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I’m reading “Veronika decides to die” and this is actually discussed really interestingly in the book, I wouldn’t say it necessarily agrees or disagrees - if you are interested you can find the book here, it is a pretty quick read and I finished it over a weekend (even though I probably should’ve spent more time on other things - ha!) 

If you’re bored and looking for some cool psychology facts to read about, here are 10 that relates to feelings!

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(Why is anticipatory grief so powerful? | The Caregiver Space)

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http://www.majortests.com/gre/quantitative_skills.phpmyroadtopt:

This post was initially written on my blog, myroadtopt.wordpress.com. Click the title above to read more posts!  If you’re planning on applying to PT School, you’re most likely going to need to take the GRE. I’m writing this guide based on what I’ve searched on google, and from the advice from the awesome Pre-PT Forum on SDN. I scored 160V, 163Q, and 4.5W (between 84-88th percentiles), and I’ll give a review of what worked and didn’t work for me. However, I advise you to take this as a starting point and try to find what works best for you.

This list may be overwhelming, but it’s just here to give you options. You absolutely don’t need a majority of these, and I only used about three of the resources below because they worked best for me. Just breathe, and it’ll be over before you know it!

What is the GRE?

GRE stands for Graduate Record Examination. It is required by many graduate schools as a part of your application, including a majority of PT Schools. The test is usually taken on the computer, but is also paper-based if you prefer, and is broken up into three categories: reading, writing, and math. Read more about the details of the test on the GRE Website.

When should you take the GRE?

Each school has a specific deadline by which you must send them your GRE scores. If you are applying with PTCAS, you can take the GRE and send your scores to each school after you submit your application. However, it is helpful to take the GRE several months before you submit your application. This will give you plenty of time to retake the test, if you decide that you want to try for a higher score.

Speaking of a good GRE score…what score will get me into PT school?

Again this varies by each school. Check the PTCAS websiteor the school’s website for their requirements and advice on what a competitive score is. When I applied, most schools required a combined verbal and quantitative score of 300, and a writing score above 3.5 or 4.0. However, the average is often higher than 300, so check PTCAS or email the department of admissions for each school if you want to know the average scores for accepted students.

How do I sign up for the test and send my scores to each school?

Sign up for a date on the GRE website! At the end of the test, you are able to send your scores to 4 schools for free. You can search for the schools that you are interested, so you don’t need to memorize the GRE code for each school. If you need to send your scores to more than 4 places, then you’ll be required to pay a fee for each additional GRE code. When I applied, the fee was $27, so make sure to take advantage of the 4 free schools!

Check with each school to even see if you need to send directly to the school. Some schools will accept your score if you send it to PTCAS, while others want the score sent to their admissions department anyways. It can get expensive pretty quickly, but double and triple check that you followed the requirements for each school.

Now for the fun stuff…studying for the exam!

Just kidding. Studying wasn’t too much fun, but the GRE was different than any standardized test that I’ve taken. The test felt more like a logic puzzle, in that there are fast ways and different techniques to solve each problem quickly. The material itself isn’t too difficult, and thankfully there’s no calculus or Shakespeare for you to decipher.

FREE MATERIALS

Start with these first! You may not even need to purchase any books, online resources, or test prep courses. Check out any of these before you consider spending even more money on your application. They are also not in any specific order, although Powerprep was definitely the most helpful out of all of these for me.

1. GRE Powerprep 2- Software straight from the ETS website - download to your computer and get 2 full-length practice tests. Even if you don’t complete a full test, the software looks almost exactly like the computer-based test, so you have the chance to get comfortable with skipping between questions and marking questions that you want to return to.

The program will give you a sample quantitative and verbal score at the end (as nobody will score your practice essays), but I’m not sure how accurate it really was. My practice scores were around 153-157, but I scored higher on the actual GRE. Power prep also will not tell you how to solve each problem that you answer incorrectly. I had to google the answers, and asked a few of my engineering friends how to solve some of the math problems.

