Reality TV: A danger to our mental health?

Over the last decade or so, reality TV has become increasingly popular, and a main source of entertainment for many.  I’ll be the first to admit I watch way more reality TV shows than is probably healthy, and I’m sure many of you can relate.  The list can go on forever, with popular shows such as Housewives, Jersey Shore, Dance Moms, and Honey Boo Boo, to name a few.  The question is whether or not constant viewing of these “reality” shows is becoming a danger to our mental health.  In this article, psychologist Reef Karim investigates the effect that reality TV can have on our minds.  Our obsession with reality TV first stems from the cast members themselves, who in most cases are just normal people trying to get their 15 minutes of fame and gain attention that they have desperately lacked.  For the viewers, watching these shows is a way for us to identify with these “real life” characters across our TV screens. 

According to the article, people who participate in reality TV shows are “cast” on the shows, and given tests to see if their personalities would attract viewers.  They are also screened and interviewed to see if they are psychologically able to handle being on the show.  However, if you screen out everyone who has some sort of personality disorder, it would not make for an entertaining show.  After the show is filmed and the adoration of the cast members has died down, the participants, especially those with predisposed mental health conditions, become mentally unstable after filming the show. 

On the side of the viewers, reality TV viewing becomes unhealthy when we begin living vicariously through the TV show participants, and when we don’t need stimulation or activity in our own lives because we are getting it from TV.  The article also suggests that our ability to connect with each other authentically and to deal with anger, conflict, and anxiety has been seriously challenged.  However, there could be a positive, educational side to reality TV viewing.  Certain shows may motivates us to go out and learn a new skill, or learn more about addiction or whatever the focus of the show is. 

So what do you think? Is reality TV a danger to our mental health, or a harmless means of education and motivation?

Can Scrapbooking Lead to Low Self-Esteem?

With recent technologies, the ability to photograph and film every aspect of life is at our fingertips. Scrapbooks and photo albums that were once dedicated to a full year's activities are now divided into monthly photos because the amount taken has increased. Facebook albums are uploaded more frequently, and photos are not simply taken at significant events, but just throughout everyday life.

This boom in photography and film has spiked the interest of children of younger ages, making them more susceptible to negative side affects. In this article published by the New York Times, the amount of photos taken of children in today's society is questioned. My little cousin is obsessed with my phone, constantly asking me to take pictures and videos of her on it. But is this preoccupation with personal photos reason for concern? According to the article it may appear to be beneficial that a child become aware of his or herself in relation to others, but many studies have shown that this self-awareness can also lead to self-consciousness and a host of other problems, from anxiety to vanity.


According to Dr. Alain Morin, a psychologist from Mount Royal University, "frequently being photographed and filmed likely induces self-awareness and thus self-evaluation, self-criticism, and may lead to other aversive consequences." Along with these issues, children constantly being filmed increases the likely hood for personality disorders because children, and adults, tend to behave differently in front of a camera. 

So is this world of documenting everything with photos and videos cause for concern? Should we not take as many pictures of little kids to capture their adorableness? Is it affecting them negatively? What do you think?

The Science of Sensation

 This Wednesday, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to two Americans, Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka, for their study of protein receptors that enable our cells to sense and respond to stimuli.

It was previously unknown how cells interacted with and adapted to the environment, like the activation of the fight-or-flight response, but scientists believed there was some type of receptor on cells. Now, Scientists Lefkowitz and Kobilka have discovered a whole family of mysterious G-protein-coupled receptors, on which many medications act. These receptors allow the body to sense chemical signals, and things like light, sound, and smell. This discovery will lead to the development of medications that act better on these receptor and are better able to fight diseases.

This discovery is also explained in the video below between 3:22 to 5:25, this is a little hard to follow, but still interesting if you want to know more about these proteins!

Some may hate the biochemical aspect of psychology while some may love it. What do you all think about the connection between chemistry and psychology? How important do you think the study other science is to psychology? Is psychology an interdisciplinary field?

