Trial run

Ashley Leasure

MEDIA PORTFOLIO

HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

Walter Freeman designed and practiced a technique called Trans- orbital Lobotomy. In this outpatient procedure, he used an ice pick and hammer and went in under the upper eyelid, separating the prefrontal lobes. The patients were then given big, dark glasses to cover the black eyes. By 1951, almost 20,000 lobotomies were performed!

I chose this video clip to represent the history of psychology because it is a procedure that was performed and no longer is (thankfully). It is hard to imagine some of the therapies and techniques that were used, even as little as 50 years ago.

WALTER FREEMANTRANS-ORBITAL LOBOTOMY

I chose this little cartoon that pertains to Ivan Pavlov and his famous experiment on classical conditioning. I feel that this is an example of the history of psychology because it was a historical experiment that laid the ground for research to come.

PAVLOV’S DOGS

THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF BEHAVIOR

This clip has Madea (a Tyler Perry character) being interviewed by Dr. Phil. The very topic of the interview is about behavior and her trying to explain why she behaves how she does.

I chose this clip because the whole clip is about behavior and the explanation of behavior.

MADEA GOES TO JAIL

BEHAVIOR

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

I chose the ‘white room’ clip of the Matrix as an example for sensation and perception. In this clip, Morpheus is trying to explain to Neo that everything around us is basically an illusion and its all in how you perceive.

MATRIX

With a teacher for a mom and a physician's assistant for a dad, Matthew North had two experts on the case from birth, but his problems baffled them both. "Everything

was hard for Matthew," says Theresa North, of Highland Ranch, Colo. He didn't speak until he was 3. In school, he'd hide under a desk to escape noise and activity. He couldn't coordinate his limbs well enough to catch a big

beach ball.

Matthew, now 10, was evaluated for autism and attention deficit hyper-activity disorder, but the labels didn't fit. "We filled out those ADHD questionnaires a

million times, and he always came out negative," Theresa recalls. "When we found this place, I cried. It

was the first time someone said they could help."

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THE NEXT ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER?

TIME MAGAZINE

This place is the Sensory Therapies and Research [STAR] Center, just south of Denver, which treats about 50 children a week for a curious mix of problems. Some

can't seem to get their motors in gear: they have low muscle tone and a tendency to respond only minimally

to conversation and invitations to play. Others are revved too high: they annoy other children by crashing

into them or hugging too hard. Many can't handle common noises or the feel of clothing on their skin. A number just seem clumsy. Adults can remember kids like these from their own childhood. They were the

ones called losers, loners, klutzes and troublemakers. At STAR Center they wear a more benign label:

children with sensory processing disorder (SPD).

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CONTINUED

Never heard of it? You're in good company. Neither have many pediatricians,

neurologists, psychologists and teachers. But in the parallel universe of occupational therapy, which focuses on the more primal

"occupations" of life--dressing, eating, working, playing--SPD is commonly treated. Last month, at a conference on SPD in New York City, 350 occupational therapists (OTs) and others gathered to hear about the latest

research and therapies.

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OTs have been treating SPD, also known as sensory integration dysfunction, since 1972, when A. Jean Ayres, a University of

Southern California (USC) psychologist and occupational therapist, published the first book on the condition. As defined by Ayres and others, SPD is a mixed bag of syndromes, but all involve difficulty handling information that comes in through the senses--not merely hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch,

but also the proprioceptive and vestibular senses, which tell us where our arms and legs are in relation to the rest of us and

how our body is oriented toward gravity. Some kids treated for SPD can't maintain an upright position at a desk; some are so sensitive to touch that they shriek when their fingernails are

trimmed or if they get oatmeal on their face. Sounds and smells can be overwhelming. When lawn mowers roar outside the home of Lizzie Cave, 4, a STAR child, she's been known to

vomit.

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Families that find their way to the STAR Center and other groups that treat SPD typically have traveled a long road to get there.

Their common refrains: My doctor doesn't believe in SPD; teachers can't handle it; insurance won't pay for therapy. There's good reason for that. SPD is not listed in medical texts or in the

Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM), the bible of psychiatric disorders. Doctors acknowledge sensory issues as a common

feature of autism and a frequent feature of ADHD but not as a stand-alone disorder. Lucy Jane Miller, a former protégé of Ayres

and head of the STAR Center, is spearheading a campaign to change that. She has organized a national effort to have SPD

added to the next edition of the DSM, the fifth, due out in 2012. Earning a spot in the DSM V would make it easier for

researchers to win grants, kids to get accommodations at school and families to be reimbursed for a course of treatment, which,

at the STAR Center, often costs $4,000.

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To receive recognition, advocates must provide persuasive evidence that "this is not just part of autism or ADHD, that it's a better definition of what these kids are experiencing," says Dr. Darrel Regier, director of research for the American

Psychiatric Association and vice chair of the DSM V task force. What's needed, says Regier, is a body of peer-

reviewed studies that defines "a core set of symptoms, a typical clinical course" and, if possible, good treatment data.