2. Quizlet- Flashcards for common vocabulary words, and for parts of words (prefixes, suffixes, etc). There are a couple cool games to help you learn words, and you can compete with yourself for a high score. I used this site for anatomy during undergrad, but not for studying for the GRE. I made some flashcards by hand and decided that it was a waste of time for me, but it could work for you if you start a few months before you plan on taking the test. Studying parts of words seemed a bit more useful for me.

3. Manhattan Prep Practice GRE Test- The test is customizable ( change the time limits, only test on verbal or quantitative), and each question has explanations (unlike the Powerprep software).

4. GRE Essay Topics- Argumentand Issue- The essay topics that you’ll be asked on the GRE will be somewhere on those lists. That’s right - every potential essay question is already online for you to look at! Feel free to browse through and choose some at random to practice. If you don’t want to write an entire essay, try brainstorming an outline within 2-4 minutes - that’s about all the time you’ll have on the test day to make an outline, so get used to coming up with ideas quickly!

5. Magoosh GRE Complete Guide eBook- Get a complete overview of the test, and look over some strategies and sample questions.

6. Magoosh GRE Vocabulary eBook- Learn strategies on the do’s and don’ts of studying vocab, and have a list of 300 common GRE words.

7. Magoosh GRE Math Formula eBook- Helpful to print out when you practice math problems.

8. Magoosh GRE Flashcard App- Review vocab on your phone or online! The app is really cool in that it reviews your most commonly missed words, and the words you know really well won’t come up as often.

9. GRE Books from your public library- No need to buy a GRE book if you can rent them for free! I grabbed 5-6 at one time to see if any were helpful to me, before I decided to spend money on other materials.

10. Online news articles- Improve your vocabulary by reading challenging articles, rather than memorizing flashcards. Reading more often might also help you retain the information better and understand more quickly, which are essential skills for taking a timed test. Choose more difficult news sources, like the Atlanticor the New York Times, and pick articles that aren’t as interesting as The Onion. Here are several articles to help you get started:

Reading Vocabulary in Context Vocabulary in Context Reading Comprehension Guide

11. Student Doctor Network Forums- The forums are active and full of helpful advice from students looking to become physical therapists, doctors, veterinarians, dentists, and a whole bunch of other awesome careers. Search through them for studying ideas, reviews of books and other materials, and also feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

PAID MATERIALS

1. Magoosh- Purchase verbal, math, or both sections! Over 500 practice questions for each section, video explanations for each problem, videos to explain test taking strategies, customer service if you have any questions, and you can save notes for each question or each video. Magoosh was essential for improving my math skills. I purchased both sections and practiced math problems quite a bit. The problems were overall harder than the GRE test was, so don’t worry if you struggle a bit.

2. The Official Guide to the GRE Revised Test- My public library had a copy, so check yours before you spend any money!

3. Other GRE Practice Books- There are a more than a handful of books that you can purchase, so look at the reviews and decide which you like the best!

Magoosh: The Best GRE Books of 2015 ExamPrepBooks: Best GRE Prep Books

4. Word Power Made Easy- This vocab book is hilarious. The definitions are witty and crazy and really help you remember the words quickly.

I recently retook the GRE and had wanted to make a post regarding these exact points.

Here are a few more free resources I’d recommend:

http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/gre/index.htm

https://www.varsitytutors.com/practice-tests

http://www.majortests.com/gre/quantitative_skills.php

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For more posts like these, you can visit psych2go​

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How racial stereotypes impact the way we communicate

Racial stereotypes and expectations can impact the way we communicate and understand others, according to UBC research.

The new study, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, highlights how non-verbal “social cues” – such as photographs of Chinese Canadians – can affect how we comprehend speech.

“This research brings to light our internal biases, and the role of experience and stereotypes, in how we listen to and hear each other,” says Molly Babel, the paper’s lead author and an assistant professor with UBC’s Department of Linguistics.

One of the study’s tasks involved participants from the UBC community transcribing pre-recorded sentences amid background static. The sentences were recorded by 12 native speakers of Canadian English. Half of the speakers self-identified as White, and the other half self-identified as Chinese. All speakers were born and raised in Richmond, B.C., which is south of Vancouver.

