TATACARA TINDAKAN BAGI KES TIDAK HADIR BERTUGAS
SECARA BERTERUSAN DAN TIDAK DAPAT DIKESAN
PENDAHULUAN
Tatacara tindakan bagi kes tidak hadir bertugas secara berterusan dan tidak dapat dikesan adalah diperuntukkan di bawah Peraturan 26, Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.
TINDAKAN KETUA JABATAN
Jika seseorang pegawai tidak hadir bertugas tanpa cuti atau tanpa terlebih dahulu mendapat kebenaran atau tanpa sebab yang munasabah selama 7 hari bekerja berturut-turut dan tidak dapat dikesan, Ketua Jabatan hendaklah menyebabkan suatu surat diserahkan kepada pegawai itu sendiri atau dihantar melalui Pos Berdaftar Akuan Terima (AT) kepada pegawai di alamatnya yang akhir diketahui, mengarahkan pegawai itu supaya melaporkan diri untuk bertugas dengan segera.
Jika surat itu telah dapat diserahkan, Ketua Jabatan hendaklah sama ada pegawai itu telah hadir bertugas semula atau tidak, mengemukakannya suatu laporan kepada Pihak Berkuasa Tatatertib (PBT) untuk diambil tindakan tatatertib terhadap pegawai itu
Jika surat itu tidak dapat diserah/surat AT dikembalikan tidak terserah,Ketua Jabatan hendaklah melaporkan perkara itu kepada PBT yang mempunyai bidang kuasa mengenakan hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat ke atas pegawai itu
TINDAKAN PIHAK BERKUASA TATATERTIB
Bagi kes di mana surat telah dapat di-serahkan PBT selepas menerima laporan daripada Ketua Jabatan, hendaklah mengambil langkah/tindakan tatatertib mengikut tatacara tindakan tatatertib biasa.
Bagi kes di mana surat itu tidak dapat dise-rahkan/surat AT dikembalikan tidak terserah, PBT yang mempunyai bidang kuasa mengenakan hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat ke atas pegawai itu selepas menerima laporan daripada Ketua Jabatan, hendaklah mengambil langkah untuk menyiarkan suatu notis dalam sekurang-kurangnya satu suratkhabar harian yang diterbitkan dalam bahasa kebangsaan dan mempunyai edaran di seluruh negara yang ditentukan oleh PBT, mengikut Peraturan 26(4),Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib)1993. Notis akhbar tersebut hendaklah menyatakan:
*hakikat bahawa pegawai itu telah tidak hadir bertugas dan tidak dapat dikesan; dan
*mengkehendaki pegawai melaporkan diri untuk bertugas dalam masa 7 hari dari tarikh penyiaran notis itu.
TINDAKAN SELEPAS PENYIARAN NOTIS DI AKHBAR
Jika pegawai melapor diri untuk bertugas dalam masa 7 hari dari tarikh penyiaran notis tersebut, Ketua Jabatan hendaklah melaporkan kepada Pihak Berkuasa Tatatertib (PBT) untuk diambil tindakan tatatertib terhadap pegawai itu mengikut tatacara tindakan tatatertib biasa.
Jika pegawai tidak melaporkan diri untuk bertugas dalam masa 7 hari dari tarikh penyiaran notis tersebut, pegawai hendaklah disifatkan sebagai telah dibuang kerja berkuatkuasa mulai tarikh dia tidak hadir bertugas. Seterusnya pembuangan kerja tersebut hendaklah diberitahu dalam Warta Kerajaan, mengikut Per-aturan 26(7), Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993
TATACARA TINDAKAN TATATERTIB BIASA: KES TIDAK HADIR BERTUGAS SERTA
KES TATAKELAKUAN ATAU PRESTASI KERJA YANG TIDAK MEMUASKAN
PENDAHULUAN
Tatacara tindakan tatatertib kes tidak hadir bertugas untuk sesuatu tempoh tertentu serta kes tatakelakuan atau prestasi kerja yang tidak memuaskan adalah diperuntukkan di bawah Peraturan 35, 36 dan 37, Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.
LAPORAN PELANGGARAN T ATATERTIB
Mengikut Peraturan 3C,Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993, tiap-tiap pegawai khususnya Ketua Jabatan adalah bertanggungjawab untuk menjalankan kawalan dan pengawasan tatatertib ke atas pegawai bawahannya dan mengambil tindakan yang sesuai dengan seberapa segera yang mungkin bagi apa-apa kesalahan atau pelanggaran tatatertib yang dilakukan.
Ketua Jabatan adalah bertanggungjawab mengemukakan laporan mengenai sesuatu pelanggaran tatatertib tersebut kepada PBT yang berkenaan. Secara umumnya laporan tersebut hendaklah mengandungi perkara-perkara berikut:
*keterangan mengenai pegawai dan jawatannya;
*kenyataan perkhidmatan yang kemaskini
*butir-butir mengenai perbuatan salah laku serta fakta tarikh,masa atau tempoh masa kesalahan dilakukan;
*keterangan mengenai kesalahan yang dilakukan serta apa-apa peruntukan peraturan termasuk perintah atau arahan yang dilanggar;
*bukti/dokumen sokongan, laporan siasatan, keterangan saksi dan sebagainya;
*apa-apa tindakan yang telah diambil secara pentadbiran ke atas pegawai itu.
PENENTUAN JENIS KESALAHAN [PERATURAN 35]
Selepas menerima sesuatu laporan pelanggaran tatatertib, Pengerusi LTT yang rendah (yang mempunyai kuasa untuk mengenakan hukuman selain buang kerja atau turun pangkat), hendaklah menimbangkan laporan tersebut dan menentukan sama ada kesalahan yang diadukan itu adalah dari jenis yang patut dikenakan:
*hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat ( Peraturan 37) ; atau
*suatu hukuman yang lebih ringan daripada buang kerja atau turun pangkat (Peraturan 36)
Penentuan jenis kesalahan yang dibuat oleh Pengerusi LTT itu akan menentukan jenis tindakan tatatertib yang akan diambil ke atas pegawai yang terlibat. Jika diputuskan bahawa kesalahan itu adalah dari jenis yang patut dikenakan hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat, kes tersebut hendaklah dirujukkan kepada PBT yang tinggi (yang mempunyai kuasa untuk mengenakan hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat).
TINDAKAN TATATERTIB TIDAK DENGAN TUJUAN BUANG KERJA ATAU TURUN
PANGKAT [PERATURAN 36]
Mengikut Peraturan 36(1), jika Pengerusi LTT menentukan bahawa kesalahan yang diadukan itu adalah dari jenis yang patut dikenakan hukuman yang lebih ringan daripada buang kerja atau turun pangkat dan setelah berpuas hati wujud suatu kesalahan tatatertib, Pengerusi LTT hendaklah menghadapkan surat pertuduhan kepada pegawai untuk membuat representasi pembelaan diri dalam tempoh 21 hari dari tarikh penerimaan surat pertuduhan itu.
Seterusnya LTT hendaklah menimbangkan representasi pegawai tesebut serta membuat keputusan/ hukuman ke atas pegawai.
TINDAKAN TATATERTIB DENGAN TUJUAN BUANG KERJA ATAU TURUN PANGKAT
[PERATURAN 37]
Jika Pengerusi LTT yang rendah telah menentukan bahawa kesalahan yang diadukan itu adalah dari jenis yang patut dikenakan hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat, Pengerusi LTT yang tinggi yang kepadanya kes itu dirujukkan hendaklah menimbang serta menentukan bahawa wujud suatu kes prima facie untuk mengambil tindakan tatatertib tersebut dan hendaklah mengarahkan supaya suatu pertuduhan dihadapkan kepada pegawai itu untuk membuat representasi pembelaan diri dalam tempoh 21 hari dari tarikh penerimaan surat pertuduhan itu.
Seterusnya LTT hendaklah menimbangkan representasi pegawai tersebut serta membuat keputusan/ hukuman ke atas pegawai.
SURAT PERTUDUHAN TATATERTIB
Sesuatu pertuduhan tatatertib hendaklah jelas serta mengandungi fakta dan butir-butir yang spesifik berhubung perbuatan salah laku yang pegawai itu dipertuduhkan serta peruntukan mana-mana peraturan yang dilanggar. Perbuatan serta kesalahan tersebut hendaklah dikaitkan dengan mana-mana peruntukan peraturan tatakelakuan yang berkenaan
yang dinyatakan di bawah Peraturan 4,Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.
