Πορνογραφία: απόλαυση ή εξάρτηση?

Aρκετές είναι οι έρευνες που έχουν βρει θετική συσχέτιση μεταξύ της υπέρμετρης χρήσης πορνογραφίας, αυνανισμού, αποχής από το σεξ ή υπερσεξουαλικότητας. Πολλοί, όμως, είναι και εκείνοι που αναφέρουν πως ο αυνανισμός (που μπορεί να γίνεται με χρήση πορνογραφικού υλικού), είναι μία συμπεριφορά αποφόρτισης και αγχόλυσης από την καθημερινότητα.


Στις περιπτώσεις που η πορνογραφία χρησιμοποιείται ως μέσο για μεγαλύτερη ευχαρίστηση στη σεξουαλική επαφή, τότε όντως η χρήση της μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε μεγαλύτερη απόλαυση. Όταν όμως το άτομο δεν μπορεί να λειτουργήσει χωρίς το πορνογραφικό υλικό, τότε εγκλωβίζεται και καθηλώνεται. Η απόλαυση αντικαθίσταται από καταχρηστικές συμπεριφορές, που είναι σηματοδότες αρκετών επιπτώσεων για τη σεξουαλική υγεία του ατόμου.

Πότε συμβαίνει αυτό?
Όταν το άτομο κυνηγά την ευχαρίστηση, για να μειώσει την εσωτερική του δυσφορία.
Όταν το άτομο δεν δύναται να παρεμποδίσει αυτή τη συμπεριφορά (αδυναμία ελέγχου της συμπεριφοράς).
Όταν η συμπεριφορά συνεχίζεται, παρά τις αρνητικές συνέπειές της (συναισθηματική- σεξουαλική απομόνωση, υπερσεξουαλικότητα με δυσφορικά συναισθήματα).

Οι κυριότερες επιπτώσεις είναι:


Συναισθήματα ενοχής, ανησυχίας και ντροπής
Έκπτωση της λειτουργικότητας (παραμέληση υποχρεώσεων, κακή ποιότητα ύπνου), αφού το άτομο καταναλώνει πολλές ώρες από την καθημερινότητά του λόγω της κατάχρησης
Προβλήματα στη σχέση
Αδυναμία απόλαυσης της σεξουαλικής επαφής
Λανθασμένες προσδοκίες γύρω από την εικόνα σώματος του/ της συντρόφου.
Αδυναμία εύρεσης συντρόφου
Χαμηλή αυτοεκτίμηση

Η εξάρτηση από την πορνογραφία ενδέχεται να παρατηρηθεί σε μία περίοδο που το άτομο νιώθει απομονωμένο, έχει αισθήματα ανίας, λύπης ή διανύει κάποια περίοδο έντονου άγχους. Μπορεί, επομένως, να συμβεί στον καθένα.




Αρχικά, έχει νόημα η αναγνώριση των συναισθημάτων «πώς με κάνει εν τέλει να νιώθω η χρήση πορνογραφίας?», «είναι πραγματική αυτή η απόλαυση?». Οι συμπεριφορές που υιοθετεί το άτομο φαίνεται να παίζουν σημαντικό ρόλο στο πόσο παρατείνεται η περίοδος της κατάχρησης. Η εύρεση εναλλακτικών τρόπων «αποφόρτισης» των αρνητικών συναισθημάτων και η παρεμπόδιση της συμπεριφοράς, αν είναι καταναγκαστική και συνοδεύεται από «πρέπει». Λόγου χάρη,
Η εύρεση ενός «σχεδίου δράσης», όταν η εξάρτηση χτυπήσει την πόρτα.
Η υπενθύμιση των επιπτώσεων μπορεί να είναι ένας ακόμα παράγοντας κινητοποίησης.
Η αυτοπαρατήρηση, είναι μία σημαντική κατευθυντήρια οδηγία. Πότε δηλαδή είναι περισσότερες οι πιθανότητες να καταφύγω στο πορνό, τι συμβαίνει τότε και πώς αλλιώς μπορώ να το διαχειρισθώ.

Αξιοσημείωτο θα ήταν να αναφερθεί και η αξία της ψυχοθεραπευτικής υποστήριξης. Πρόσφατες έρευνες έδειξαν την ψυχοθεραπεία με στοιχεία αποδοχής και αυτοσυμπόνοιας (ACT= Acceptance Commitment Therapy), ως την πλέον καταλληλότερη για την αναγνώριση των σκέψεων, των συναισθημάτων και των συμπεριφορών τους. Η θεραπεία επιτρέπει στα άτομα να συσχετίζονται με ό,τι τους συμβαίνει (καθημερινές εμπειρίες), με διαφορετικό τρόπο ανασυνθέτοντας τις πεποιθήσεις που διαιωνίζουν την ανεπιθύμητη συμπεριφορά, ενώ ερευνητικά τα αποτελέσματα έχουν επικυρώσει τους θετικούς προγνωστικούς παράγοντες και μετά το πέρας της θεραπείας.