The pre-recorded sentences were accompanied by either black and white photos of the speakers, or by an image of three crosses. Overall, listeners found the Chinese Canadians more difficult to understand than the White Canadians – but only when they were made aware that the speaker was Chinese Canadian due to the photo prompt.

Participants were also asked to rate the strength of the accents of the speakers. They were asked to listen to two sentences from each speaker – one accompanied by the speaker’s photo, the other by an image of crosses. “Once participants were aware that they were listening to a White Canadian, suddenly the candidate was perceived as having less of a foreign accent and sounding more like a native speaker of Canadian English,” says Babel.

“It tells us as listeners that we need to be sensitive about the stereotypes that we carry,” notes Jamie Russell, the study’s co-author who was an undergraduate honours student in UBC’s Department of Linguistics during the project.

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Towards the end of last year, a shocking statistic appeared deep in the pages of a World Health Organisation report. It was this: suicide has become the leading killer of teenage girls, worldwide.

More girls aged between 15 and 19 die from self-harm than from road accidents, diseases or complications of pregnancy.

For years, child-bearing was thought to cause the most deaths in this age group. But at some point in the last decade or so – statistics were last collected on this scale in 2000 - suicide took over. And, according to the WHO’s revised data for 2000, it had already just inched its way ahead of maternal mortality at the turn of the millennium.

Yet, somehow, we didn’t notice.

I heard the statistic from Sarah Degnan Kambou, President of the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), at a Gates Foundation breakfast last month.

Most of my fellow guests worked in the fields of global women’s rights or female health. Yet they were as stunned as I was to hear it.

“I’m not quite sure why we haven’t realised this before,” says Suzanne Petroni, a senior director at ICRW. “Maternal mortality has come down so much, which is fantastic,” she says.

That’s a major factor behind the fall in the overall death rate for 15-19 year old girls from 137.4 deaths per 100,000 girls in 2000 to 112.6 today. It’s an amazing achievement.

And it has allowed the spotlight to fall, finally, on what has actually been the biggest killer all along: suicide.

The report looks at six global regions. In Europe, it is the number one killer of teenage girls. In Africa, it’s not even in the top five, “because maternal deaths and HIV are so high,” says Petroni.

But in every region of the world, other than Africa, suicide is one of the top three causes of death for 15 to 19 year old girls. (For boys, the leading killer globally is road injury).

It’s particularly shocking given that suicide is notoriously underreported.

“We don’t really know the extent of the problem,” says Roseanne Pearce, a Senior Supervisor at Childline in the UK. “Because the coroner often won’t record it as suicide. Sometimes that’s at the family’s request, and sometimes it’s simply to protect the family’s feelings.”

In countries where stigma is particularly high, suicides are even less likely to be recorded than they are in the UK. And the poorest countries in the WHO’s report have very patchy data on births and deaths at all, let alone reliable detail on what caused those deaths.

In South East Asia, the problem is acute: self-harm kills three times more teenage girls than anything else. (The Eastern Mediterranean, which includes Pakistan and the Middle East, has the second highest rate.)

Professor Vikram Patel, a psychiatrist who was recently featured in Timemagazine’s 100 Most Influential People for his work in global mental health, is blunt in his diagnosis:

“The most probable reason is gender discrimination. Young women’s lives [in South East Asia] are very different from young men’s lives in almost every way.”

The male suicide rate in this age group is 21.41 per 100,000, compared with 27.82 for girls.

This is the age at which girls may be taken out of school and forced to devote themselves to domestic responsibilities, forgetting all other abilities or ambitions. Hitting puberty can mean no longer being allowed to socialise outside the home. Sometimes it can mean no longer being allowed out of the home at all. And, sometimes, it can mean forced marriage.

[…]

Rhea (not her real name) is 17 and has attempted suicide twice. “Porn was everywhere in my school,” she says. Her boyfriend Andy became “obsessed with it”.

She’d “made it clear,” she says, that she “wasn’t ready to have sex,” but one evening he sexually assaulted her in a park. The assaults became routine. Rhea did nothing.

“The constant talk about porn had made me feel like what was happening was normal,” she says. She uses that word repeatedly to describe her attitude towards Andy’s assaults: normal.

