Sunday, February 14, 2010

“The psychology of winning (Toronto Star)” plus 3 more

“The psychology of winning (Toronto Star)” plus 3 more

The psychology of winning (Toronto Star)

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 01:44 AM PST

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Canadian players pile on one another as a game ends in their victory over the United States during the gold medal game in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/AP FILE PHOTO

Imagine, if you will, an Olympics for laboratory rats. There would only be one significant event, wrestling, since that's pretty much the pastime of young rats, and bouts would follow the established pattern.

Early on, there's a lot of happy chirping. "They've got these sounds that indicate life is pretty damn swell," says Jaak Panksepp, a psychologist with the University of Washington who specializes in the connections between neuroscience and emotion.

As time wears on, however, the vocalizations gradually change. One of the rats will complain about how the match is going. "Play stops for a while and the animals have to renegotiate," says Panksepp.

The chirping duly returns and wrestling resumes until one pins the other.

All things being equal, the larger rat should be able to accomplish this feat at will, but that's not how it happens. Through repeated bouts, the larger one tends to win only 70 per cent of the time.

The interesting part is why.

It's not that the bigger rat is making a conscious decision to let the other rat win from time to time. Instead, he or she is responding to the complaining cries of the smaller rat on an emotional level and making adjustments.

But the result is the same. The smaller rat will stick around and happily initiate more wrestling the next afternoon. He knows he won't be uniformly crushed.

That isn't the case when the equation is changed. When a rat is made truly savage (courtesy of brain lesions) and then introduced to the group, his winner-take-all approach ensures he'll face a dearth of playmates.

"As soon as a normal rat is confronted with one of those, after one interaction, they just back away," says Panksepp. "No self-respecting rat will play with those companions."

The wrestling, he says, is really about learning how to engage with other rats, to give and take, and to form social bonds in an activity where winning is vastly less important than how you play the game.

So, if you took the savage rat out of the mix, the one determined to win at all costs, how would you hand out the medals at a rat Olympics?

Why, in other words, do we humans invest winning with so much more meaning and importance, strive to reach the podium at sometimes terrible cost?

The answer has to do with our brain. Winning is a mental construct.

"Animals don't conceptualize these things," says Panksepp. "Our cortex kind of pushes the concept of winning to the forefront and our social structures evolve around those issues.

"Those are culturally crafted. They're not evolutionarily endowed, at least not in the `quote' lower animals."

Why, then, are we humans different? What's the role and purpose, for us, of play, games and winning?

Wander by any schoolyard and you'll see dozens of kids playing at recess. From the curb, the scene might not look much different from what goes on between laboratory rats. There will be running, chasing, wrestling, lots of emotion, laughter and tears replacing the chirps and complaints of juvenile rats.

But as the kids get older, become more fully formed humans, an interesting thing starts to happen. Our brains become increasingly involved and play gets formalized into games. It's a profound shift, and ultimately about more than just setting out the rules of play.

Kids might `play' at Ring Around the Rosie, but is it a game? The answer, it turns out, is no – or at least not in the wake of a fittingly philosophical debate that gets us to the heart of why games matter.

The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously claimed that there is no clear, sharp-edged definition of a game, just a series of loose similarities.

That view more or less held sway until Bernard Suits happened along. A philosophy professor at the University of Waterloo, Suits decided to tackle Wittgenstein's challenge head on.

The result, in 1978, was The Grasshopper, a delightful sort of Aesop meets Plato exploration that clearly defines what makes a game a game. There are three parts to his definition.

The first is what Suits calls the `prelusory goal' – the aim of the game but something that can also be achieved outside the game. In golf, for instance, players strive to put a ball into a hole in the ground, but you could do that just by carrying the ball in your hand and placing it in the hole.

To be a game, you need prescribed rules about how to get that golf ball in the hole. And there's a curious thing about rules: They set out something less than the most efficient way of achieving that goal. So, no, you can't just carry the golf ball in your hand. You have to hit it with strange-looking clubs and play the course in the right order.

This, however, still isn't enough.

All of the players have to accept the rules, precisely because they make the game possible.

Or, as Suits sums up, playing a game is "the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."

In that definition, winning becomes important precisely because it makes the most out of the process of playing the game.

Ring Around the Rosie, in other words, isn't a game because there isn't a winner. It's no more a game that Swan Lake is a game; it's a choreographed dance, not a game.

"If you're trying to win the gold medal, you do all these complicated things, but you only get the value of getting the gold medal if you get the gold medal," says Thomas Hurka, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto.

"The activity doesn't have its full value unless it's goal is achieved."

But even if we don't win, or merely watch games as spectators, we still derive something valuable. The immediate goal of games might be trivial, such as putting a ball in a hole, but they also happen to be a cornerstone of what we think of as civilization.

When kids in the schoolyard agree to play a game by a specific set of rules, "that's a really sophisticated form of co-operation," says Jordan Bernt Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto.