Surat pertuduhan tatatertib hendaklah ditandatangan oleh Pengerusi
LTT atau ahli LTT bagi pihak Pengerusi.
KEPUTUSAN TATATERTIB
Keputusan/hukuman tatatertib hendaklah diberitahu kepada pegawai dan hendaklah terus dilaksanakan sewajarnya meskipun ada rayuan dibuat terhadap keputusan/hukuman itu. Surat keputusan tersebut hendaklah mengandungi fakta yang tepat serta dapatan bersalah (finding of guilt) pegawai atas pertuduhan yang telah dihadapkan.Surat keputusan juga hendaklah menyatakan peluang bagi membuat rayuan ke atas keputusan tersebut kepada Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib Perkhidmatan Awam,dalam tempoh 14 hari dari tarikh penerimaan surat keputusan itu.
REKOD TATATERTIB
Semua rekod serta dokumen berkaitan tindakan tatatertib hendaklah dipelihara sewajarnya. Sesuatu keputusan tindakan tatatertib dan keputusan Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib hendaklah direkodkan dalam Buku Rekod Perkhidmatan pegawai dengan menyatakan butir-butir kesalahan yang dilakukan serta hukuman yang dikenakan.
TATACARA TINDAKAN TATATERTIB BAGI KES SABITAN/ PEGAWAI TERTAKLUK KEPADA PROSIDING JENAYAH
PENDAHULUAN
Tatacara tindakan tatatertib bagi kes sabitan jenayah/pegawai tertakluk kepada prosiding jenayah adalah diperuntukkan di bawah Peraturan 28, 29 dan 33, Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.
TAFSIRAN ‘SABITAN’,'KESALAHAN JENAYAH’ DAN ‘MAHKAMAH [PERATURAN 3]
*‘Sabitan’ ertinya suatu dapatan oleh mahkamah di bawah mana-mana undang-undang bertulis bahawa seseorang itu bersalah atas suatu kesalahan jenayah.
*‘Kesalahan Jenayah’ertinya apa-apa kesalahan yang melibatkan fraud, ketidakjujuran atau tingkahlaku keji.
*‘Mahkamah’ ertinya mahkamah yang termasuk Mahkamah Syariah.
PROSIDING JENAYAH DIMULAKAN KE ATAS PEGAWAI
Jika prosiding jenayah dimulakan terhadap seseorang pegawai, Pendaftaran Mahkamah hendaklah mengemukakan/Ketua Jabatan hendaklah mendapatkan laporan yang berkaitan prosiding tersebut. Seterusnya Ketua Jabatan hendaklah mengemukakan laporan itu kepada (PBT) yang mempunyai bidangkuasa untuk menjatuhkan hukuman buang kerja atau
turun pangkat, beserta syor sama ada pegawai itu patut ditahan kerja.
Setelah menimbangkan laporan tersebut PBT boleh menahan pegawai daripada menjalankan tugas(TAHAN KERJA)mengikut peraturan44(1)(a), Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam(Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.
Jika prosiding jenayah itu terhadap pegawai berkeputusan dengan pensabitan, PBT hendaklah menggantung pegawai daripada menjalankan tugas(GANTUNG KERJA)di bawah Peraturan 45(1)(a),berkuatkuasa mulai tarikh sabitan, sementara menunggu keputusan tindakan tatatertib
yang berkait daripada sabitan tersebut. Seseorang pegawai yang digantung kerja tidak berhak menerima apa-apa bahagian emolumen sepanjang tahun penggantungan kerja tersebut.
Jika prosiding jenayah tersebut berkeputusan dengan pembebasan, pegawai itu hendaklah dibenarkan menjalankan semua tugasnya serta berhak menerima apa-apa emolumen yang tidak dibayar dalam tempoh
tahan kerja serta cuti rehat tahunan dan segala kelayakan lain yang pegawai itu berhak.
TINDAKAN TATATERTIB
Mengikut Peraturan 29 iaitu dalam kes di mana pegawai telah
disabitkan atas kesalahan jenayah,Ketua Jabatan hendaklah mendapatkan salinan keputusan mahkamah dan mengemukakannya kepada PBT yang berkenaan beserta rekod perkhidmatan pegawai dan perakuan mengenai tindakan/hukuman yang patut dikenakan ke atas pegawai, bergantung kepada jenis dan seriusnya kesalahan itu berbanding dengan takat mana sabitan itu telah memburukkan nama perkhidmatan awam.
PBT yang berkenaan hendaklah menimbangkan laporan, rekod perkhidmatan dan perakuan Ketua Jabatan mengikut Peraturan 33 (1) dan seterusnya membuat keputusan/hukuman terhadap pegawai.
Mengikut Peraturan 45A, jika prosiding tatatertib berkeputusan dengan buang kerja, pegawai itu tidak berhak kepada apa-apa emolumen yang telah tidak di bayar kepadanya dalam tempoh tahan kerja atau gantung kerja itu. Sebaliknya jika prosiding tatatertib tersebut berkeputusan dengan suatu hukuman selain buang kerja, pegawai itu berhak menerima semua bahagian emolumen yang berkenaan itu.
PENGECUALIAN DARIPADA HAK UNTUK DIDENGAR
Bagi tujuan mengambil tindakan tatatertib ke atas seseorang pegawai yang telah disabitkan kesalahan jenayah ini, pegawai tersebut tidak perlu dihadapkan dengan apa-apa surat pertuduhan atau diberi hak untuk didengar. Tindakan tatatertib bagi kes sabitan jenayah ini juga tidak melibatkan tindakan bagi penentuan jenis kesalahan serta penentuan kes prima facie yang diperlukan bagi kes-kes tindakan tatatertib biasa.
KEPUTUSAN TATATERTIB
Keputusan/hukuman tatatertib hendaklah diberitahu kepada pegawai dan hendaklah terus dilaksanakan sewajarnya meskipun ada rayuan dibuat terhadap keputusan/hukuman itu. Surat keputusan tersebut hendaklah mengandungi fakta yang tepat serta pernyataan mengenai sabitan yang berkaitan dan kenyataan bahawa pegawai telah memburukkan nama perkhidmatan awam. Surat keputusan juga hendaklah menyatakan peluang bagi membuat rayuan ke atas keputusan tersebut kepada Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib Perkhidmatan Awam,dalam tempoh 14 hari dari tarikh penerimaan surat keputusan itu.
REKOD TATATERTIB
Semua rekod serta dokumen berkaitan tindakan tatatertib hendaklah dipelihara sewajarnya. Sesuatu keputusan tindakan tatatertib dan keputusan Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib hendaklah direkodkan dalam Buku Rekod Perkhidmatan pegawai dengan menyatakan butir-butir kesalahan yang dilakukan serta hukuman yang dikenakan.
TATACARA TINDAKAN TATATERTIB BAGI KES PERINTAH TAHANAN PENGAWASAN KEDIAMAN TERHAD BUANG NEGERI DSB
PENDAHULUAN
Tatacara tindakan tatatertib bagi kes yang berbangkit daripada perintah tahanan, pengawasan, kediaman terhad, buang negeri dan sebagainya adalah diperuntukkan di bawah Peraturan 32 dan 33, Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.
PROSEDUR JIKA TERDAPAT PERINTAH TAHANAN,BUANG NEGERI DSB.
Jika suatu perintah tahanan(tidak termasuk tahanan reman),pengawasan, kediaman terhad, buang negeri,deportasi atau apa-apa bentuk sekatan telah dibuat terhadap seseorang pegawai di bawah mana-mana undang-undang yang berhubung dengan keselamatan,pencegahan jenayah,imigresen atau perlindungan wanita dan gadis atau perlindungan kanak-kanak, Ketua Jabatan hendaklah mendapatkan suatu salinan perintah itu daripada pihak berkuasa yang berkenaan dan mengemukakannya kepada Pihak Berkuasa Tatatertib (PBT) yang mempunyai bidang kuasa untuk menjatuhkan hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat, beserta rekod perkhidmatan pegawai dan perakuan mengenai tindakan/ hukuman yang patut dikenakan ke atas pegawai, bergantung kepada takat keburukan yang telah dibawa oleh pegawai itu kepada perkhidmatan awam.