Η παρακολούθηση πορνογραφίας, αραιά ή μαζί με τον/ την σύντροφο δεν αποτελεί ένδειξη ανησυχίας. Αν, όμως, έχετε προσπαθήσει να σταματήσετε και δεν μπορείτε, ένας εξειδικευμένος επαγγελματίας ψυχικής υγείας με εμπειρία στη θεραπεία καταναγκασμών, εθισμών και σεξουαλικών δυσκολιών είναι η λύση. Η θεραπεία θα σας βοηθήσει να απαλλαγείτε από τις δυσλειτουργικές συμπεριφορές και να βελτιώσετε την ποιότητα ζωής σας!




Πηγή: 

https://www.askitis.gr/latest/view/%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1-%CE%B1%CF%80%CF%8C%CE%BB%CE%B1%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B7-%CE%AE-%CE%B5%CE%BE%CE%AC%CF%81%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%83%CE%B7(accessed 29.9.21)

Fraumeni-McBride, J. (2019). Addiction and mindfulness; pornography addiction and mindfulness-based therapy (ACT). Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 1-12.

There’s Surprisingly Little Evidence Behind Common Beliefs About The Best Way For Immigrants To Adapt

By Emma Young

The world is full of migrants — not only refugees from places like Afghanistan and Syria, but also people who have travelled to study, or to work in another country. In fact, 281 million people live outside their country of birth or citizenship. They face all kinds of challenges, and adapting well to life in a new culture is a critical one.

Current thinking holds that what an immigrant does is important for how well they adapt both psychologically and socially. A combination of maintaining one’s own culture while also engaging in the mainstream culture is widely held to be the best strategy. This idea, known as integration or biculturalism, has informed advice and also policy-making. But a major study in Psychological Science now argues that it is wrong. In fact, report Kinga Bierwiaczonek and Jonas Kunst at the University of Oslo, there is only “miniscule” evidence that any culture-oriented strategy adopted by an immigrant affects how well they adapt. As the pair writes, with some understatement: “In a world in which virtually every modern society is culturally diverse, our findings have considerable implications.”

Psychologists have identified four “acculturation styles”: integration, assimilation (which entails giving up the heritage culture), separation (maintaining the heritage culture and not adopting aspects of the new culture) and marginalisation (neither maintaining the heritage culture nor adopting the mainstream culture).

The idea that integration is best dates back to the early 1990s. In 1997, John Berry, then at the universities of Bergen and Oxford, wrote a highly influential paper in which he concluded that psychological and sociocultural adaptation “are usually predicted by the successful pursuit of the integration acculturation strategy.”

However, the vast majority of studies supporting this idea are correlational, write Bierwiaczonek and Kunst. This leaves open the possibility that there could be other explanations — perhaps, for example, it’s more cognitively challenging to maintain aspects of one’s own culture while also adopting aspects of the new one, and more cognitively able immigrants also adapt better.

The pair also has concerns about the way some of the data has been analysed. An influential meta-analysis of mostly these correlational studies, which supported the integration hypothesis, used a statistical approach that Bierwiaczonek and Kunst feel could allow for misinterpretations.

When they re-analysed these 83 studies, on a total of more than 23,000 participants, they reached a different conclusion: “acculturation has a very limited association with adaptation”.

The pair then conducted a meta-analysis of 19 exclusively longitudinal studies on just under 7,000 people. (This included children and adolescents as well as adults who had moved to countries such as the UK, US, Germany, Hong Kong and Finland.) Because these studies included measures of acculturation and also adaptation (such as symptoms of depression, mood, school performance and social relationships) over time, they should in theory provide a clearer picture of any links between a strategy and adaptation. Bierwiaczonek and Kunst’s analysis did reveal some effects of acculturation strategy on adaptation — but they were “inconsistent and approached zero.” In other words, no helpful conclusions could be drawn from them.

Bierwiaczonek and Kunst argue that it might be better for policy-makers and support organisations to look to other factors known to influence an immigrant’s wellbeing, such as discrimination in the community, language barriers and social support. As they point out, “This generally puts more of the burden of successful adaptation on the receiving societies than on migrants themselves.”

The findings have implications for future research in this area, too. They suggest that further correlational studies would be of little help. “The field of acculturation should move on to primarily relying on investigations that utilize experiments as well as rigorous longitudinal methods,” Bierwiaczonek and Kunst argue. Given that the wellbeing of millions of people — including many vulnerable children and adults — is at stake, surely this can’t come too soon.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/09/28/theres-surprisingly-little-evidence-behind-common-beliefs-about-the-best-way-for-immigrants-to-adapt/#more-43943(accessed 29.9.21)

Immature Jokes: What Kids’ Humour Can Tell Us About Their Ability To Empathise

By Emma L. Barratt

There’s nothing less funny than explaining a joke. But analysing humour can actually tell us a lot about the development of sympathy and empathy in children.

Having a joke land is a complex task which requires an in-depth understanding of both the situation and mental state of the person on the receiving end. One audience, for example, might find a joke hilarious, whereas another might find that same joke wildly offensive.