“I felt trapped, like everyone thought it was normal and I had to go along with it if I wanted to be accepted.” The pressure to conform to these perceived expectations was so great that, eventually, Rhea says, “I felt like there was no way out.” She tried to kill herself.

“The suicide attempt rate for young women in the UK is extremely high,” says Prof Patel. He believes “sexual pressure” is a significant factor in their unhappiness.

Roseanne Pearce agrees, adding that “sexting is another big issue among our callers. Girls become desperate, even suicidal, because they’ve sent a picture and it’s been posted online.”

There is also relentless pressure on Western girls look a certain way: to be thin and sexy. The boys at Rhea’s school constantly compared the girls’ bodies to women they saw in porn films, almost always negatively.

[…]

But, he says, “groups that have less power” tend to be most vulnerable - suicide rates are consistently higher among the unemployed, and the economically or socially marginalised.

Young women in parts of the Middle East and South East Asia are some of the most disempowered and marginalised people in the world.

Even in the West, adolescence is a time when girls feel their choices become restricted: that they must look and behave in certain ways to be accepted.

“Gender is a pervasive global issue,” says Prof Patel. And, as we’re somewhat belatedly realising, the consequences can be fatal.”

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Mindfulness - an ancient Buddhist approach to meditation - is attracting increasing attention in the 21st century as a non-invasive treatment for stress and depression. But can it improve mental wellbeing in young people?

Using electroencephalography (EEG) – a non-invasive method of...

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When you feel fed up …

1. Acknowledge how you feel – as it’s better to be real than to stuff your emotions and pretend that things are fine.

2. Encourage someone else … and see the difference it makes. It will not just help them, you will feel much better, too.

3. Get some exercise. Exercise releases the “feel good” hormones (endorphins) so you’ll feel less depressed, and you’ll have more energy.

4. Set some short term goals, and then work to reach those goals. There’s nothing like success for improving how we feel.

5. Focus on the things that you naturally do well – to remind yourself, again, of your talents and your strengths.

6. Talk to a friend. There nothing worse than feeling isolated and alone. But spending time with others can raise your self-esteem. Also, it puts things in perspective - so your problems start to shrink.

7. Reward yourself, or do something you enjoy. You deserve to be nurtured, affirmed and treated well. When you’re battling your feelings you need that extra lift.

8. Journal how you feel. It’s highly therapeutic to express what’s on your mind - and when it’s out in the open it starts to lose its hold.

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So, I meant to make this post the other day, but I’m doing it now so it’s all ok. If you have access to whatever devices use google play store apps, you should check this out!

This app is called DBT911 and it’s got three sections (which is shown in the pictures) with buttons that have a skill or a diary card (which you can save each day), etc. You can put in your own safety plan in the crisis list button too, with your contacts and things that you personally need to do to stay safe.

It’s really simple to use, all it is is the buttons and then the information is listed in bullet points after you hit one of the buttons. 

It’s also really helpful when you need help calming down or need a reminder to look at your thoughts differently.

It’s free, it’s really simple to use, and I find it helpful

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An Epidemic of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

A veteran dies by suicide every 80 minutes 228,875: number of U.S. troops who’ve served in either Iraq or Afghanistan with PTSD 7: percent of American population who are vets But they account for 20 percent of suicides in America

Since 2001: 1.5 million new vets 50,409 wounded in action Most common diagnosis of the 1.5 million vets • Musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases: 476,763 • Mental disorder: 444,551 (239,174 with diagnosed PTSD) • Nervous system or sense organ diseases: 378,428 834,467: number of vets needing VA health care 55 percent of vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan sought veteran’s health care. $600 million: approximate amount VA spent on treating PTSD in 2013 50,000 new veterans were diagnosed with PTSD during 2012, In the last three months of 2012, the national average of new military PTSD cases reached 184 per day. Nearly 20 %: of female Iraq, Afghanistan female vets have PTSD

80: approximate number of names for the condition (now called PTSD) since ancient times