No matter who wins, all the kids learn about rules and boundaries, to play within the game. As with the rats, there are life lessons involved, except they are learned intellectually not just emotionally. Winning might be a mental construct, but so, too, is a civil society.

Peterson thinks that, when parents tell their kids "it's not who wins by how you play the game," they actually mean, "if you play the game properly, people will invite you to play a lot of different games."

They're imparting a strategy that will give their kids a chance to win, at least sometimes, in a wider variety of playful outings. "Never sacrifice your ability to play many games to win one," says Peterson. "There's a profound morality there."

You see it in the outrage expressed when someone cheats or fails to follow the rules. Which is another way of saying we take games very seriously. We have to, of course, to play any game well.

"There's a kind of paradox in that," notes Hurka. "The goal in a game is completely trivial outside of the game."

As much as we might admire the gentlemanly take on a game – that it's the process of playing that's important, not the outcome – there are some key benefits to taking the game very seriously, even as spectators.

Winning tends to beget winning, or at least the expectation that you or your team will win again. Confidence and positive emotions flow from that, and they in turn have important health consequences, notes Peterson.

If we instead expect the worst, we tend to produce a lot of the stress hormone cortisol, which suppresses the immune system.

"If you're low in dominance, your brain is reading everything as an emergency and so what it does is take resources that would otherwise be used for medium and long-term survival and devotes them towards present emergency preparation," says Peterson.

"You just can't sustain that for any length of time without physiological degeneration."

As spectators, we derive much the same benefit.

Peterson gives the example of a gymnastics competition. The first gymnast comes out and gives a near-flawless performance. The second gymnast, having watched this unfold, then takes the floor. Knowing what's at stake, she pushes beyond her comfort zone.

"She's on the edge of her ability and flirting with danger," says Peterson. When she pulls it off, "everyone in the audience is on their feet, clapping like mad. It's just an instinctual reaction."

That's because there are really two things at work here. She's not just playing the game of gymnastics, she's extending her ability as a gymnast. "It gives you a chill," says Peterson, "and the reason is that this person is demonstrating not only mastery (of the game), but mastery of the process that makes mastery possible."

She is, in other words, pushing herself to the limits of human capacity, which is why we tend to root for underdogs fighting against overwhelming odds. It makes the narrative, and the victory, that much richer.

"We enjoy basking in the reflected glory," says Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, an associate professor of communications at Ohio State University who studies sports and entertainment.

"We like to connect with those who are winning and there's research showing our self-esteem gets a boost simply by watching our team win."

Does our self-esteem take a comparable dive when our team loses? Yes, but to a much lesser extent. We tend to cut off reflected failure and you see it in the way we talk about our teams. When your team wins, you'll say "we won." When the same team loses, "they lost."

But perhaps more importantly, says Knobloch-Westerwick, organized games help us cope with the wider world, navigate life. If underdogs never won, there weren't great narrative arcs and cheaters safely flourished everywhere, there wouldn't be much civility in life.

Games let us construct, intellectually, what the rats create emotionally: a kind of order. It's just that we need winners to give the process cognitive meaning.

Or, as Knobloch-Westerwick puts it:

"We like to assume that there is a just world out there, which is something you see in a lot of entertainment, that the good, deserving, well-intentioned people do have the good ending."

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UC grad knows how to get on 'Price is Right' (The Cincinnati Enquirer)

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 02:24 AM PST

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Leave it to a psychology major to figure out how to get picked to play games on "The Price Is Right."

Todd Troxell, 26, of Ross Township studied the production when he attended the show in August, after he earned a pre-med psychology degree from the University of Cincinnati.

When he returned to Los Angeles in December, for a show that aired Thursday, he was the second person asked to "come on down" and play a game. Here are his four tips:

"You need a unique shirt. I wore a yellow T-shirt that said, 'I need The Price Is Right Stimulus Package.'

"You need to be completely excited. I literally jumped up and down during my interview with producers before the taping. There is no level of excitement that is too much.

"You must be what I call Grandma Friendly, because that's the majority of the TV audience.

"You must have something unique about yourself, or a unique occupation. I told them about being a rescue scuba diver. ... Drew asked me about that on stage."

Troxell also told producers he was a Newport Aquarium volunteer who helped feed sharks by hand. And that he knew sign language.

The 2002 Badin High School grad won a Dish TV receiver, a TiVo and a plasma big screen. Then he lost on the "Cliff Hangers" game, and lost again when he spun the wheel for a shot at the final showcase.

DJ on mission at Daytona 500

We'll know if Jim Scott's mission at the Daytona 500 today was successful when he returns to his WLW-AM show 5-9 a.m. Tuesday.

The city's No. 1 morning radio personality wants to pay tribute to his late brother-in-law Bart Obano of Binghamton, N.Y.

"He was cremated, and I'm taking a small container of his ashes and I'm going to sprinkle them on the finish line," Scott says.

Obano, a NASCAR fan, was battling cancer when he accompanied Scott on his first trip to the 500 three years ago. Scott is at the race today with his wife, Donna.

"I'll talk about it on the radio Tuesday - if I'm not arrested," Scott says.