Zeroing in on the appropriate joke, therefore, is likely to require a good amount of empathy. This ability to imagine the thoughts and feelings of your audience is pivotal to humour being well-received, but the relationship between humour and empathy has only been addressed in a handful of studies so far. However, new research from Caitlin Halfpenny and Lucy James at Keele University gives us a window into how empathy shapes humour by taking a look at junior schoolchildren’s use of jokes, and the different humour styles that emerge with different levels of empathy and sympathy.

The team asked 214 junior school children aged between 9 and 11 years old to complete two self-report questionnaires. The first, the Humour Styles Questionnaire for young children (HSQ-Y), was used to identify which of four types of humour style the kids use: self-enhancing and affiliative, which are both adaptive humour styles, and aggressive and self-defeating humour, which are considered maladaptive. The second measure, the Thinking and Feeling Questionnaire (TFQ), looks at cognitive and affective empathy, as well as sympathy. Cognitive empathy can be thought of as intellectually understanding the perspective of another person, whereas affective empathy is the ability to feel congruent emotions in response to the conditions of others.

Analyses found that self-enhancing humour, which is used to relieve tension, boost mood, and overcome hardship, was the only style identified to be positively correlated with both types of empathy and sympathy. Kids who displayed this style, the authors suggest, are able to take on the perspective of their audience, understand their emotions, and sympathise with them.

The affiliative humour style, which primarily takes the form of humour to facilitate social interaction by amusing others, was found to positively correlate with just cognitive empathy, but not affective empathy or sympathy. This may reflect varying levels of cognitive development in this age group — it may be that the ability to sympathise had not yet fully developed in the children using this humour style.

As might be expected, aggressive humour was negatively correlated with measures of both affective empathy and sympathy, consistent with previous research on adults. Children who score low on these measures may be unable to appreciate the views and emotions of the audience, and thus struggle to adjust humour accordingly. Interestingly, displaying this maladaptive type of humour may limit the opportunities children have to socialise, giving them less of a chance to develop more adaptive humour styles.

Standing somewhat alone amongst the four styles, self-deprecating humour was not correlated with either measure of empathy. This may be due to the fact that this style focuses inward, rather than being concerned with the emotions and situations of others, or indeed what they’ll find funny. However, the authors note that some children in this age range may be unable to self-report on this style, as they don’t fully grasp what self-deprecating humour encompasses.

Humour styles also varied significantly between genders: boys were more likely to report using aggressive humour styles than girls, and were less likely to score highly in affective empathy. The exact reasons for these gender differences weren’t probed in this study.

These patterns of relationship between humour styles, empathy, and sympathy are a wonderful illustration of the complexity of social interactions at this age. More developed empathy and sympathy seem to give rise to self-enhancing humour styles, which are in turn associated with a number of benefits, such as social intimacy, high self-esteem, and lower levels of depression and anxiety. As such, children who have fully developed their empathy and sympathy skills may have more positive social interactions. In much the same way, less development in these domains may lead to maladaptive humour styles, which could alienate the children using these styles from their peers, and further inhibit their empathetic and sympathetic development. It’s possible that identifying such humour patterns and providing support for empathetic and/or sympathetic growth in children who often use them, therefore, may help them on their way to more adaptive social strategies.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/09/23/immature-jokes-what-kids-humour-can-tell-us-about-their-ability-to-empathise/#more-43919(accessed 27.9.21)

Domestic Violence Increased During Lockdown In The United States

By Emily Reynolds

From the very beginning of the pandemic, activists and charities raised concerns that lockdown could be having an impact on domestic violence. Women’s Aid noted that home is often an unsafe environment for those experiencing abuse, while earlier this year Refuge stated that they’d seen a 60% increase in monthly calls to their National Domestic Abuse helpline.

A new study, published in Psychology of Violence, looks at rates of intimate partner violence during the pandemic in the United States. Like data from the UK, it suggests that domestic violence increased during lockdown — and that this was particularly linked to stress.

Participants were 510 adults based in the United States, all of whom had been in a relationship for at least six months and had consumed at least one alcoholic drink in the month prior to the study’s start. On average they had spent six days a week with their partner during lockdown. After sharing demographic data, participants completed a measure of Covid-19 related stress, indicating how much the pandemic had impacted their life or behaviour, and whether they had experienced physical, psychological, social, economic or health-related stressors in its wake. They also shared how much alcohol they had been consuming in terms of both frequency and quantity.

Next, participants completed a measure related to psychological and physical abuse, which assessed the perpetration of intimate partner aggression in the six months prior to lockdown, and since lockdown measures began. Psychological aggression was measured with four items, with participants responding with yes or no answers to the following questions: “I yelled at my partner”, “I sulked from my partner”, “I insulted or called my partner names” and “I made threats to my partner”. Physical aggression was measured with two items: “I threw things, kicked or hit something” and “I pushed, grabbed, or hit my partner”.

Overall, participants reported perpetrating more acts of psychological and physical aggression after lockdown began, compared to pre-pandemic. Participants who experienced more Covid-related stress were also more likely to be psychologically or physically aggressive towards their partners. But, contrary to expectations, the relationship between stress and physical aggression was only seen among those who consumed relatively few alcoholic drinks, and not among heavy drinkers.