                As winter approaches and the days begin to shorten, do you feel more tired, less motivated to carry out everyday activities, inclined to eat more or just sad?  No need to fret, these are all normal effects of SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD is a type of depression that begins in fall and ends in the late spring. In Seeking Light in the Refrigerator, Judith J. Wurtman says that “waking up in the dark, leaving work in the dark, and encountering gloomy, cloudy, overcast skies at lunchtime may have a dramatic effect on one’s quality of life” and that in can cause changes in mood, appetite and energy.

            The most prevalent symptom, according to Wurtman, is tiredness. Many people attribute it to little sleep, hectic schedules or an oncoming sickness. People may feel deprived of sleep and cannot sum up the energy to complete daily tasks rather they desire to just lounge on the couch. Other symptoms include a lackadaisical attitude towards work, a lack of interest in a social life and a desire to eat carbohydrates.

            Have you ever suffered from these symptoms, what was your experience? How do you keep your “winter blues” at bay? 

Phantoms in the Brain Videos

Below are the 2 videos we watched in class from Dr. V.S. Ramachandran. Ramachandran is the Director of Neuroscience and Psychology at UC San Diego.

How To Ruin A Marriage Without Even Trying

How many times have you heard that as you get older, you become more and more like your parents? Personality, as we previously discussed in class, is a biological trait we inherit from our parents. At the same time, the people in our environment influence our behavior. Therefore, parents have the most influence on shaping the behavior of their children because of both their genetic and environmental influences. So does that mean our relationships will model those of our parents? Chances are, it's pretty likely.

According to this article, children who are raised in homes with fighting parents are likely to engage in unhealthy relationships in adulthood, even more so than children whose parents have divorced and are living separately. Because parents are children's first and most influential role models, children learn interpersonal behaviors from observing their parents. If children learn behavior that is jealous, moody, and critical from their parents, they are much more likely to display those qualities in their own relationships.

This poses an interesting dilemma for feuding couples with the best interests of their children in mind. Many times, parents will stay together solely for the fact of not disrupting the normal, everyday lives of their children. Some couples feel that they would be able to provide a more stable home environment for their children through a loveless marriage than they would be able to should they divorce and force their children into lives of two bedrooms, two home routines, and split holiday schedules. On the other hand, parents may actually be hurting their children by exposing them to tumultuous marriages for the sake of trying to maintain a degree of normalcy in their lives.

To what extent are children's relationships influenced by their parents'? Is it better for fighting parents to divorce or stay together for the sake of their children? Is it more important for children to remain comfortable in the lives they are used in spite of a failing marriage or for parents to divorce at the expense of their children's stable home lives?

Your Bed Misses You

On this lovely three-day weekend we're having, I presume that most of you are looking forward to catching up on sleep above all else with this Monday off. Senior year has definitely come in at full throttle, with the balance of school, work, college applications, sports, etc., and it's hard to remember to fulfill our basic needs sometimes. I know I'm not alone in forgetting to shower, go to the gym, or even eat dinner sometimes. There simply aren't enough hours in the day for us and all our work. Unfortunately, the one that suffers the most as a result of our crazy schedules is usually our sleep cycles.

The National Sleep Foundation claims that teens our age should be aiming for eight-and-a-half to almost nine-and-a-half hours of sleep each night. My response to that was "Over eight hours?? My nights usually average five to seven hours! This is unrealistic." However, I am the first to admit, the morning after those five-hour nights, I am a zombie. I don't want to talk to anybody except the sacred Starbucks barista and his endless fountains of caffeine. My overall functioning that day is inhibited. And as the vicious cycle would have it, when I stress about not getting enough sleep, it just keeps me up at night even later.

In the article linked here, Siri Carpenter presents multiple sides of the argument. One side says that the less sleep we get, the lower our grades are. A statistic about car accidents is also included, attributing drowsiness and fatigue to the cause of around 100,000 accidents among  young drivers. Another doctors opinion, however, says that as we get older, we just need less sleep, so we don't feel the need to try and get those eight hours. The article lists tons of possible effects of our insomnia on our developing minds, many of which I'm sure you are all aware of.

What do you think? Do you function better on less sleep?  Do you ever feel the need to pull all-nighters? How do you feel you perform your daily tasks (tests, homework, driving) on minimal amount of sleep? Do you think this has taken a toll on your health?