Setelah menimbangkan laporan tersebut PBT boleh menggantung pegawai daripada menjalankan tugas(GANTUNG KERJA)di bawah Peraturan 45(1)(b), Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993, berkuatkuasa dari tarikh kuatkuasa perintah itu. Seseorang pegawai yang digantung kerja tidak berhak menerima apa-apa bahagian emolumen sepanjang tempoh penggantungan kerja tersebut.
TINDAKAN TATATERTIB
PBT yang berkenaan hendaklah menimbangkan laporan,rekod perkhidmatan dan perakuan Ketua Jabatan mengikut Peraturan 33 (2) dan seterusnya membuat keputusan/hukuman terhadap pegawai.
Mengikut Peraturan 45A, jika prosiding tatatertib berkeputusan dengan buang kerja, pegawai itu tidak berhak kepada apa-apa emolumen yang telah tidak dibayar kepadanya dalam tempoh tahan kerja atau gantung kerja itu. Sebaliknya jika prosiding tatatertib tersebut berkeputusan dengan suatu hukuman selain buang kerja, pegawai itu berhak menerima semua bahagian emolumen yang berkenaan itu.
PENGECUALIAN DARIPADA HAK UNTUK DIDENGAR
Bagi tujuan mengambil tindakan tatatertib ke atas seseorang pegawai yang telah dikenakan perintah tahanan,pengawasan kediaman terhad, buang negeri dan sebagainya ini, pegawai tersebut tidak perlu dihadapkan dengan apa-apa surat pertuduhan atau diberi hak untuk didengar. Tindakan tatatertib bagi kes perintah tahanan ini juga tidak melibatkan tindakan bagi penentuan jenis kesalahan serta penentuan kes prima facie yang diperlukan bagi kes-kes tindakan tatatertib biasa.
KEPUTUSAN TATATERTIB
Keputusan/hukuman tatatertib hendaklah diberitahu kepada pegawai dan hendaklah terus dilaksanakan sewajarnya meskipun ada rayuan dibuat terhadap keputusan/ hukuman itu. Surat keputusan tersebut hendaklah mengandungi fakta yang tepat serta pernyataan mengenai apa-apa perintah yang berkaitan dan kenyataan bahawa pegawai telah memburukkan nama perkhidmatan awam. Surat keputusan juga hendaklah menyatakan peluang bagi membuat rayuan ke atas keputusan tersebut kepada Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib Perkhidmatan Awam, dalam tempoh 14 hari dari tarikh penerimaan surat keputusan itu
REKOD TATATERTIB
Semua rekod serta dokumen berkaitan tindakan tatatertib hendaklah dipelihara sewajarnya. Sesuatu keputusan tindakan tatatertib dan keputusan Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib hendaklah direkodkan dalam Buku Rekod Perkhidmatan pegawai dengan menyatakan butir-butir kesalahan yang dilakukan serta hukuman yang dikenakan.
TAHAN KERJA DAN GANTUNG KERJA
PENDAHULUAN
Tahan kerja dan gantung kerja adalah diperuntukkan di bawah Peraturan 43, 44 dan 45 Peraturan-peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.
Sesuatu keputusan bagi mengenakan perintah tahan kerja atau gantung kerja ke atas seseorang pegawai hanya boleh dibuat oleh (PBT) yang berkenaan yang mempunyai bidang kuasa bagi mengenakan hukuman buang kerja atau turun pangkat,iaitu Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam (SPA) atau Lembaga Tatatertib Kumpulan Sokongan (No.1),mengikut kumpulan perkhidmatan pegawai yang terlibat.
TAHAN KERJA BAGI MAKSUD PENYIASATAN [ PER. 43 ]
Jika seseorang pegawai dikatakan atau disyaki telah melakukan suatu kesalahan jenayah atau suatu kesalahan tatatertib yang serius,dan Ketua Jabatan berpendapat bahawa bagi memudahkan penyiasatan dijalankan pegawai patut dihalang daripada hadir bertugas, Ketua Jabatan itu boleh memperakukan kepada PBT yang ber kenaan untuk pegawai ditahan kerja.
PBT yang berkenaan boleh menahan kerja pegawai itu mengikut Peraturan 43, bagi suatu tempoh tidak melebihi 2 bulan, iaitu bagi maksud memudahkan penyiasatan terhadap pegawai itu. Seseorang pegawai yang ditahan kerja bagi maksud penyiasatan ini berhak menerima emolumen sepenuhnya dalam tempoh tahan kerja tersebut.
Di dalam memutuskan sama ada hendak menahan kerja pegawai atau tidak, PBT hendaklah mengambil kira faktor berikut:
*kesalahan yang disyaki itu adalah secara langsung berhubung dengan tugas pegawai; dan
*kehadiran pegawai di pejabat akan menggendalakan penyiasatan
Jika dalam tempoh tahan kerja itu prosiding jenayah dimulakan terhadap pegawai di mahkamah atau tindakan tatatertib dengan tujuan buang kerja atau turun pangkat telah diambil ke atasnya, tahan kerja ini hendaklah terhenti berkuatkuasa mulai tarikh prosiding jenayah atau tindakan tatatertib itu dimulakan dan PBT hendaklah mengambil tindakan selanjutnya mengikut Peraturan 44.
TAHAN KERJA [ PER. 44]
Mengikut Peraturan 44, jika prosiding jenayah atau prosiding tindakan tatatertib dengan tujuan buang kerja atau turun pangkat telah dimulakan terhadap pegawai itu,PBT yang berkenaan boleh menahan pegawai itu daripada menjalankan tugas (tahan kerja).
Di dalam memutuskan sama ada hendak menahan kerja pegawai atau tidak,PBT hendaklah mengambil kira faktor berikut;
*kesalahan yang disyaki itu adalah secara langsung berhubung dengan tugas pegawai;
*kehadiran pegawai di pejabat akan menggendalakan penyiasatan;
*kehadiran pegawai di pejabat untuk menjalankan tugasnya itu boleh memalukan atau menjejaskan nama atau imej Jabatan; atau
*dengan mengambil kira jenis kesalahan yang dipertuduhkan, penahanan kerja pegawai akan menyebabkan Kerajaan menanggung kerugian.
Perintah tahan kerja ini boleh berkuatkuasa mulai dari tarikh pegawai ditangkap atau tarikh saman telah disampaikan kepadanya atau tarikh yang ditetapkan oleh PBT itu, sehingga prosiding jenayah atau prosiding tatatertib itu berkeputusan.Dalam tempoh penahanan kerja tersebut, pegawai berhak menerima tidak kurang setengah bahagian emolumennya mengikut sebagaimana diputuskan oleh PBT.
PBT boleh memanggil balik pegawai untuk bertugas walaupun prosiding jenayah atau prosiding tatatertib yang berkenaan belum selesai dan dia hendaklah dibayar emolumen penuh mulai tarikh menjalankan semula tugasnya itu. Walau bagaimanapun apa-apa bahagian emolumen yang tidak dibayar semasa tahan kerja tersebut, tidak boleh dibayar sehingga prosiding tersebut berkeputusan.
Jika prosiding jenayah atau tindakan tatatertib itu berkeputusan dengan pegawai dibebaskan, apa-apa bahagian emolumen yang tidak dibayar semasa tahan kerja itu hendaklah dibayar kepadanya.
GANTUNG KERJA [ PER. 45]
PBT yang berkenaan boleh menggantung seseorang pegawai daripada menjalankan tugasnya (gantung kerja) jika:
*pegawai itu telah disabitkan oleh mana- mana mahkamah; atau
*Suatu perintah tahanan,pengawasan, kediaman terhad, buang negeri
dan sebagainya seperti dinyatakan di bawah Peraturan 32 telah
dibuat terhadap pegawai.
Penggantungan kerja ini hendaklah berkuatkuasa mulai tarikh sabitan atau tarikh kuatkuasa perintah-perintah itu. Seseorang pegawai yang digantung kerja tidak boleh dibenarkan menerima apa-apa bahagian emolumen yang telah tidak dibayar dalam tempoh tahan kerja dan sepanjang tempoh gantung kerja tersebut.
EMOLUMEN YANG TIDAK DIBAYAR
Jika prosiding tatatertib yang berbangkit daripada sabitan atau perintah-perintah tersebut berkeputusan dengan pegawai dibuang kerja, pegawai itu tidak berhak kepada apa-apa bahagian emolumen yang telah tidak di bayar semasa tahan kerja dan gantung kerja itu.