A closer look at the data showed that heavy drinkers tended to have relatively high rates of physical aggression, which didn’t change with pandemic-associated stress. Those who drank less, on the other hand, showed relatively low rates of aggression when they reported low Covid stress, but when they were more stressed about Covid, they perpetrated intimate partner aggression at the same level as these already aggressive participants.

In addition to individual interventions designed to reduce domestic abuse, the team suggests that wider policies that relieve stress could also reduce intimate partner aggression. “Most people wouldn’t think about intimate partner violence as a reason to offer an economic relief package, but our data suggest that it has potential to be an effective measure,” said lead author Dominic Parrott. “The data also suggest that typical high-risk groups are not the only ones at risk of perpetrating violence in this kind of crisis environment. The stress of the pandemic is so profound and so ubiquitous that you need interventions or policies that hit big swathes of the population.”

Several questions still remain. Firstly, it was not clear whether or not participants had consumed alcohol prior to perpetrating intimate partner aggression, which may offer vital insights. Secondly, the short physical and psychological aggression measures may have excluded certain behaviours that could have increased during the pandemic, including less extreme examples that nonetheless impacted on people’s lives. And, finally, insights were self-reported. Whether participants accurately or honestly represented their relationship with their partner is not clear.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/09/15/domestic-violence-increased-during-lockdown-in-the-united-states/#more-43670(accessed 21.9.21)

We’ve Neglected The Role Of “Psychological Richness” When Considering What Makes A Good Life, Study Argues

By Emma Young

What is it that makes someone feel that theirs is a “good life”? Of all the ideas put forward over the past few millennia, two are most often extolled and researched today. The first is hedonistic wellbeing, often called simply “happiness”, which is characterised by plenty of positive emotions and general life satisfaction. The other is “eudaimonia” — feeling that your life has meaning and that you are realising your potential. Now in a new paper in Psychological Review, Shigehiro Oishi at the University of Virginia and Erin Westgate at the University of Florida suggest that we’ve been missing something: “psychological richness”.

A psychologically rich life is one that is characterised by a variety of interesting and perspective-changing experiences. In their paper, the pair presents a vast array of initial evidence in favour of the idea that this concept belongs alongside happiness and meaning as a third major dimension of wellbeing.

In one early study, 500 students reported on the extent to which a series of characteristics described their lives. Some were related to happiness (“enjoyable”, for example), some to meaning (such as “fulfilling”), and some to what the researchers felt related, positively or negatively, to the notion of psychological richness. This last group included “interesting” and “dramatic”, and also “uneventful” and “monotonous”. The results suggested that happiness, meaning and richness are indeed three distinct factors. “Psychometrically, psychological richness cannot be reduced to an aspect of meaning or happiness,” Oishi and Westgate write. They also analysed the adjectives used in a few hundred obituaries published in newspapers in the US and Singapore. Again, their analysis showed that the words could be grouped into these three distinct dimensions.

Further studies found that psychological richness, happiness, and meaning also all show distinct patterns of association with personality traits and socioeconomic status. Data from participants in the US, India and Korea all suggested that the traits of openness and extraversion are both associated with leading a psychologically rich life, while socioeconomic status (SES) is not. However, SES, along with extraversion and conscientiousness, was linked to happiness. Feelings of meaning weren’t associated with any particular pattern of Big Five scores.

Because psychological richness is associated with unexpectedness, novelty, complexity and perspective change, Ohio and Westgate reasoned that certain types of experiences might enhance it. And indeed, they found that students who went to study abroad developed significantly higher psychological richness scores than those who had stayed on campus. (Their initial scores had been similar; and their scores for happiness and meaning did not change.) It seems, then, that aspects of both personality and life experience can make for a psychologically richer life.

Yet further studies highlight distinct links between each of these three factors and people’s outlook more broadly: people who reported having happy or meaningful lives tended to report preferring to maintain social order and the status quo; they were more politically conservative. In contrast, those with psychologically richer lives were more in favour of social change; they were more politically liberal.

Of course none of this establishes that anybody actually feels that a psychologically rich life is a good life. But when Oishi and Westgate asked participants from nine different countries to describe their ideal lives by choosing from a list of features associated with a happy, meaningful or psychologically rich life, overall they chose elements from all three. When asked which they would go for if they could only choose one type of life, most chose happy, meaningful came second and psychologically rich came last. However, as the team notes, there was a “substantial minority” of participants — ranging from 7% in Singapore to 17% in Germany — who would opt for a psychologically rich life above a happy or a meaningful one. For this group, at least, this most defines a “good life” for them.

Feeling happy and that your life has meaning are both associated with better health and relationships. But why should someone desire psychological richness? From an evolutionary perspective, such people might cope better in more difficult, changing environments. For an individual, a desire for psychological richness could protect against boredom. And, the researchers suggest, it may also help people to cope with difficulties in life, and even tragedy. Someone who values the perspective change that a difficulty can bring “may find value in experiences and lives that are not otherwise happy or meaningful,” the pair writes.

