Connors State's newest organization, "Connors' Bass Club," could be filled with some of our happiest students. It is a team of fishermen, not a choir of low-voiced male singers.
According to an article by Willow Lawson in Psychology Today, based on research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, "People who dine on fish are not only happier, but they tend to have more pleasant personalities than people who don't eat seafood... People who don't each much fish are more likely to report mild symtpoms of depression, feelings of impulsivity and a negative outlook on life."
Evidently you can get your omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are the key brain ingredient, from a supplement pill instead of a large mouth bass but take my word for it, catching a supplement pill in a Walgreen's aisle isn't nearly as much fun as using a Hula-Popper lure to pull in a 3-pound bass.
Just the memories of fighting Micropterus salmoides (large mouth bass) bring a smile to my face. Little did I know that I was being made even happier from their omega-3 fat.
Feeling a little down? Eat some fish. Better yet, join the Bass Club, catch the fish, and then eat it. Get the elevated mood that comes from both worlds.
March 6, 2010
March 2, 2010
Concrete Thinking Strikes Again
Children in the early-childhood period of development (age 3-6 years) are in Jean Piaget's "Preoperational" stage. One of the characteristics of that age is what is called concrete thinking. Concrete thinking is very literal thinking. Some examples:
Several years ago we were visiting some good friends who had an early-childhood son. I said to him, "Let's go in the next room and see what's on the TV." He jumped up and ran ahead of me and when I rounded the corner he was looking to see what was sitting on top of the TV.
A couple of months ago another friend posted on Facebook that she had told her early-childhood daughter, in a tone that only an irritated mother can produce, "Don't push me!" Her daughter innocently looked up at her and said, "Mommy, I didn't push you."
Yet another friend's daughter started crying when told that her mother was pregnant and that she and her brother were going to have a younger sister. When asked why she was crying, the daughter answered, "I just learned that every third child born in the world speaks Chinese. How we will be able to understand her?"
Yesterday was my grandson's fifth birthday. When he woke up yesterday morning and his mom told him to get ready to go to daycare he looked up with a puzzled look and said, "You told me that I would go to Kindergarten when I was five!".
A similiar phenomenon happens to people under the influence of hypnosis. I once asked a client I had hypnotized, "Would you tell me your name?" She answered, "Yes."
Sometimes the speaker/questioner has to stop and process the listener's respose in order to realize that they had indeed responded correctly... to the literal content.
Several years ago we were visiting some good friends who had an early-childhood son. I said to him, "Let's go in the next room and see what's on the TV." He jumped up and ran ahead of me and when I rounded the corner he was looking to see what was sitting on top of the TV.
A couple of months ago another friend posted on Facebook that she had told her early-childhood daughter, in a tone that only an irritated mother can produce, "Don't push me!" Her daughter innocently looked up at her and said, "Mommy, I didn't push you."
Yet another friend's daughter started crying when told that her mother was pregnant and that she and her brother were going to have a younger sister. When asked why she was crying, the daughter answered, "I just learned that every third child born in the world speaks Chinese. How we will be able to understand her?"
Yesterday was my grandson's fifth birthday. When he woke up yesterday morning and his mom told him to get ready to go to daycare he looked up with a puzzled look and said, "You told me that I would go to Kindergarten when I was five!".
A similiar phenomenon happens to people under the influence of hypnosis. I once asked a client I had hypnotized, "Would you tell me your name?" She answered, "Yes."
Sometimes the speaker/questioner has to stop and process the listener's respose in order to realize that they had indeed responded correctly... to the literal content.
February 28, 2010
George is Right: Biology Does Not Absolve a Person of Blame
I don't often read the editorial page of the newspaper. I'm more of a comics kind of guy. My belief that "Newspapers are written quickly to be read quickly" means that I don't look at a lot of what is in the newspaper. I skim a lot, read some, actually study a little.
My wife, who is a much better person than I in many, many ways, is my "Newspaper Research Assistant." That means that every day she asks me at least once, "Did you read this... in the paper today?" Approximately 95.6% of the time my answer is, "No." Sometimes she responds, "You should."
Her "you should" today concerned George Will's column, "Character Flaw Cure - Acceptance of Personal Responsibility." I will quote him without comment, thus giving tacit agreement to it.
"The part of the brain that stimulates anger and aggression is larger in men than in women, and the part that restrains anger is smaller in men than in women. 'Men,' [Social Scientist James Q.] Wilson writes, 'by no choice of their own, are far more prone to violence and far less capable of self-restraint than women.'
"That does not, however, absolve violent men of blame. As Wilson says, biology and environment interact. And the social environment inclues moral assumptions, sometimes codified in law, concerning expectations about our duty to desire what we ought to desire.
"It is scientifically sensible to say that all behavior is in some sense caused. But a society that thinks scientific determinism renders personal responsibility a chimera must consider it absurd not only to condemn depravity but also to praise nobility."
(George always uses at least one word I don't know. Today's was "chimera." Don't look so smug. You had to look it up, too.)
My wife, who is a much better person than I in many, many ways, is my "Newspaper Research Assistant." That means that every day she asks me at least once, "Did you read this... in the paper today?" Approximately 95.6% of the time my answer is, "No." Sometimes she responds, "You should."
Her "you should" today concerned George Will's column, "Character Flaw Cure - Acceptance of Personal Responsibility." I will quote him without comment, thus giving tacit agreement to it.
"The part of the brain that stimulates anger and aggression is larger in men than in women, and the part that restrains anger is smaller in men than in women. 'Men,' [Social Scientist James Q.] Wilson writes, 'by no choice of their own, are far more prone to violence and far less capable of self-restraint than women.'
"That does not, however, absolve violent men of blame. As Wilson says, biology and environment interact. And the social environment inclues moral assumptions, sometimes codified in law, concerning expectations about our duty to desire what we ought to desire.
"It is scientifically sensible to say that all behavior is in some sense caused. But a society that thinks scientific determinism renders personal responsibility a chimera must consider it absurd not only to condemn depravity but also to praise nobility."
(George always uses at least one word I don't know. Today's was "chimera." Don't look so smug. You had to look it up, too.)
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