Sebaliknya jika prosiding tatatertib tersebut berkeputusan dengan hukuman selain buang kerja,pegawai itu berhak menerima apa-apa bahagian emolumen yang telah tidak dibayar semasa tahan kerja dan atau gantung kerja itu dan pegawai itu hendaklah diarah menjalankan semula tugasnya.
RAYUAN TATATERTIB
PENDAHULUAN
Perkara mengenai rayuan tatatertib adalah diperuntukkan di bawah Peraturan-peraturan Lembaga Tatatertib Perkhidmatan Awam,1993[P.U.(A) 396].
HAK MERAYU [PERATURAN 14]
Mana-mana pegawai yang terkilan dengan keputusan Lembaga Tatatertib (LTT) Kementerian/Jabatan boleh merayu terhadap keputusan tersebut kepada Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib Perkhidmatan Awam (LRTT).
(Nota:Tiada peruntukan rayuan bagi pegawai yang dibuang kerja melalui Warta)
LEMBAGA RAYUAN TATATERTIB PERKHIDMATAN AWAM [PERATURAN 12 ]
Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib Perkhidmatan Awam adalah terletak di Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia.
BAGAIMANA MEMBUAT RAYUAN(PERATURAN (15)
Sesuatu rayuan hendaklah di buat secara bertulis kepada:
PENGERUSI
LEMBAGA RAYUAN TATATERTIB PERKHIDMATAN AWAM
SURUHANJAYA PERKHIDMATAN AWAM MALAYSIA
ARAS 9, BLOK C7, PARCEL C
PUSAT PENTABDIRAN KERAJAAN PERSEKUTUAN
62502 PUTRAJAYA.
Surat rayuan hendaklah dihantar melalui Ketua Jabatan dalam tempoh 14 hari dari tarikh menerima keputusan tatatertib.
TINDAKAN KETUA JABATAN
Apabila menerima rayuan daripada mana- mana pegawai, Ketua Jabatan hendaklah tidak lewat daripada 30 hari dari tarikh penerimaan rayuan tersebut mengemukakannya kepada Lembaga Tatatertib yang berkaitan, beserta dengan ulasannya.
TINDAKAN LEMBAGA TATATERTIB
Apabila menerima rayuan itu, Lembaga Tatatertib hendaklah tidak lewat daripada 30 hari dari tarikh penerimaan rayuan tersebut mengemukakannya surat rayuan itu beserta salinan semua rekod prosiding tatatertib, termasuk alasan/asas yang digunakan bagi membuat keputusan tatatertib berkenaan kepada Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib Perkhidmatan Awam
MAKLUMAT/DOKUMEN YANG PERLU DIKEMUKAKAN OLEH JABATAN KEPADA
LEMBAGA RAYUAN
Maklumat/dokumen yang perlu dikemukakan oleh Jabatan kepada Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib (LRTT) adalah seperti senarai semak, iaitu mengikut mana yang berkaitan dengan sesuatu kes tindakan tatatertib itu.
KEPUTUSAN LEMBAGA RAYUAN
Keputusan Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib adalah muktamad
SENARAI SEMAK DOKUMEN
*Nombor Kad Pengenalan pegawai.
*Kenyataan Perkhidmatan yang kemaskini
*Laporan pelanggaran tatatertib termasuk laporan siasatan(jika ada)
*Surat pertuduhan
*Jawapan pembelaan diri
*Ulasan Ketua Jabatan terhadap jawapan
*Minit Mesyuarat LTT
*Surat Keputusan LTT
*Surat rayuan pegawai
*Ulasan Ketua Jabatan terhadap rayuan
*Ulasan Pengerusi LTT terhadap rayuan
*Kertas Pertuduhan mahkamah
*Keputusan mahkamah
*Perintah tahanan dan sebagainya
*Surat perintah tahan kerja
*Surat perintah gantung kerja
(Nota: Semua dokumen yang berkaitan hendaklah disediakan dalam 2 salinan)
LTT - Lembaga Tatatertib
LRTT - Lembaga Rayuan Tatatertib
KLINIK TATATERTIB
BAHAGIAN NAIK PANGKAT DAN TATATERTIB
Klinik Tatatertib ini adalah sebagai salah satu usaha Bahagian Naik Pangkat dan Tatatertib Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia (SPA) untuk berkongsi pengetahuan dan kemahiran di dalam menguruskan tindakan tatatertib.
Klinik Tatatertib ini adalah sebagai saluran pilihan kepada Kementerian, dan Jabatan serta agensi Kerajaan yang lain bagi mendapatkan khidmat nasihat dan rundingcara serta untuk bertukar maklumat dan pandangan berhubung semua aspek pengurusan tatatertib.
Adalah diharapkan dengan khidmat nasihat dan rundingcara yang diberikan melalui Klinik Tatatertib ini akan dapat membantu pihak yang berkenaan khususnya pegawai/urusetia yang terlibat secara langsung di dalam urusan tindakan tatatertib, ke arah mewujudkan pengurusan tatatertib yang lebih cekap dan berkesan.
PERUNDINGCARA
Klinik Tatatertib ini akan dikendalikan sepenuhnya oleh pegawai dari Bahagian Naik Pangkat dan Tatatertib,Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia.
Sabtu, 20 Mac 2010
SURAT AKUJANJI
1.Akan Sentiasa Taat Seta Kepada Yang di Pertuan Agong,Negara Dan Kerajaan
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.bersubahat dengan musuh negara
2.membocorkan rahsia kerajaan
3.memburuk serta memperkecilkan dasar kerajaan
4.berlakon dalam filem yang memburukan
2. Akan Sentiasa Melaksanakan Tugas Dengan Cermat,Bersungguh Sungguh,Cekap, Jujur,Amanah Dan Bertanggungjawap
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.Kurang cekap atau kurang berusaha
A) ,gagal menguruskan penyata bank dan buku tunai dengan teratur
B) membuat bayaran tanpa disertakandengan baucher,bil,resit dan invois
C) tidak berkebolehan dan terpaksa diarah sepanjang masa
2.Tidak jujur atau amanah
A) tidak melaporkan harta yang dimiliki olehnya atau ahli keluarga
B) membuat tuntutan palsu
C) tidak melaporkan hutang-piutang
3.Tidak Bertanggungjawap
A) menghasut pegawai lain supaya tidak bertugas dengan bersungguh-sungguh
B) bercuti semasa perkhidmatannya amat diperlukan
C) tidak melaporka kesalahan pegawai bawahannya
3. Tidak Membelakangkan Tugas Awam Demi Kepentingan Peribadi
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.menguruskan perniagaan atau pelaburan sendiri atau ahli keluarga dalam waktu pejabat
.mengutamakan saudara mara,rakan-rakan atau orang yang rapat dengannya semasa menimbang sesuatu permohonan
Menguruskan tender/sebutharga sedangkan pegawai tahu di antara mereka yang mengemukakan tender/sebutharga terdiri daripada saudara-maranya.
4.Tidak Akan Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Mungkin Menyebabkan Kepentingan
Peribadi Bercanggah Dengan Tugas Awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.tidak mengelakan dirinya daripada bergaul terlalu rapat dengan mereka yang jelas akan mendapat keuntungan daripada tugas rasminya.
2.tidak mengelak diri daripada menerima hadiah yang berharga darpada syarikat ,ahli perniagaan atau individu
3.memproses,menimbang atau meluluskan sesuatu permohonan daripada ahli keluarganya.
5.Tidak Akan Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Boleh Menimbulkan Syak Yang
Munasabah Bahawa Pegawai Telah Membiarkan Kentingan Peribadinya
Bercanggah Dengan Tugas Rasmi Sehingga menjejaskan Kegunaan Sebagai
Pegawai Awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. tidak mengambil tindakan terhadap seseorang yang telah melanggar sesuatu peraturan dengan tujuan mendapat ganjaran daripadanya.
2. berhutang dengan seorang lembaga pengarah yang syarikatnya ada memohon tanah untuk tapak kilang di daerah yang berada di bawah pentadbiran pegawai atau isteri pegawai adalah seorang ahli lembaga pengarah syarikat tersebut.