Oishi and Westgate stress that they are not suggesting that psychological richness, happiness and meaning are wholly independent of each other — or indeed there are only three components of a good life (as there could be more). They also readily concede that a lot more work is needed to better understand the importance of psychological richness.

However, the finding that a significant cluster of people from a variety of countries would rather have a psychologically rich life than a happy or meaningful one alone surely makes it worthy of much more attention. Overall, the pair argues, the “addition of psychological richness broadens, deepens and enriches empirical research on a good life.”

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/09/14/weve-neglected-the-role-of-psychological-richness-when-considering-what-makes-a-good-life-study-argues/#more-43662(accessed 15.9.21)

Υπερσεξουαλικότητα

Ως υπερσεξουαλικότητα ορίζεται η επαναλαμβανόμενη, έντονη ασχολία του ατόμου με σεξουαλικές φαντασιώσεις, ορμές και συμπεριφορές που έχουν αρνητικές συνέπειες στην ζωή και καθημερινότητά του. Οι τομείς που επηρεάζονται ιδιαίτερα είναι η διαπροσωπική , κοινωνική και επαγγελματική ζωή του. Στο παρελθόν αυτό το μοτίβο συμπεριφοράς έχει αποτυπωθεί ως νυμφομανία για τις γυναίκες, δονζουανισμός και σατυρομανία για τους άνδρες. Άλλοι όροι που χρησιμοποιούνται για να περιγράψουν αυτό το μοτίβο συμπεριφοράς είναι ο σεξουαλικός εθισμός, η ερωτομανία και η καταναγκαστική σεξουαλική συμπεριφορά. Αν και η υπερσεξουαλικότητα δεν είναι ακόμη διαγνωσμένη ψυχική διαταραχή, έχουν γίνει προσπάθειες εισαγωγής της στο 5ο Διαγνωστικό και Στατιστικό Εγχειρίδιο Ψυχικών Διαταραχών χωρίς επιτυχία. Επιπλέον, στο προσχέδιο της 11 έκδοσης του εγχειριδίου της Διεθνούς Ταξινόμησης των Ασθενειών, η υπερσεξουαλικότητα έχει συμπεριληφθεί ως καταναγκαστική σεξουαλική συμπεριφορά στις διαταραχές ελέγχου των παρορμήσεων μαζί με την πυρομανία, κλεπτομανία κ.α..

Η υπερσεξουαλικότητα μπορεί να εμφανίζεται μέσω:
καταναγκαστικού αυνανισμού
υπέρμετρης χρήσης πορνογραφικού υλικού
σεξουαλικής συνεύρεσης με συναινούντες ενήλικες
διαδικτυακού σεξ
τηλεφωνικού σεξ
επισκέψεων σε οίκους ανοχής, strip clubs, κ.α..

Οι επιπτώσεις της υπερσεξουαλικότητας είναι πολλές φορές δυσβάσταχτες. Η διάλυση της οικογένειας, η κοινωνική απομόνωση, η απόλυση από την εργασία, η οικονομική καταστροφή και τα νομικά ζητήματα που πιθανώς προκύψουν, εμπίπτουν στο εύρος των επιπτώσεων αυτών.



Επιδημιολογία





Λόγω της έλλειψης καθιερωμένων κριτηρίων διάγνωσης η επιδημιολογική μελέτη της υπερσεξουαλικότητας είναι δύσκολη. Κάποιες έρευνες όμως, δείχνουν ότι εμφανίζεται στο 3-6% του γενικού πληθυσμού.



Αιτιολογία





Οι αιτιολογικοί παράγοντες της υπερσεξουαλικότητας δεν είναι ακόμα γνωστοί. Κάποιες έρευνες έχουν υποδείξει το τραύμα κατά την παιδική και εφηβική ηλικία, τις δυσλειτουργικές σχέσεις με τους γονείς, κάποιες παθολογίες του εγκεφάλου και την διατάραξη του νευροβιολογικού συστήματος ως κύριους αιτιολογικούς παράγοντες της εμφάνισης της καταναγκαστικής σεξουαλικής συμπεριφοράς.



Συμπτώματα





Τα κριτήρια που είχαν προταθεί ως διαγνωστικά για την εισαγωγή της υπερσεξουαλικότητας στο 5ο Διαγνωστικό και Στατιστικό Εγχειρίδιο Ψυχικών Διαταραχών, ανέφεραν ότι:

Για τουλάχιστον 6 μήνες θα πρέπει να υπάρχει μια επαναλαμβανόμενη, μη παραφιλική, έντονη ασχολία του ατόμου με σεξουαλικές φαντασιώσεις, ορμές και συμπεριφορές που σχετίζεται με τέσσερα ή περισσότερα από τα παρακάτω:
Υπερβολική κατανάλωση χρόνου με σεξουαλικές φαντασιώσεις, ορμές και συμπεριφορές και στον σχεδιασμό ή εμπλοκή στις συμπεριφορές αυτές.
Επαναλαμβανόμενη εμπλοκή στη συμπεριφοράς ως απάντηση σε καταστάσεις δυσφορίας όπως: άγχος, καταθλιπτική σκέψη, ευερεθιστότητα και ανία.
Επαναλαμβανόμενη εμπλοκή στη συμπεριφοράς ως απάντηση σε στρεσσογόνα γεγονότα.
Επαναλαμβανόμενες ανεπιτυχείς προσπάθειες ελέγχου ή μείωσης των παραπάνω συμπεριφορών.
Παράβλεψη του κινδύνου σωματικής και συναισθηματικής βλάβης του εαυτού ή των άλλων.

