, and is known as retrograde amnesia. Of course, the movies in which someone gets a bump on the head, forgets everything, and then remembers it later with another bump, are absurd. There is also a second form of amnesia most people haven’t heard of called anterograde amnesia, and this one is arguably much worse than the first one. If you are struck by anterograde amnesia, you’ll be able to remember your past—but you won’t be able to form any new long-term memories.
Dreams play an important role in psychological counseling
Some people believe that dreams are a valid way of understanding people’s problems, and that they are therefore used regularly in therapy—but this is not the case. This particular misconception has been propagated mostly by movies and television, which often show the fictional therapist lying their client down on a couch and asking him about his dreams. It’s important to note that dreams supposedly had a lot to do with the unconscious, according to Freud’s theories, and were very important. Many of Freud’s theories relating to dreams involved very young children. But more recent research shows that dreams in younger children have very little detail or subtext. Freud contributed greatly to psychology—but it’s generally agreed that his theories about human sexuality and dreams are total nonsense.
You should not comfort babies too much when they cry
This one is a bit controversial; there are a few contrasting opinions on it, to say the least. Some self-help authors have come up with the idea that parents should simply let their baby howl away. Most researchers, however, don’t think that comforting a baby will bring it any harm; some studies have even shown that ignoring a crying baby could well have detrimental effects. Importantly, some researchers have found that—at least during the first few months of its life—you should always console a crying baby.
Top 10 Unbearable Phobias
Ambulophobia
“The fear of walking or standing.”
Imagine the implications of such a fear: the mere thought of standing or walking around fills you with utter terror. How in the world do you live a normal life? You certainly can’t travel around in a motorized chair all the time. Unfortunately for ambulophobes, human flying has not yet been achieved, either. It would seem that an individual suffering from this devastating phobia would be forced to confront their fear many, many times, every single day of their life. That doesn’t sound like fun.
Decidophobia
“The fear of making decisions.”
As you can see, some phobias have profound psychological consequences. If someone is deathly afraid of making a decision, then how do they go about life? Do they instruct others to make a decision for them? Isn’t that a decision in itself? Do they simply follow a real life equivalent of stream-of-consciousness, simply “going with the flow”, and not interfering with the normal course of events? But isn’t THAT a decision, too? Decidophobes must be in a constant state of mental flux; as long as they contemplate a decision, they shouldn’t experience fear. It’s the act of actually making the decision that terrifies them. This essentially means that any sort of personal interaction with the world requires a decidophobe to overcome traumatizing fear.
Epistemophobia (Gnosiophobia)
“The fear of knowledge.”
What? The fear of knowledge? Indeed. No school. No education. No introduction to any new facts of any sort. Developing epistemophobia is akin to placing a cognitive cap on your development. You can’t learn anymore, unless you’re willing to withstand unrelenting terror throughout the entire process, which would obviously impair your ability to even comprehend the new material in the first place.