6.Tidak Akan Menggunakan Kedudukan Sebagai Pegawai Awam Bagi Faedah Diri
Sendiri
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. mengunakan kenderaan jabatan sebagai kemudahan peribadi untuk pergi dan balik pejabat,menghantar anak ke sekolah dan sebagainya
2. mengunakan pengaruh kedudukan untuk mengubah lot tanah yang telah diluluskan kepada isterinya sedangkan pegawai tidak diberi kuasa berbuat demikian.
7.Tidak Akan Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Boleh Memburuk Dan Mencemarkan Nama Perkhidmatan Awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. terlibat dengan penyalahgunaan dadah
2. disabitkan atas kesalahan jenayah/mahkamah syariah
3. berada dalam keterhutangan kewangan yang serius
4. Sengaja melengahkan kelulusan permohonan lesen daripada orang ramai
5. bersikap kurang sopan seperti mabuk atau memarahi dan memaki orang
ramai yang berurusan di kaunter
8.Tidak Akan Membawa Sebarang Pengaruh Atau Tekanan Luar Untuk Menyokong
Atau Memajukan Tuntutan Diri Sendiri Atau Pegawai Lain Berhubung Dengan
Perkhidmatan awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. meminta orang kenamaan untuk menggunakan jasa baiknya mempengaruhi
Lembaga Kenaikan Pangkat
2. meminta bantuan ahli politik untuk menyokong permohonan bagi
mendapatkan tanah kerajaan,rumah atau jawatan
9.Tidak IngkarPerintah Atau Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Boleh Ditafsirkan Sebagai Ingkar Perintah
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. Membantah atau melawan pegawai atasan
2. membawa keluar fail terperingkat Jabatan tanpa kebenaran
3. Keluar negara atau urusan persendirian tanpa kelulusan
4. mengambil bahagian aktif dalam politik tanpa kebenaran
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.bersubahat dengan musuh negara
2.membocorkan rahsia kerajaan
3.memburuk serta memperkecilkan dasar kerajaan
4.berlakon dalam filem yang memburukan
2. Akan Sentiasa Melaksanakan Tugas Dengan Cermat,Bersungguh Sungguh,Cekap, Jujur,Amanah Dan Bertanggungjawap
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.Kurang cekap atau kurang berusaha
A) ,gagal menguruskan penyata bank dan buku tunai dengan teratur
B) membuat bayaran tanpa disertakandengan baucher,bil,resit dan invois
C) tidak berkebolehan dan terpaksa diarah sepanjang masa
2.Tidak jujur atau amanah
A) tidak melaporkan harta yang dimiliki olehnya atau ahli keluarga
B) membuat tuntutan palsu
C) tidak melaporkan hutang-piutang
3.Tidak Bertanggungjawap
A) menghasut pegawai lain supaya tidak bertugas dengan bersungguh-sungguh
B) bercuti semasa perkhidmatannya amat diperlukan
C) tidak melaporka kesalahan pegawai bawahannya
3. Tidak Membelakangkan Tugas Awam Demi Kepentingan Peribadi
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.menguruskan perniagaan atau pelaburan sendiri atau ahli keluarga dalam waktu pejabat
.mengutamakan saudara mara,rakan-rakan atau orang yang rapat dengannya semasa menimbang sesuatu permohonan
Menguruskan tender/sebutharga sedangkan pegawai tahu di antara mereka yang mengemukakan tender/sebutharga terdiri daripada saudara-maranya.
4.Tidak Akan Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Mungkin Menyebabkan Kepentingan
Peribadi Bercanggah Dengan Tugas Awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1.tidak mengelakan dirinya daripada bergaul terlalu rapat dengan mereka yang jelas akan mendapat keuntungan daripada tugas rasminya.
2.tidak mengelak diri daripada menerima hadiah yang berharga darpada syarikat ,ahli perniagaan atau individu
3.memproses,menimbang atau meluluskan sesuatu permohonan daripada ahli keluarganya.
5.Tidak Akan Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Boleh Menimbulkan Syak Yang
Munasabah Bahawa Pegawai Telah Membiarkan Kentingan Peribadinya
Bercanggah Dengan Tugas Rasmi Sehingga menjejaskan Kegunaan Sebagai
Pegawai Awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. tidak mengambil tindakan terhadap seseorang yang telah melanggar sesuatu peraturan dengan tujuan mendapat ganjaran daripadanya.
2. berhutang dengan seorang lembaga pengarah yang syarikatnya ada memohon tanah untuk tapak kilang di daerah yang berada di bawah pentadbiran pegawai atau isteri pegawai adalah seorang ahli lembaga pengarah syarikat tersebut.
6.Tidak Akan Menggunakan Kedudukan Sebagai Pegawai Awam Bagi Faedah Diri
Sendiri
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. mengunakan kenderaan jabatan sebagai kemudahan peribadi untuk pergi dan balik pejabat,menghantar anak ke sekolah dan sebagainya
2. mengunakan pengaruh kedudukan untuk mengubah lot tanah yang telah diluluskan kepada isterinya sedangkan pegawai tidak diberi kuasa berbuat demikian.
7.Tidak Akan Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Boleh Memburuk Dan Mencemarkan Nama Perkhidmatan Awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. terlibat dengan penyalahgunaan dadah
2. disabitkan atas kesalahan jenayah/mahkamah syariah
3. berada dalam keterhutangan kewangan yang serius
4. Sengaja melengahkan kelulusan permohonan lesen daripada orang ramai
5. bersikap kurang sopan seperti mabuk atau memarahi dan memaki orang
ramai yang berurusan di kaunter
8.Tidak Akan Membawa Sebarang Pengaruh Atau Tekanan Luar Untuk Menyokong
Atau Memajukan Tuntutan Diri Sendiri Atau Pegawai Lain Berhubung Dengan
Perkhidmatan awam
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. meminta orang kenamaan untuk menggunakan jasa baiknya mempengaruhi
Lembaga Kenaikan Pangkat
2. meminta bantuan ahli politik untuk menyokong permohonan bagi
mendapatkan tanah kerajaan,rumah atau jawatan
9.Tidak IngkarPerintah Atau Berkelakuan Dengan Cara Yang Boleh Ditafsirkan Sebagai Ingkar Perintah
Contoh Pelanggaran
1. Membantah atau melawan pegawai atasan
2. membawa keluar fail terperingkat Jabatan tanpa kebenaran
3. Keluar negara atau urusan persendirian tanpa kelulusan
4. mengambil bahagian aktif dalam politik tanpa kebenaran
Influencing daily behavior
Light products
Many people are fat or have overweight and want to loose some weight. That is why they are pleased to read that the packing of a product has the words "light" or "less fat". Usually, these words give reliable information about the content of the food package, but quite frequently the message is not unbiased.
Remarks like "light" have a psychological meaning. People who want to loose weight, usually have quite some appetite. They more or less make a compromise by buying "light" food, but eating the same amount of food or even more. As a result, they do not loose weight but take about the same amount of calories, as they would when buying regular food.
Buying a car
Psychological Issues
Although a car is built for transportation, many psychological issues are involved. They are introduced by the sales department of the car company as part of the sales strategy, to sell more cars.
Large headlights and thick bumpers give you a feeling of safety. Also, people like dark colors because this suggests that the car is well painted with several layers. Consumers like elegant gadgets, like the Mercedes star at the front of the car. Such an ornament stands for a reliable car from a company with a long history of high quality cars. Broad tires and a spoiler give the impression of a sports car, which is attractive for some other people.
Odor
Odor also affects consumer behavior. New cars have a particular smell. This smell is associated with novelty, innovation, which makes people willing to pay more.
It is not unusual to use artificial odors, especially when selling used cars.
Infulence on road
Governements strive to reduce the amount of traffic accidents. This can be done by making the traffic situations more clear. An example of this is the traffic light. In every country you have a red light, an orange or yellow light, and a green light. They are always situated at the same place, the red one on top, the orange one in the middle and the green one at the bottom. So when you are colour-blind you know that when the lowest light is shining it is safe to drive.
When you drive on a highway, you often drive at high speed. You get a lot of information from road signs. Your speed makes it very difficult to immediatly understand every sign. To make you notice and understand the traffic situations, road signs therfore are repeated frequently. An exit is announced a lot of times to make sure people will follow the right track.