Τα παραπάνω συμπτώματα θα πρέπει να προκαλούν κλινικά σημαντική δυσφορία στο άτομο και βλάβη της κοινωνικής, εργασιακής ή άλλων σημαντικών τομέων λειτουργικότητας που να σχετίζεται με την συχνότητα και την ένταση αυτών των σεξουαλικών φαντασιώσεων και ορμών και συμπεριφορών.

Αυτές οι σεξουαλικές φαντασιώσεις, ορμές και συμπεριφορές να μην εμφανίζονται ως άμεση ψυχολογική επίπτωση ουσιών, φαρμάκων, ιατρικής πάθησης ή επεισοδίου μανίας.

Το άτομο να είναι τουλάχιστον 18 ετών.



Θεραπεία





Ως ψυχολογικές μέθοδοι θεραπείας για την υπερσεξουαλική συμπεριφορά έχουν προταθεί:
οι ψυχοδυναμικές προσεγγίσεις
οι γνωστικές συμπεριφοριστικές προσεγγίσεις
οι ομαδικές θεραπείες
η οικογενειακή θεραπεία
η θεραπεία ζεύγους
η θεραπεία των 12 βημάτων απεξάρτησης

Η φαρμακευτική θεραπεία, εξατομικεύεται και αξιολογείται βάσει της κλινικής εικόνας των συμπτωμάτων, της ηλικίας του ασθενούς, του χρονικού ιστορικού, της ενσυναίσθησης αλλά και της συνεργασιμότητας του ιδίου με τον θεραπευτή του.

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.askitis.gr/services/view/%CF%85%CF%80%CE%B5%CF%81%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%BE%CE%BF%CF%85%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8C%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%B1(acessed 15.9.21)

People Are More Likely To Misread A Black Child As Angry When They Believe The Child Is Older

By Emily Reynolds

Research has found significant racial biases when judging the emotions of others. Black people are more likely to be misjudged as angry, for example, and recent research has suggested that even children are victims of this “anger bias”. Black children are also frequently subject to “adultification” — being perceived as older and more mature than White peers.

A new study explores the links between these two phenomena, finding that the older adults believe Black children to be, the more likely they are to (incorrectly) judge them to be angry too. Writing in Cognition and Emotion, Alison N. Cooke and Amy G. Halberstadt from North Carolina State University argue that such judgements could have serious consequences for Black children.

Participants, 152 parents from the US, viewed forty expressions on the faces of children, representing happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise, or fear, and had to indicate which emotion they saw (none of children made an angry expression, but participants were able to indicate that the emotion was one of anger). Participants were also shown still images of each of the forty children displaying a neutral expression and asked to indicate the age of the child.

While the race of the children did not make a significant difference to their perceived age, participants were more likely to incorrectly judge Black children to be angry, replicating previous research. And the interaction between the race of the child and their perceived age was also a predictor of anger bias — that is, the older participants believed a Black child to be, the more likely they were to mischaracterise them as angry. For White children, however, there was no such increase in mischaracterisation.

So although participants didn’t perceive the Black children to be any older as a group than the White children, they did perceive them as being angrier, particularly when they believed that a Black child as an individual was older. This may result in more serious consequences for older-seeming Black children than for their White counterparts. A best case scenario, the team argues, would be “confusion that individuals could attempt to clarify or ignore”. Other outcomes, however, could be incredibly serious: targeting by the police, suspension from school, or the perceiver getting angry or violent towards the child.

Future research could explore the perceptions of different demographics: how do police, teachers, or social workers perceive Black and White children, and what impact does it have on the way such children are treated? And how is perceived anger linked to other biases, like the weak bonds teachers feel towards students of colour, for example? “Our findings are important for anyone interacting with children, and particularly those in education and law enforcement,” Cooke says. “It really drives home that there is widespread bias in how Black children are viewed and that this can have significant consequences for their well-being.”

Looking at the psychological elements of systemic racism alone, without considering wider societal factors, is unlikely to cause wholesale change. Identifying and acknowledging them, however, is crucial to our understanding of the experiences young Black people have in the UK, US and beyond.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/09/06/people-are-more-likely-to-misread-a-black-child-as-angry-when-they-believe-the-child-is-older/(accessed 7.9.21)

Παιδική Σεξουαλικότητα

Η σεξουαλικότητα είναι μέρος της ανθρώπινης φύσης και όταν μιλάμε για παιδική σεξουαλικότητα αναφερόμαστε στην περίοδο από τη γέννηση ενός παιδιού ως και την ηλικία των δώδεκα χρόνων. Κατά τη διάρκεια αυτής της περιόδου, ένα παιδί διέρχεται από τέσσερα εξελικτικά στάδια, όπου και συντελείται η ανάπτυξή του σε βιολογικό, γνωστικό, συναισθηματικό και κοινωνικό επίπεδο.