Below is a PTSD timeline • In the Bible, King Saul committed atrocities, flew into violent rages. “The spirit of God left him, and an evil spirit sent by the Lord tormented him.” (Samuel 16:14). • 1678: Swiss Physicians identify ‘Nostalgia’ (melancholy, disturbed sleep or insomnia, anxiety, cardiac palpitations) • 1861-1865: U.S. military physicians document stresses of Civil War soldiers • 1905: ‘Battle shock’ is regarded as a legitimate medical condition by the Russian Army • 1917-1919: Distress of soldiers attributed to ‘shell shock’ during WWI • 1939-1945: Terminology changes to ‘combat exhaustion’ during WWII • 1969: Concept: ‘Vietnam combat reaction’ • 1980: PTSD by name is diagnosed. • 2008: Popular media. Grey’s Anatomy introduces a character with combat-related PTSD

Factors that can increase the likelihood of PTSD: • The intensity of the trauma • Being hurt or losing a friend (combat buddy) • Being physically close to the traumatic event • Feeling you were not in control • Having a lack of support after the event

Traumatic experiences in the military include: • Seeing dead bodies • Sexual harassment • Being shot at • Loneliness • Killing people • Being ambushed • Worrying about family • Getting hit by mortar fire

PTSD symptoms 
Some common symptoms of PTSD include: Nightmares
, Flashbacks
, Memory and concentration problems
, Hyperarousal
, Hypervigilance
, Intrusive memories
, Avoidance
, Abnormal startle responses
 and Feeling worse when reminded of trauma.

Without treatment, PTSD can lead to: • Alcohol and drug abuse • Reliving terror • Heart attacks • Depression • Dementia • Stroke • Suicide

But combat trauma is not the only cause of PTSD: • Abuse • Mental • Physical • Sexual • Verbal (i.e., sexual and/or violent content) • Catastrophe • Harmful and fatal accidents • Natural disasters • Terrorism • Violent attack • Animal attack • Assault • Battery and domestic violence • Rape • War, battle, and combat • Death • Explosion • Gunfire

The main treatments for people with PTSD are: • Psychotherapy (“talk” therapy), • Medications • Or both

(Source: http://www.onlinemilitaryeducation.org/ptsd/)

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signs and symptoms

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Can’t touch this

I was recently asked by a comrade how the perception of touch worked. In order to shed light on the subject, we have to understand some basics. 

Within the plasma membrane of animal cells there exists several types of ion channels. These include:

Voltage gated, which respond to changes in membrane potential as a result of changes in ion concentrations within and outside of the cell

Ligand gated, which respond to the binding of a chemical species (such as neurotransmitters) to an active site on the receptor (which changes its shape, or confirmation, and allows ions to physically enter or ext the cell)

Mechanically gated, which open in response to physical stress/forces

When discussing the perception of touch, pressure, vibration, and cutaneous tension, there are four major types of encapsulated mechanoreceptors (mechanically gated ion channels) involved. These include:

Meissner’s corpuscles

Pacinian corpuscles

Merkel’s disks

Ruffini’s corpuscles

The ion channels in the sensory dendrites in a Meissner’s corpuscle for example, are mechanically gated ion channels. When a physical force is applied, the gated ion channels open, and ions flow through channel causing a change in the membrane potential. This type of change of membrane potential, which occurs only in sensory dendrites, is called a receptor potential.

The center of the capsule contains one or more afferent nerve fibers that transmit the resulting rapidly generated action potentials to the central nervous system for processing.

Truly a touching subject, don’t you think?

Fun fact, that second source contains a really good interactive demo

Sources:

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10895/

2. http://courses.washington.edu/conj/neuron/receptor.htm

3. http://cnx.org/contents/401af334-2930-4731-ba9a-14a346326e63@5/The_Action_Potential

4. http://www.bio.miami.edu/tom/courses/bil255/bil255goods/15_mempot.html

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Coffee addiction is a relatively new phenomenon (yes, I’m looking at you, university students), and has been accommodated by the increase in coffee based fast food chains such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts which in turn has led to the so-called ‘coffee culture’ as coffee drinking becomes a national habit. This infographic explores how caffeine works and the effects it has on you and your brain when it becomes part of your daily routine.

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