Summative Post

Our blog The Mind On The Mind discusses behavior and communication with the subcategories of society and public service. We have a very unique and unconventional style when it comes writing about our topics because not only do we discuss human society and behaviors, but we also discuss animal behaviors and communication. The chart below compares the two fields of what majors our team is studying. Although psychology and fisheries and wildlife seem like almost direct opposites, when you begin to read the rest of our blog you will begin to notice the surprising and interesting overlap within the two majors.

PSYCHOLOGY Childhood and Relationships as Adults The Path of Least Resistance Sad Music for Sad People Emotions Forgiveness Being Happy for Others Can Make Yourself Happy VOTE

FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE Communication by Chemicals Bird Brains Genetic Relationships Between Fish and Humans Prompt #9 Why Dogs Actually Love Us

Communication
A good sense of communication is relevant in both fields. These are most shown through the posts of Forgiveness and through Communication by Chemicals.

• The post titled Childhood and Relationships as Adults explains how healthy relationships as children can result in healthy relationships as adults with our partners.
• In terms of Fisheries and Wildlife, the post titled Communication by Chemicals talks about basic language presented between flowers and their pollinators. It is meant to shed light on the fact that every living organism exhibits some type of communication.

Behavior
Behavior in animals and in humans are something we are constantly trying to figure out. We evaluated both human and animalistic behaviors in our blog. Behavior is most relevant in Path of Least Resistance and Bird Brains.

• The idea that humans are going to take whichever road seems to be the easiest in the short term, even if it ultimately expends more energy is the main idea of The Path of Least Resistance.
• In Bird Brains, the relationship between two mating birds in a flock is examined. We look at how birds are able to specifically distinguish the vocals of their mate in such a cacophony of sounds.

Public Service (How and Why we Should give back)

During our search to understand humans and animals alike, we found that giving back to both our environment and our society is necessary.

• The post titled VOTE talks about how important it is (United States specifically) to go out and vote and be a smart voter. It reiterates the point of it being our civic duty to go out and vote and this is a classic example of how we can give back to our society.
• In terms of Fisheries and Wildlife, Prompt #9 tells us how we can give back to our environment. By realizing that our daily life is directly influenced by the environment and that we directly influence the environment, we can all learn to better appreciate the planet and take care of it like it does for us. Without a healthy planet, many of the things we are capable of doing now can be diminished.

People often forget that humans are just animals. Our psychology on the most basic level is the same. By observing the behavior and communication of animals, we may make inferences about humans. The same goes for observation of humans in respect to animals. The advancements in both the fields of Psychology as well as Fisheries and Wildlife to be made still are massive. This blog, while being a resource for people to use, is only a jumping off point. It is important that people will continue to use their minds for progress, as we will continue to use ours. This is a large world full of many mysteries, it is up to us to solve them. Remember to always keep -- the mind on the mind.

J.M.

A.C.

C.C.

C.F.

Endangered Monkeys Successfully Breed in Michigan Zoo

Over the weekend I visited my hometown for the holiday and stopped by my local zoo. I had heard that they were successful in getting their two Cotton-top Tamarin Monkeys to breed so I wanted to go see them.

Visiting monkeys may seem unimportant at a glance, but the Cotton-top Tamarins are a critically endangered species with only 6,000 left in the wild. This occurred after over 60,000 of the monkeys were shipped to the United States for animal testing in the 1960s (this was banned in 1974). The Tamarins have a very low infant survival rate so the fact that a small zoo in Saginaw, Michigan, was able to breed the monkeys, and the monkeys produced healthy twins is an amazing accomplishment. (To read more about the Tamarin family of Clementine, Gizmo, Pax, and Bean, click here!)

Cooperative breeding strategies put in place by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums “Species Survival Plan Programs” are responsible for outcomes like this one of the Tamarins. Each survival program works with an accredited zoo to oversee population management and to help conserve species.

 

 I wanted to share this because zoos and aquariums are usually almost always talked about in a negative light even though they have a plethora of programs that help to conserve, rehabilitate, and learn more about different species.

A.C.

Works Cited

"Species Survival Plan Programs." AZA, https://www.aza.org/species-survival-plan-programs.

"Endangered Species Birth." Children’s Zoo, 28 Feb. 2016, https://www.saginawzoo.com/endangered-tamarin-birth.

Recognizing Truth (Prompt 10)

     The Big Bang Theory is one of the biggest, most popular TV shows of our time. The show mainly focuses on the natural sciences. The main characters are physicists and an engineer. Often times, the main character, Sheldon Cooper, makes fun of the social sciences. He’s usually seen calling them poppycock and such other things.  Yet, weirdly enough he is the character who uses psychology the most. One scene in particular that I found intriguing is one where Leonard, Sheldon’s roommate, attempts to be Sheldon’s psychologist. (Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV6DpJKW6a0)

     Although this scene is hilarious, it is not an accurate representation of what psychology really is. For one, Leonard is the psychologist and the only reason he is acting as one is because his mother is renowned psychiatrist. This sets the impression that just anyone, degree not included, can become a good psychiatrist and help their people through traumatic events. In this case, Leonard is nothing more than a friend helping a friend.

     Another inaccuracy, is that Leonard starts off with the “how are you doing today?” question. Really, that is the most stereotyped question someone could ask as a “sit in” psychologist. Between the banter of Sheldon and Leonard, they are throwing around theories and ideas and Sheldon plays them off. He even goes so far to say that the deli counter woman could give him the same advice as Leonard. Which both are equally unqualified, but it’s playing down the use and effectiveness of psychology.

     This scene is very funny and definitely is one that I enjoyed. And, the idea of psychology and most social science is downplayed often. Most mental health issues are stigmatized greatly so many people don’t take it seriously. To be a psychologist, though, one must go through many years of schooling. In this scene, they took on the typical “shrink” psychologist role, but there are so many more psych jobs out there that don’t even involve one on one.