Βασικά χαρακτηριστικά της ψυχοσεξουαλικής ανάπτυξης στην παιδική ηλικία




0–3 ετών: αυτόματη αναζήτηση ηδονής μέσα από ακούσιες αισθήσεις αυνανιστικού τύπου.
3–6 ετών: συνειδητή αναζήτηση ηδονής και αναγνώριση της ανατομίας του σώματος.
6-9 ετών: κατανόηση των διαφορών μεταξύ των δύο φύλων και ταυτοποίηση.
9-12 ετών: ντροπή, ερωτικοποίηση και αμηχανία γύρω από το σεξ – ανάγκη καθοδήγησης από τον ομόφυλο γονέα.

για περισσότερες πληροφορίες σχετικά με τα Στάδια Ψυχοσεξουαλικής Ανάπτυξης του Αγοριού μπορείτε να ανατρέξετε στην αντίστοιχη ενότητα

για περισσότερες πληροφορίες σχετικά με τα Στάδια Ψυχοσεξουαλικής Ανάπτυξης του Κοριτσιού μπορείτε να ανατρέξετε στην αντίστοιχη ενότητα



Ποια θα πρέπει να είναι η στάση των γονέων απέναντι στην σεξουαλικότητα της παιδικής ηλικίας;




Να αφιερώσουν χρόνο για να ακούσουν τα παιδιά
Να αφήσουν κατά μέρος τις δικές τους θέσεις και απόψεις και να δεχτούν τις πληροφορίες που τους δίνουν τα παιδιά τους
Να κατανοήσουν και να ενισχύσουν το ενδιαφέρον των παιδιών για το σώμα τους
Να φροντίσουν να ενημερωθούν σωστά γύρω από το πεδίο της σεξουαλικής αγωγής
Να είναι σε θέση να ανταποκριθούν στις ερωτήσεις των παιδιών, χωρίς αμηχανία και φόβο




Μπορείτε επίσης να προμηθευτείτε Δωρεάν από το χώρο μας, το βιβλίο του Δρ. Θάνου Ασκητή και των Επιστημονικών του Συνεργατών, με τίτλο «100 Ερωτήσεις – Απαντήσεις για το Γονιό, το Παιδί και τον Έφηβο», το οποίο παρέχει χρήσιμες πληροφορίες και κατευθύνσεις στους γονείς και στους εφήβους που ενδιαφέρονται για τη σεξουαλικότητά τους:

100 Ερωτήσεις & Απαντήσεις για το Γονιό, το Παιδί και τον Έφηβο

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.askitis.gr/services/view/%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE-%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%BE%CE%BF%CF%85%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8C%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%B1(accessed 2.9.21)

“Claim Your Dose”: How Text-Message Reminders Can Increase Uptake Of COVID-19 Vaccines

By Emma L. Barratt


Overcoming psychological barriers to vaccination remains a significant hurdle for COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Any given COVID-19 news feature will remind you that vaccine hesitancy is rife, especially in countries such as the United States. Compounding the issue further, even those who fully intend to get their jab can be forgetful or procrastinate, further hampering efforts to get shots in arms.


As such, it’s vital to develop an effective toolbox to make it as effortless and appealing as possible for patients to book and turn up for their appointments. And though they may seem insignificant, one of the most useful behavioural nudges we have at our disposal is the mighty reminder message.


Crafting the wording of a reminder that packs a punch is no easy feat. As with most things in psychology, individual differences can greatly affect the response to any given nudge. But, thanks to research from Hengchen Dai at UCLA and team, we now have a better impression of how text-message reminders can impact vaccine uptake, as well as how to word them.


Their study, published in Nature, describes two sequential randomised control trials on the topic. In the first study, the investigators recruited a massive 93,354 participants who had received an initial notification that they were eligible for their vaccine. The team randomly allocated participants in a 4:1 ratio to either a group that was sent a booking reminder text-message one day later, or a control group that received no reminder message.


Within the group that received the message, the authors looked at how different types of information provision and language affected uptake. All messages included two main points: a reminder of vaccine availability, and a link to an appointment scheduling website which allowed participants to book their slot right away. A subset of these also included language intended to induce a feeling of ownership over vaccines — specifically, the phrase “claim your dose”. This isn’t the first time this approach has been used; similar phrasing has been shown to increase uptake of flu vaccines.


To combat hesitancy and misunderstandings, a two-minute video aiming to dispel common vaccine misconceptions was also provided alongside a subsection of reminder messages, both with and without ownership induction phrases. Unfortunately, the authors note that only 21% of participants actually chose to watch it.


The team were interested in whether or not participants booked their vaccination appointment within six days following the first reminder, and whether they actually turned up and got their first dose within four weeks of the reminder. And they found that the messages worked: only 7.2% of those who didn’t receive a reminder booked within those six days, but this increased by 6.07 percentage points among those who received a reminder. Similarly, 13.89% of the non-reminder group had received their vaccine within four weeks, but this increased by 3.57 percentage points among those who received the text message.