SPD research so far is provocative but limited. "It's hard to get grants for a disorder that doesn't exist," laments Miller, whose recent book, Sensational Kids, offers a guide to both research and treatment. Many studies are flawed by vague criteria for identifying the condition, samples that include

kids with other disorders, and an utter lack of standardized treatment.

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CONTINUED

But Miller and others have been slowly building a research base. Studies at her SPD Research Institute, adjacent to the STAR clinic, have identified neurological differences between children with sensory-processing problems and

typical kids. In one set of experiments, electrodes are attached to children's hands to measure nervous-system activity in response to a series of stimuli that include a

siren, a powerful wintergreen scent, the brush of a feather against the cheek--each repeated eight times. A healthy

child will show a strong electrodermal response--basically a measure of sweating or stress--to the first exposure but will quickly habituate, showing little response to the final repetitions. Kids with one brand of SPD jump through the

roof with every repetition. "It's as if they are stuck in fight-or-flight mode," says researcher Sarah Schoen.

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Other experiments at the University of Colorado have found that kids with sensory problems have atypical brain activity

when simultaneously exposed to sound and touch. And a 2006 study of twins at the University of Wisconsin gave evidence that hypersensitivity to noise and touch have a

strong genetic component.

No one can say with certainty how many kids are severely affected by sensory problems, though preliminary work by

Miller suggests it may be 1 in 20. A critical question is where to draw the line between what's normal and what's

pathological (see sidebar). Studies conducted by Alice Carter, professor of psychology at the University of

Massachusetts, Boston, suggest that 40% of children ages 7 to 10 are so sensitive to touch that tags in clothing annoy

them, and 11% overreact to sirens. But no one would claim that all these kids have a sensory disorder. Carter thinks SPD is too vaguely defined for prime time in the DSM.

Instead, she favors adding it to a section at the back of the manual on disorders that warrant further study. Granting it

such provisional status would open the door to more research funds. Then, if validated, SPD could have a shot at being included in the DSM VI--due out somewhere around

2025.

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CONTINUED

But parents of children who are struggling today are not inclined to wait 18 years, so they spring for therapy that has only

anecdotal validation. Treatment is highly individualized, but much of it involves guiding the kids to do more of the things they

don't do easily and respond less to the things they can't abide. Lizzie Cave works on noise sensitivity by listening to a calibrated series of audiotapes. Jacob Turner, 3, improves his tolerance for food textures by playing with gooey concoctions and allowing a

therapist to put them ever nearer his mouth.

Families get instructions on how to adjust their children's "sensory diets" to help them function better at home and in

school. Christopher Medema, 7, now puts a weighted blanket on his lap when he's doing seatwork at school. The steady pressure meets some of his need for tactile input and helps him focus. His family has learned to accommodate his craving for motion. "He

likes doing math flash cards standing on his head," says his dad, Steven.

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As for Matthew North? He still looks a little limp while dangling from gym equipment,

and the blue eyes peering above a sprinkling of freckles gaze warily at people he doesn't

know. But the boy who couldn't catch a beach ball last summer is now learning Tae Kwon Do and even soccer. "I saved a couple of goals," he admits, with a little prompting

from Mom. That sounds an awful lot like recovery--from whatever it is that ails him.

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CONTINUED

WHY I CHOSE THIS ARTICLE

I chose this article because not only does it cover this topic of psychology, but it is of great importance to me. My oldest child, Aydyn, has Sensory Processing Disorder. Approximately 1 out of 20 people in the United States has sensory issues of one type of another and to varying extents. However, very few people actually know of the disorder.

CONSCIOUSNESS

I chose this video clip because it is about consciousness. After taking the pill, its as if a person suddenly uses 100% of the brain at the same time, experiencing things as they have never been experienced before. You hear things that you could never hear before, see details that were never visible before. Like it said in the movie, imagine what could be accomplished?

LIMITLESS

LEARNING

This clip demonstrates learning as Harry Potter is teaching a group of fellow students how to perform the Patronus Charm. It shows their attempts and their learning process.

HARRY POTTER THE ORDER OF THE

PHOENIX

MEMORY

This film is about the late, real-life autistic savant, Kim Peek. Kim Peek had an extraordinary photographic memory. This clip is of the casino scene when his brother takes him to play Blackjack. Of course, since he had a photographic memory, remembering the cards was no problem.

RAIN MAN- KIM PEEK

INTELLIGENCE

This clip is of the movie, Matilda, when she first goes to school. Miss Honey is asking simple math questions and then rambles off a long, multistep problem in which Matilda solves promptly in her head. Miss Honey had to check her answer on a piece of paper.

MATILDA

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

This is a clip from a documentary featuring Seth Cook. Seth had progeria, a rare aging disorder, in which the body ages much quicker than normal. Children affected with this disorder usually only live until their teens or early twenties at the latest.

I chose clip to represent human development. While this may not be a case of typical human development, it is a development disorder.