Another way of making the road more clear is the use of trees and billboards next to the road. For example: when a roundabout has trees around it drivers will be able to see it from far. For the safety of the road-users it is good if they slow down a bit when aproaching a roundabout. To assist this governement has developed a smart solution. Next to the road approaching a roundabout trees are placed with an interspace that gets smaller. So the driver gets the illusion that he is speeding up because he is passing more trees per second with the result that he will slow down.
Following the rules
In a former section we have told you what can be done to make road-signs better visible. But people can see them and still ignore them. In the Netherlands there are a lot of traffic-offences, just because people ignore the rules intentionally. So what can government do about this?
Solutions
One option for this is of course more police. Then there will be more tickets and people will better follow the rules.
But there are cheaper options. It is generally known that when someone sees a police car he will drive more slowly (research has proved this is about 95%). So when people know they are inspected, they will follow the rules. So you can place screens along the road indicating when people drive too hard, without ticketing them. In The Netherlands this method has had great influence on the driving behavior of the car drivers.
You can also put a screen along the road which indicates the percentage of cars that drive too hard. This method is based on the same theory as the previous one.
Another option is to increase the penalties, when people will get a penalty of $2000 for driving too fast, they will think twice before speeding.
Something that also works is to mention the penalty for ignoring a road-sign. For instance: you see a road-sign which says the speed limit is 60 miles pro hour, and under the sign it says: penalty $200. Then people are less likely to exceed this limit.
The general solution is that when people know the consequences they will better follow the rules.
Influences of music
Music can have great influence on our behavior. When you feel tired, music can make you feel cheerful. If you feel tired, you work less efficient and you are less accurate. Then it is useful to play a merry song that makes you feel cheerful.
For an employer this is useful information. Research has demonstrated that employees have a weakened concentration period twice a day: at the end of the morning and in the afternoon. When there is music at those moments, the employees will work better.
Explanations for the influence of music
It is not quite clear why it is that music can have influence on our behavior. Some people think that it has something to do with the heart-beat. Western music has a rhythm that approaches the heart-beat: 70 to 80 beats per minute. Music that peps you up has a little higher beat, and music that calms you down has a little lower beat.
Influences of Music on your Behavior
Music can also influence your behavior by diverting attention. People who have claustrophobia feel better in a small elevator with music in it, the dentist uses music to relax people before an operation, and telephone-exchange services use music to make people wait instead of ringing off.
Radio
Radio channels know the influence of music too. To make you cheerful they have special music-scheme's like G-B-H-I-C. A "G" means a song from the seventies, a B is a number 1 song, and so on. These schemes are thought out by psychologists.
Medical fear
A lot of person have phobias for doctors, especially for dentists. About 40% of the people have a fear to go to the dentist. Most of them know that their fear is irrational but they still feel anxiety. Normal phobias often result from a frightening experience, but this theory is not applicable to a doctors visit. Sometimes a fear for a doctor results from negative experiences of others, but that is just occasionally. Most of the time anxious behavior cannot be cured.
Solutions
What can be done about it?
Some people say that the fear of going to a doctor depends on how a visitor is treated. Calm music in the waiting-room and some magazines can have a positive influence (of course no medical magazines), plants can have the same effect.
The doctor himself can also adjust his own behavior while treating his patients. A doctor has to give his patients the impression that he is an expert, so people feel safe with him and with what he is doing. He must also tell the patient what he is going to do and why, this make the patient feel safe and reduce the fear.
Keeping Control
Psychologists of The British Association for the Advancement of Science have discovered that when you let a person think that he handles the situation he will feel more safe and will experience less fear. They did an experiment in which a dentist's patient had a switch with which he could turn off the dental drill during the operation. All the patients said they felt more safe during the operation, although nobody of them really used the switch.
The conclusion of this is that a patient can do little himself, but that it is the task of the doctor to help the patient with his anxiety. When the doctor takes the right measures it will help the patients to control their anxious behavior.
Supermarket
A supermarket sells products that everyone needs, so you might think that they do not have to force you into buying something. But that is absolutely untrue, a lot of things in a supermarket are done to make you buy more products and more expensive products. What do they do exactly and how does that work?
Selling Tricks
A long time ago supermarkets had baskets to put your shopping's in. But the disadvantage of this was that when you bought many products, the basket got really heavy. So to make yourself more comfortable, you stop shopping when your basket is filled with products, to prevent you from dragging a heavy basket. To solve this the supermarkets got trolleys; this makes you buy more products.
The whole supermarket is full of signs indicating that a product is on sale. These signs have two results: first it makes the supermarket less monotonous, but it also makes you buy more products. The sale signs make you think that you are buying something cheap, but often you would not have bought it, if it would not have been for sale. So instead of saving money, you spend more money.
They have also thought about the way you walk through the store. When you want to go to the pay-desk you have to walk through the whole store, and they hope that you see something then that you might need and then buy it. But there is also a fixed route, that a lot of customers walk. The owners of the supermarket know this route and try to take advantage from this. Most of the people are right-handed and it is easier for them to take something from a rack that is on the right site, so the most expensive products are put in the rack on the right.
Packing
The packing of a product also influences choice. The color and shape of the packing must fit with the product. For instance a round product indicates that the product is soft and of course you choose the color that corresponds with the product. That is why a coffee packing is very often brown.
The packing must be recognizable from far off and must look qualitative good. The packing is very important because people have an expectation of a product and when the product looks good, they will buy it.
Product ingredients
Research of the consumer council has proven that people feel uneasy when preparing food when they only need to add some water. They think the result will be of low quality and it gives them the feeling of being lazy.
Manufacturers know this and adapt themselves to this situation by not adding egg-powder or milk-powder in the factory, and telling the customer in the directions for use that he has to add fresh milk and fresh eggs. This gives the consumer the feeling that he has really bought and made a good product.
Another way to give the consumer a good feeling about a product is to give some alternatives for preparing the food. This gives the consumer the opportunity to give the food his own personal touch and it will make him feel good. A positive side-effect of this is that the product won't get bored.
Labeling
The label of a product is designed carefully. The label must attract people to the product and it must be recognisable. The direction for use is also important and manufactorer have to pay due attention to it. When a direction of use is written in a difficult way, people won't buy the product again. But the label must not be too easy either, because people could then get the feeling that the product is of a low quality.
The readableness can be tested by psychological tests. An example of such a test is Flesh, this program counts the average of syllables. On the ground of this you can see whether or not a description is good.
The readableness of a label can also be tested by using the description in practice. This is of cource a pretty expensive method.
Domestic animals
In the United states there are about 150 million domestic animals. The care for those animals costs about 6 billion dollars each year, so there must be some good reasons for keeping domestic animals.
The American magazine "Psychology Today" asked her readers to fill out a questionnaire about themselves and their domestic animals. They got thirteen thousand responses. The result of this test learned that 88% of the respondents have a domestic animal for relaxing, 79% consider the domestic animal to be their best friend and 66% keep a domestic animal as a good topic for conversation.
Reasons for Domestic Animals
The reason for keeping domestic animals used to be safety and catching mice, but nowadays people keep domestic animals for their own pleasure.
Some people assert that keeping an animal is good for the psychological development of children, the children would develop a better sense of responsibility and they would be emotionally stronger. Some people even assert that children will be more intelligent when they grow up with a domestic animal.
So animals are a good way to influence the behavior of children.
A domestic animal does not only have benefits. For example, when you cannot handle the dog, the dog has to be brought up again.
And when an animal dies, there is often a lot of grief. Animals just do not get older then human beings.
Influence on Emotional and Physical health
Domestic animals also influence the emotional- and physical health. American research demonstrates that when you stroke an animal, your blood pressure and your hart-beat will decrease.
Domestic animals help people with psychological disorders. If people suffering from schizophrenia will walk dogs and will coddle them, they can cure.
Natural Rhythm-not sleeping
For thousands of years man have followed the time of the day and the night. Nowadays we work and sleep whenever we want, because we have electrical lights. This is very useful for hospitals, transport services and industry. The result of this is that our natural rhythm of sleeping and waking is being affected.
Figures from the United States
An investigation in the United States has demonstrated that 50% of the factory-workers fall asleep during work. This mostly happens short after lunch.
A lot of people working in shifts have sleeping problems. Some people can handle this problem pretty good, but others do not. They sleep shorter, get tired and are quickly irritated. As a result of this they have more accidents. In some air-crashes irregular working hours have been the main reason for the accident.