Better yet, the reminders containing language inducing feelings of ownership over the vaccines appeared to be most effective, boosting appointment and vaccination rates by 6.83 and 4.13 percentage points, respectively, relative to those that received no reminder. This provides a strong endorsement for this type of phrasing in vaccination reminders.


Though these results are very promising, the study found no evidence to suggest that provision of information addressing vaccine hesitancy alongside these reminders was more effective at increasing uptake. However, given the small number of participants who actually watched the videos, this topic merits further investigation.


The second RCT (N=67,092) looked at additional reminder messages, sent eight days after initial vaccine eligibility to those who had not yet booked their first dose and may have been procrastinating or hesitant. The second, further reminder increased booking and vaccination rates by 1.65 and 1.06 percentage points, respectively, compared to those who didn’t get a second message.


Further studies will be needed to fully understand whether this approach holds across other cultures outside of California. Establishing a feeling of ownership over vaccination decisions may be more or less motivating in different countries, and even in different areas within the United States, which could significantly affect the potency of this approach. Within this study, at least, analyses suggest that these increases in uptake were not largely affected by race or age, which may be promising for wider application.


Overall, these findings inform the design of behavioural nudges for promoting health decisions. Not only are reminders clearly valuable tools in our arsenal, but wording that is crafted to induce feelings of ownership over vaccines appears to be particularly effective in increasing uptake. Adopting this as a standard approach for COVID-19 vaccine messaging in the USA, the authors estimate, could result in an additional 4.73 to 7.42 million people taking up the vaccine within a month of the reminder. In a moment where even small increases in vaccine uptake can have a tangible impact on the health of the population, research such as this serves to underline the impact that psychology can have when practically applied.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/08/26/claim-your-dose-how-text-message-reminders-can-increase-uptake-of-covid-19-vaccines/#more-43345(accessed 1.9.21)

We Think Anger Is A Sign Of Guilt — But It May Actually Be A Better Sign Of Innocence

By Emma Young

We’re famously bad at spotting lies (well, most of us are; skilled liars are better). That doesn’t stop us thinking we know when someone’s spinning us a line, of course. Now a new paper in Psychological Science reveals that we take an angry denial to be a sign that the accused is lying. And yet, Katherine A. DeCelles at the University of Toronto and colleagues also report, anger in response to a false accusation is in fact a sign of innocence.

In initial studies on more than 4,000 online participants, the team established that anger is consistently taken as a sign of guilt. This held across a variety of contexts, including a fictional courtroom situation with an accusation of armed robbery, and also scenarios involving accusations of infidelity and theft. In each case, the participants read about how the confronted individuals reacted, and made judgments about their guilt. Fictional people who’d made angry denials were taken to be guiltier than those who’d made “irritated” denials (characterised by a raised voice and less vehement protests), and they were in turn taken to be guiltier than those who’d calmly professed their innocence.

Perhaps, though, professionals who often have to make guilt judgements in their jobs react differently? A fresh study on 136 such people, including fraud investigators, police and lawyers, found this not to be the case. These participants judged that an employee described as having reacted angrily to an accusation of theft was guiltier than one who reacted calmly. In fact, the “angry” employee was considered just as guilty as a “silent” employee who’d refused to respond when confronted.

If anger actually is a sign of guilt then these results would suggest a useful clue to truthfulness, of course. However, in a subsequent study, participants who were asked to reflect on situations in their own lives reported feeling and also displaying more anger when they had been falsely vs justly accused of a misdeed. It didn’t matter whether the deed was trivial (taking a room-mate’s food, for example) or serious — cheating on a spouse, say, or workplace misconduct.

In a final study, participants took part in an in-person lab-based experiment in which some were falsely accused of making mistakes on a text-based task; this group reported feeling angrier than those who were correctly accused of making errors.

Overall, then, as the researchers write, anger does seem to be used as invalid cue of guilt while being a valid cue of innocence.

It’s important to understand what is — and isn’t — a genuine sign of innocence vs guilt in all kinds of situations, of course. But there are a few reasons to be cautious about drawing strong conclusions from this new work. For example: the “angry” denials that the participants read in the initial experiments were pretty angry, featuring explicit language and expressing outrage. Their anger level was a lot higher than that reported by participants in the latter studies in response to being falsely accused themselves. Even those who’d reflected on being falsely accused of a serious transgression did not report such extreme anger. Hamlet springs to mind, and Queen Gertrude’s classic line: “The lady doth protest too much…” An emotional over-reaction that doesn’t match the scale of an accusation might yet be a sign of guilt; at least, this paper doesn’t show that it isn’t.

However, it’s true that people who reacted with irritation were taken to be guiltier than those who responded calmly. So until more work is done in this area, it seems worth at least trying not to use someone’s anger level in response to an accusation as a sign of guilt.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/08/27/we-think-anger-is-a-sign-of-guilt-but-it-may-actually-be-a-better-sign-of-innocence/#more-43365(accessed 1.9.21)