SETH COOK- PROGERIA

MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

X-MEN FIRST CLASS

SEXUALITY AND GENDER

BOYS DON’T CRYBRANDON TEENA

STRESS AND COPING

I chose to use the movie Anger Management for stress and coping. Under his therapists direction, he learns a few coping strategies, although they are not among the typical “take a deep breath and exhale slowly”. In this clip, he has him singing “I feel pretty, oh so pretty…” in the middle of a traffic jam to try to calm the road rage.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

What demonstrates social psychology more than a bunch of gossiping teenage girls? In this clip from the movie, Mean Girls, it shows a few girls during a phone call.

I chose this clip because it really shows an example of social psychology at its worst… what happens when you get a bunch of conniving and jealous teenage girls together. It also pits the “in crowd” vs. the “out crowd”.

MEAN GIRLS

PERSONALITY

SYBIL - SHIRLEY MASON

Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, is a treatment given to Parkinson's patients who don't respond to medication. A

neurosurgeon implants a set ofelectrodes deep into the victim's brain, where they give off little jolts of electricity to disrupt the

involuntary tremors and other symptoms of the disease. But according to Martha Farah, a neuroscientist at the University of

Pennsylvania, at least one patient routinely chooses which electrical contact to activate depending on how she wants to

feel: calm for every day, more "revved up" for a party.

Devices like DBS and psychoactive drugs like Ritalin and Prozac are already manipulating brain function in millions of

people. And future pharmaceuticals, Farah says, targeting very specific parts of the brain, will be even more effective and will have fewer side effects. These new brain-control tools open a

Pandora's box of ethical and philosophical dilemmas, including what kind of society--and what kinds of selves--we want.

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THE BRAIN: HOW TO CHANGE A PERSONALITY

TIME MAGAZINE

Indeed, where there once seemed to be a clear boundary between mental health and mental dysfunction, it's now clear that these

states lie along a spectrum. "Thirty years ago," says Farah, "only seriously depressed people took antidepressants. But I'm sitting in a coffee shop now where probably half the people have taken

them." Some ethicists argue that unless you're ill, you're not really yourself when you're on these drugs. On the other hand,

says Farah, we change our brain chemistry no more with Prozac than with coffee or tea.

With that in mind, Farah is studying modafinil, a drug developed for narcolepsy that is prescribed off-label to patients with

depression, ADHD or even jet lag. In the military, it's used to sharpen soldiers' alertness and cognition. Her research is

attempting to determine how this chemical affects normal people. "Is there a trade-off," she wonders, "between focusing attention and reducing creativity? And if more workers use it to excel, will

we have a workforce of narrow, rigid thinkers?"

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CONTINUED

Neuroethicists are also worried that these new cognitive technologies could widen the gap between those who can afford

them and those who can't, eventually creating different classes of human beings. Just as problematic as unequal access, some say, is the prospect of people being forced, implicitly or explicitly, to take

mind-altering medications. Someday we may all feel pressure to take--or give our kids--focus- or memory-sharpening drugs to

compete at school or work. In fact, says Richard Glen Boire, senior fellow on law and policy at the Center for Cognitive Liberty &

Ethics in Davis, Calif., "some schools require kids--not diagnosed with ADHD by doctors--to take Ritalin to attend school."

Farah also imagines the day when we have what she calls a "neuro-correctional system" that could transform criminals into

noncriminals. We already force sex offenders to take libido-dampening drugs or face denial of parole. A drug to dampen

violent impulses might someday be similarly applied. That could, in theory, prevent crimes.

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But so would the castration of rapists, and that is considered a nearly unthinkable

invasion of a person's body. Do we have a comparable right, neuroethicists ask, to

"freedom of mind"? The ethicists are raising the questions, but it will be up to the

courts--and ultimately society at large--to decide when the benefits of this powerful

but intrusive branch of brain science outweigh the dangers.

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CONTINUED

I chose this article because it is talking about groundbreaking development and research in the area of personality. What really got me interested was the last part of the article where it was talking about the possibility of a future where criminals could be changed into non-criminals.

WHY I CHOSE THIS ARTICLE

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Dana is an 8 year old girl who has been anorexic for quite some time already. It is no question that eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are on the rise. Due to the message that young girls (and sometimes boys as well) hear and see in everyday media, it should come to no surprise. Girls are taught to believe that you have to be stick-thin to be beautiful.

Anorexia is one of the fastest growing psychological disorders in present times. Younger and younger children are developing disorders such as these, and often with dire consequesnces.

DANA-8 YEAR OLDANOREXIC

TREATMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Just to give a head up, this newscast clip is graphic and disturbing to say the least. It is appalling the conditions and situations that exist, yet today, in our world.

I chose this clip as an example of treatment of psychological disorders because it shows some of the treatment that the mentally ill receive in other parts of the world. The treatment is cruel abuse to say the least.

NBC NEWS-SERBIA’S MENTAL INSTITUTIONS

WORKS CITED

WORKS CITED CONT.