J.M.

The Uncanny Valley

Have you ever wondered why certain innocent cartoons and various robots put humans on edge? The cause of this phenomena is the concept of the uncanny valley. The idea is that the closer something gets to a human likeness the more we find it cute or attractive, until a certain point in which it becomes creepy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley#/media/File:Mori_Uncanny_Valley.svg

The image shows two lines, one for moving and one for still. This is because a fair amount of the discomfort we feel comes from the idea that the near human entity possesses a mind and is able to interact with the world around it. Here are some popular examples of beings that fall in the uncanny valley.

https://youtu.be/rYLm8iMY5io

http://www.cubo.cc/creepygirl/

polartorture.jpg

C.F.

Works Cited

Lay, Stephanie. "Uncanny Valley: Why We Find Human-like Robots and Dolls so Creepy | Stephanie Lay." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 13 Nov. 2015. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/13/robots-human-uncanny-valley>.

Emotions

Today in my lecture we came upon the topic of emotions and exactly what they are. Not only did I learn their significance I learned about their importance in our everyday life.

            Emotions can be described as many things. Many people even have their own definitions for the word. I asked a group of people what they thought emotions were and they all seem to have pretty much the same answer. FEELINGS!!! True, emotions are feelings but their more than that, according to psychology emotions are a mix of psychological arousal, expressed behavior, and consciously experienced thoughts. Where do emotions come from? Psychologist James Lange had a theory that our experiences of emotions are our awareness of our physiological response.  

Emotions are simply a ‘ravel’ of our feelings. These feelings have been studied internationally and they all average in the main six emotions that we encounter daily. Happy, sad, fear, surprised, disgust, and anger. When you mix the feelings, sad and surprised you come out with the emotion disappoint. Emotions help the world better communicate and it’s a proven fact that women read emotions better than men.

 Many people get emotions and mood confused. We use them as the same word but psychologist have distinguished them. The simple difference between the two is that emotions last shorter than moods. You may argue with a friend about which brand of shoes is better Nike or Jordan and feel a little angry afterwards. However, moods last longer and can affect more than just that moment. They affect the way you feel and think. Can moods last long enough to affect your personality, the true you?

C.C.

Hambrick, David "Personality" Psychology 101. Wells Hall, East Lansing. November 14,2016. Lecture.

Forgiveness

      There have been many times in our lives where someone has wronged us and we have to “forgive and forget”. Most of those times it feels almost impossible to even think of forgiving said person and it usually takes a long time to actually find peace with the matter. To help us, Sunny Sea Gold gives us 4 reasons why we should forgive the other person.

1. For your own sake- Forgiveness isn’t for the other person, usually they couldn’t give a care in the world as to whether you had forgiven them. Forgiveness is to benefit your own health and well-being. There was even a workshop in Northern Ireland for woman who lost their children to sectarian violence and it was found that they felt less hurt and the depression scores fell by 60%. It even showed long term effects and the woman reported being less stressed.
2. Aim for empathy- If you can understand, even just a little bit as to why the other person hurt you, your pain will begin to subside. There’s even a technique to help you empathize with who hurt you. It is called the empty chair dialogue; it is where you sit with an empty chair and you pour your feelings out to the chair and then switch chairs and try to justify for the other person. If you can feel any sort of empathy, the negative emotions associated will begin to recede and you will feel better.
3. Calm the fight or flight reaction- the emotions of hurt and trauma will come back in waves and it’s your natural reaction to be in a fight or flight mode. Stanford Forgiveness Project psychologist, Frederic Luskin, says that when these waves come back use stress management techniques such as deep breathing and meditation, if those don’t work the problem may need more attention.
4. Keep trying- Forgiveness isn’t something that can be achieved immediately or without some effort. The more you try and the more you acknowledge it the closer you get to forgiving the person who hurt you. And, as important as therapy is with a psychologist, having your own personal persistence is just not, if not more important.

So, although this year and these past couple weeks have been difficult, find time to forgive those around you who have hurt you. Do it for yourself and do it for those around you. And don’t be afraid to take as much time as you need because not matter the situation you are allowed to feel that way. Don’t ever apologize for how you feel.

J.M

Gold, Sunny Sea. "How to Be a Better Forgiver." Scientific American. N.p., 05 Oct. 2016. Web. 13 Nov. 2016.

Why "Healing" After the Election is not as easy as media implies

The election is finally over, and a new president will take office in 2017. The person that won has said things against many different minority groups, many different religions, many different sexual orientations, and many different genders. The news outlets are now saying, oh well, it is time to heal any wounds that have been formed over this election and move on. If this were a partisan issue there would be no trouble in doing so. However, when oppression is tolerated, and people do not resist evil, then evil can grow in peace. Letting things go and saying "oh well, there is always another election in four years" is not an option this time. In four years everything that this country has done in the past 60 will be wiped away. The way that this relates to psychology is this, distance from an event diminishes passion about said event.

It is an obvious statement to say that people will care less about something the longer ago that it happened. It is this way with every tragedy. People go so far as to make them into jokes. The amount of Holocaust and 9-11 jokes on the internet is astounding. This is dangerous. People do not have an attention span that is beneficial to revolution anymore. We stop caring that people are oppressed and we care more about ourselves than people who live just next door. We are only 3 days out from the election and the passion and desire to make any sort of difference is already diminishing. In a democracy, the rule is supposed to be by the people. If a large enough group of organized people tell the government its demands, it can not refuse. Before our minds become okay with the idea of oppression things must be done. Otherwise, as history has shown, we will become desensitized to the problem.

C.F.