Causes of having trouble sleeping
Bio-psychologists try to find out the reason for the sleeping problems by working irregular working hours. The National Institute of Mental Health discovered that sunlight blockes the production of melantonine, which is a compound that makes you sleep.
As the result of this discovery scientists suggest factories to have a light on at night, which is 5 times sharper than normal light. Another advise was to change the air-conditioning temperature and change the kind of food in the canteen. This would help the employee's to change their biological clock
Many people are fat or have overweight and want to loose some weight. That is why they are pleased to read that the packing of a product has the words "light" or "less fat". Usually, these words give reliable information about the content of the food package, but quite frequently the message is not unbiased.
Remarks like "light" have a psychological meaning. People who want to loose weight, usually have quite some appetite. They more or less make a compromise by buying "light" food, but eating the same amount of food or even more. As a result, they do not loose weight but take about the same amount of calories, as they would when buying regular food.
Buying a car
Psychological Issues
Although a car is built for transportation, many psychological issues are involved. They are introduced by the sales department of the car company as part of the sales strategy, to sell more cars.
Large headlights and thick bumpers give you a feeling of safety. Also, people like dark colors because this suggests that the car is well painted with several layers. Consumers like elegant gadgets, like the Mercedes star at the front of the car. Such an ornament stands for a reliable car from a company with a long history of high quality cars. Broad tires and a spoiler give the impression of a sports car, which is attractive for some other people.
Odor
Odor also affects consumer behavior. New cars have a particular smell. This smell is associated with novelty, innovation, which makes people willing to pay more.
It is not unusual to use artificial odors, especially when selling used cars.
Infulence on road
Governements strive to reduce the amount of traffic accidents. This can be done by making the traffic situations more clear. An example of this is the traffic light. In every country you have a red light, an orange or yellow light, and a green light. They are always situated at the same place, the red one on top, the orange one in the middle and the green one at the bottom. So when you are colour-blind you know that when the lowest light is shining it is safe to drive.
When you drive on a highway, you often drive at high speed. You get a lot of information from road signs. Your speed makes it very difficult to immediatly understand every sign. To make you notice and understand the traffic situations, road signs therfore are repeated frequently. An exit is announced a lot of times to make sure people will follow the right track.
Another way of making the road more clear is the use of trees and billboards next to the road. For example: when a roundabout has trees around it drivers will be able to see it from far. For the safety of the road-users it is good if they slow down a bit when aproaching a roundabout. To assist this governement has developed a smart solution. Next to the road approaching a roundabout trees are placed with an interspace that gets smaller. So the driver gets the illusion that he is speeding up because he is passing more trees per second with the result that he will slow down.
Following the rules
In a former section we have told you what can be done to make road-signs better visible. But people can see them and still ignore them. In the Netherlands there are a lot of traffic-offences, just because people ignore the rules intentionally. So what can government do about this?
Solutions
One option for this is of course more police. Then there will be more tickets and people will better follow the rules.
But there are cheaper options. It is generally known that when someone sees a police car he will drive more slowly (research has proved this is about 95%). So when people know they are inspected, they will follow the rules. So you can place screens along the road indicating when people drive too hard, without ticketing them. In The Netherlands this method has had great influence on the driving behavior of the car drivers.
You can also put a screen along the road which indicates the percentage of cars that drive too hard. This method is based on the same theory as the previous one.
Another option is to increase the penalties, when people will get a penalty of $2000 for driving too fast, they will think twice before speeding.
Something that also works is to mention the penalty for ignoring a road-sign. For instance: you see a road-sign which says the speed limit is 60 miles pro hour, and under the sign it says: penalty $200. Then people are less likely to exceed this limit.
The general solution is that when people know the consequences they will better follow the rules.
Influences of music
Music can have great influence on our behavior. When you feel tired, music can make you feel cheerful. If you feel tired, you work less efficient and you are less accurate. Then it is useful to play a merry song that makes you feel cheerful.
For an employer this is useful information. Research has demonstrated that employees have a weakened concentration period twice a day: at the end of the morning and in the afternoon. When there is music at those moments, the employees will work better.
Explanations for the influence of music
It is not quite clear why it is that music can have influence on our behavior. Some people think that it has something to do with the heart-beat. Western music has a rhythm that approaches the heart-beat: 70 to 80 beats per minute. Music that peps you up has a little higher beat, and music that calms you down has a little lower beat.
Influences of Music on your Behavior
Music can also influence your behavior by diverting attention. People who have claustrophobia feel better in a small elevator with music in it, the dentist uses music to relax people before an operation, and telephone-exchange services use music to make people wait instead of ringing off.
Radio
Radio channels know the influence of music too. To make you cheerful they have special music-scheme's like G-B-H-I-C. A "G" means a song from the seventies, a B is a number 1 song, and so on. These schemes are thought out by psychologists.
Medical fear
A lot of person have phobias for doctors, especially for dentists. About 40% of the people have a fear to go to the dentist. Most of them know that their fear is irrational but they still feel anxiety. Normal phobias often result from a frightening experience, but this theory is not applicable to a doctors visit. Sometimes a fear for a doctor results from negative experiences of others, but that is just occasionally. Most of the time anxious behavior cannot be cured.
Solutions
What can be done about it?
Some people say that the fear of going to a doctor depends on how a visitor is treated. Calm music in the waiting-room and some magazines can have a positive influence (of course no medical magazines), plants can have the same effect.
The doctor himself can also adjust his own behavior while treating his patients. A doctor has to give his patients the impression that he is an expert, so people feel safe with him and with what he is doing. He must also tell the patient what he is going to do and why, this make the patient feel safe and reduce the fear.
Keeping Control
Psychologists of The British Association for the Advancement of Science have discovered that when you let a person think that he handles the situation he will feel more safe and will experience less fear. They did an experiment in which a dentist's patient had a switch with which he could turn off the dental drill during the operation. All the patients said they felt more safe during the operation, although nobody of them really used the switch.
The conclusion of this is that a patient can do little himself, but that it is the task of the doctor to help the patient with his anxiety. When the doctor takes the right measures it will help the patients to control their anxious behavior.
Supermarket
A supermarket sells products that everyone needs, so you might think that they do not have to force you into buying something. But that is absolutely untrue, a lot of things in a supermarket are done to make you buy more products and more expensive products. What do they do exactly and how does that work?
Selling Tricks
A long time ago supermarkets had baskets to put your shopping's in. But the disadvantage of this was that when you bought many products, the basket got really heavy. So to make yourself more comfortable, you stop shopping when your basket is filled with products, to prevent you from dragging a heavy basket. To solve this the supermarkets got trolleys; this makes you buy more products.
The whole supermarket is full of signs indicating that a product is on sale. These signs have two results: first it makes the supermarket less monotonous, but it also makes you buy more products. The sale signs make you think that you are buying something cheap, but often you would not have bought it, if it would not have been for sale. So instead of saving money, you spend more money.
They have also thought about the way you walk through the store. When you want to go to the pay-desk you have to walk through the whole store, and they hope that you see something then that you might need and then buy it. But there is also a fixed route, that a lot of customers walk. The owners of the supermarket know this route and try to take advantage from this. Most of the people are right-handed and it is easier for them to take something from a rack that is on the right site, so the most expensive products are put in the rack on the right.
Packing
The packing of a product also influences choice. The color and shape of the packing must fit with the product. For instance a round product indicates that the product is soft and of course you choose the color that corresponds with the product. That is why a coffee packing is very often brown.
The packing must be recognizable from far off and must look qualitative good. The packing is very important because people have an expectation of a product and when the product looks good, they will buy it.
Product ingredients
Research of the consumer council has proven that people feel uneasy when preparing food when they only need to add some water. They think the result will be of low quality and it gives them the feeling of being lazy.
Manufacturers know this and adapt themselves to this situation by not adding egg-powder or milk-powder in the factory, and telling the customer in the directions for use that he has to add fresh milk and fresh eggs. This gives the consumer the feeling that he has really bought and made a good product.
Another way to give the consumer a good feeling about a product is to give some alternatives for preparing the food. This gives the consumer the opportunity to give the food his own personal touch and it will make him feel good. A positive side-effect of this is that the product won't get bored.