Survival reality show cast sought

Have you thought about how to survive after a nuclear holocaust? Then you might be a candidate for "The Colony," the Discovery Channel reality show about survivors of a major catastrophe.

An open casting call will be held 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at Fairfield Commons mall near Dayton, Ohio.

Cast members will live 50-70 days "with scarce resources and the absence of even the most basic of services," says casting director Michael Yates, a Dayton native. Find more information at www.metalflowersmedia .com.

Civil War camp on archaeology show

Fort Wright's Battery Hooper Civil War camp and the late 1800s Covington riverfront will be featured in "Kentucky Archaeology" Wednesday on the Kentucky Educational Network.

"Historic Archaeology: Beneath Kentucky's Fields and Streets" is the fifth episode from Cincinnati's Voyageur Media Group. It airs 10 p.m. Wednesday on KET2 (Channel 54.2; Time Warner Channel 981; Insight Channels 23 and 191.)

Around the dial

Jerry Springer hosts "WWE: Monday Night Raw" 9 p.m. Monday (USA).

Gold Star Chili will be featured on "Our Ohio" noon today on CET (Channel 48).

Q102, B105, Rewind 94.9 and Wolf 97.3 announcers spend Valentine's Day collecting nonperishable food, diapers, personal care products, warm weather clothes and cash for Matthew 25: Ministries to help Haiti earthquake victims noon-6 p.m. today at the Hyde Park Plaza Kroger store.

For more TV/media news, go to http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/

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About our teen driving series (The Mercury)

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 11:37 AM PST

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Quitting Smoking Especially Difficult For Select Groups (Medical News Today)

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 03:29 AM PST

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Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 14 Feb 2010 - 0:00 PST

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With the national trend toward quitting smoking flat, psychologists are finding some success with treatments aimed at helping smokers from underserved groups, including racial and ethnic minorities and those with psychiatric disorders.

In a special section of this month's issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, researchers report on several effective treatments that may help these smokers in an effort to increase national smoking cessation rates. The percentage of American smokers rose from 19.8 percent in 2007 to 20.6 percent in 2008, after a 10-year steady decline in smoking rates, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"One of the reasons smoking rates have remained stagnant is because these underserved groups of smokers have not been adequately targeted by research and treatment," said the special section editor, Belinda Borrelli, PhD, who is with the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at Brown University Medical School. Underserved smokers include those who have a 10 percent higher smoking rate than the general population, have less access to treatments, and are more likely to be excluded from long-term treatments trials, according to Borelli.

In one article, researchers found that success in stopping smoking differed for different psychiatric disorders. For example, compared to smokers with no psychiatric disorders, smokers who had an anxiety disorder were less likely to quit smoking six months after treatment.

In the same article, researchers found that people's barriers to quitting were directly related to what type of psychiatric disorder they had. For example, smokers who had ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder reported a strong emotional bond with their cigarettes while smokers ever diagnosed with a substance use disorder reported that social and environmental influences were especially likely to affect their smoking. "This information may help clinicians gauge relapse risk and identify treatment targets among smokers who have ever had psychological illnesses," said lead author Megan Piper, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Evidence-based smoking cessation treatments are addressed in another article in this special section. Researchers from the University of Miami looked at the effect of intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy on African-American smokers. They placed 154 African-American smokers wearing nicotine patches into one of two six-session interventions. Participants in the group using cognitive-behavioral techniques were taught relapse prevention strategies and coping skills, along with other techniques. The other group participated in a health education series that explained general medical conditions that are associated with smoking, such as heart disease and lung cancer.

Compared with general health education, participation in cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions more than doubled the rate of quitting at a six month follow-up, from 14 percent to 31 percent the researchers found. "We know cognitive-behavioral therapy helps people quit, but few studies have examined this treatment's effect on African-American smokers," said the study's lead author, Monica Webb, PhD, of the University of Miami. "Hopefully, our findings will encourage smoking cessation counselors and researchers to utilize cognitive-behavioral interventions in this underserved population."

Borrelli, the section editor, examined another minority group-Latinos. She measured the amount of second-hand smoke in participants' homes and gave feedback to smokers about how much smoke their child with asthma was exposed to. For example, they were told that their child was exposed to as much smoke as if the child smoked 'x' number of cigarettes him- or herself during the week of the measurement - this was the experimental group. Smokers in the control group underwent standard cognitive-behavioral treatment for smoking cessation. Smokers in the experimental group were twice as likely to quit as the control group, Borrelli found. "The child's asthma problems may provide a teachable moment for parents whereby they become more open to the smoking cessation messages," Borrelli said. "Providing treatment that is focused on the health needs of the family, and delivered in a culturally tailored manner, has the potential to address health care disparities for Latino families."

Special Section: "Smoking Cessation - Innovative Treatments and Understudied Populations," Section Editor: Belinda Borrelli, PhD, Brown University Medical School and Miriam Hospital; Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 78, No. 1.

Full text of the introduction to the special section available here.

Source
American Psychological Association (APA)

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