Labeling
The label of a product is designed carefully. The label must attract people to the product and it must be recognisable. The direction for use is also important and manufactorer have to pay due attention to it. When a direction of use is written in a difficult way, people won't buy the product again. But the label must not be too easy either, because people could then get the feeling that the product is of a low quality.
The readableness can be tested by psychological tests. An example of such a test is Flesh, this program counts the average of syllables. On the ground of this you can see whether or not a description is good.
The readableness of a label can also be tested by using the description in practice. This is of cource a pretty expensive method.
Domestic animals
In the United states there are about 150 million domestic animals. The care for those animals costs about 6 billion dollars each year, so there must be some good reasons for keeping domestic animals.
The American magazine "Psychology Today" asked her readers to fill out a questionnaire about themselves and their domestic animals. They got thirteen thousand responses. The result of this test learned that 88% of the respondents have a domestic animal for relaxing, 79% consider the domestic animal to be their best friend and 66% keep a domestic animal as a good topic for conversation.
Reasons for Domestic Animals
The reason for keeping domestic animals used to be safety and catching mice, but nowadays people keep domestic animals for their own pleasure.
Some people assert that keeping an animal is good for the psychological development of children, the children would develop a better sense of responsibility and they would be emotionally stronger. Some people even assert that children will be more intelligent when they grow up with a domestic animal.
So animals are a good way to influence the behavior of children.
A domestic animal does not only have benefits. For example, when you cannot handle the dog, the dog has to be brought up again.
And when an animal dies, there is often a lot of grief. Animals just do not get older then human beings.
Influence on Emotional and Physical health
Domestic animals also influence the emotional- and physical health. American research demonstrates that when you stroke an animal, your blood pressure and your hart-beat will decrease.
Domestic animals help people with psychological disorders. If people suffering from schizophrenia will walk dogs and will coddle them, they can cure.
Natural Rhythm-not sleeping
For thousands of years man have followed the time of the day and the night. Nowadays we work and sleep whenever we want, because we have electrical lights. This is very useful for hospitals, transport services and industry. The result of this is that our natural rhythm of sleeping and waking is being affected.
Figures from the United States
An investigation in the United States has demonstrated that 50% of the factory-workers fall asleep during work. This mostly happens short after lunch.
A lot of people working in shifts have sleeping problems. Some people can handle this problem pretty good, but others do not. They sleep shorter, get tired and are quickly irritated. As a result of this they have more accidents. In some air-crashes irregular working hours have been the main reason for the accident.
Causes of having trouble sleeping
Bio-psychologists try to find out the reason for the sleeping problems by working irregular working hours. The National Institute of Mental Health discovered that sunlight blockes the production of melantonine, which is a compound that makes you sleep.
As the result of this discovery scientists suggest factories to have a light on at night, which is 5 times sharper than normal light. Another advise was to change the air-conditioning temperature and change the kind of food in the canteen. This would help the employee's to change their biological clock
Gestures
Accidental Gestures
Many of our gestures are unintentional. We scratch our head to remove itch, but not to convey a message to someone else. Although these acts have no specific purpose with regard to inter-personal communication, they may reveal information about a person. For example, people, who are nervous, tend to scratch their head more frequently than others. Therefore, it is difficult to hide emotional feelings, since many unintentional movements do reveal information.
For example, if a student following a course puts his head to rest in his hands, it may reflect fatigue, but will also reflect that the course is boring, as most people do not feel tired when courses are interesting and exciting.
Those "unintentional" acts can also be used intentionally. For example, a student who wants to tease a teacher, may pretend that the course is boring by putting his head at rest in his hands
What are Gestures of Expression?
Gestures of expression are gestures with a biological background, which are the same all over the world. Sometimes, these gestures are also found with animals. An important class of gestures is that of facial expressions.
All primates have a broad spectrum of facial expressions. They have many well developed facial muscles, which allow many complex facial expressions. Of these primates, man has the most facial expressions and the human face is one of the most important sources of information in communication between people.
Hands
The hands also play an important role in gestures. Except from grasping, manipulation, etc. they play an important role in communication between people. Hand gestures usually support spoken words. They can also express emotional states, frequently unconsciously.
Result of Combined Expressions
Facial expressions and gestures are usually spontaneous. Quite frequently, people do not pay explicit attention to gestures. However, people will remember the emotional state of a person, which is the combined result of expressions of the face, arms, voice, etc., rather than each of these expressions separately. Together, these expressions provide a redundancy, such that only part of the gestures are enough to convey the message. It is like in speech, where some noise will not interfere with the interpretation of the spoken words.
Origin of Gestures
Our gestures of expression are originally related to gestures, which originate from previous times in another context. For example, wrinkling one's forehead when people are worried originates from covering the eyes in case of danger.
Cultural influence
Although gestures of expression can be found in many populations of people, they are influenced by cultural backgrounds. Not all people in the world smile in the same way, although we all have the same musculature.
What are Mimic Gestures?
Mimic gestures are gestures imitating a person or an object. Only humans display these gestures and they are not found with animals. A good mimic gesture can be so striking, that even someone, who has never seen the gesture, immediately understands it.
Types of Mimic Gestures
There are four types of mimics:
1. Social mimic. This is behavior as expected in a social context. For example, on a party people laugh, even though they are not in the mood, because you are expected to be happy and to laugh. Actually, social mimic is some kind of fooling other people.
2. Theatre mimic. This is behavior to amuse and entertain other people. It can be observed in movies and theatres. People can adopt it by copying behavior of actors or by simulating a particular situation.
3. Partial mimic. This is pretending someone or something, which will never occur. For example, playing the role of a bird or a tree. Or holding the hands together like holding a gun.
4. Vacuum mimic. This is a gesture or behavior indicating the absence of something. An example is suggesting the absence of food by simulating to be hungry.
What are Technical Gestures?
Technical gestures are gestures, which are used only by particular minorities. They are used exclusively within a particular group and do not have any meaning for outsiders. They have no meaning for the culture of a country, because they are not used frequently enough.
Usage
Technical gestures are used in conditions when communication by words is impossible or difficult. For example, divers under water cannot communicate. Also fireman have developed particular gestures to indicate the water supply desired .
Misunderstandings
Since these technical gestures are used by a small group of people, they can easily be misunderstood by people, not familiar with these gestures. For example, people in distress sometimes wave, which can be understood as exchange of friendly greetings
What are Coded Gestures?
Contrary to other types of gestures, coded gestures are part of a strictly formal system of gestures. They are usually part of a system of interrelated gestures. Unlike technical gestures which are well-defined and which have a meaning independent of each other, each coded gesture has a meaning which is not independent of other gestures. Coded gestures make a meaning in the context of other gestures just like the characters in a word.
If one character in a word is changed, the word may have another meaning. In the same way, another gesture may change the meaning of a sequence of coded gestures.
Example
The most well-known example of coded gestures is the language of gestures for blind people. This language of hand signals has a one-handed and a two-handed version. Another example is using flags as communication between ships.
Training
Coded gestures require a lot of training. It illustrates the wide variety of ways for communication between people.
In addition to the types of gestures mentioned above, there are two other groups of gestures, which deserve a short description.
What are Schematic Gestures?
First there are schematic gestures. These are shortened versions of mimic gestures. Schematic gestures try to emphasize particular features of the technical gestures.
Schematic gestures form a kind of shorthand dialect, which are the result of frequent and fast executed gestures.
Schematic gestures are not always uniquely interpretable and they can vary between various groups of people.
What are Symbolic Gestures?
Second, there are symbolic gestures. These gestures symbolize symbols, rituals or religious ideas. Symbolic gestures are hard to understand outside the community, which uses these gestures. Some gestures can have a different meaning in various cultural groups.
Sometimes there is a relationship between the meaning and the gesture, but this is not always the case
Many of our gestures are unintentional. We scratch our head to remove itch, but not to convey a message to someone else. Although these acts have no specific purpose with regard to inter-personal communication, they may reveal information about a person. For example, people, who are nervous, tend to scratch their head more frequently than others. Therefore, it is difficult to hide emotional feelings, since many unintentional movements do reveal information.
For example, if a student following a course puts his head to rest in his hands, it may reflect fatigue, but will also reflect that the course is boring, as most people do not feel tired when courses are interesting and exciting.
Those "unintentional" acts can also be used intentionally. For example, a student who wants to tease a teacher, may pretend that the course is boring by putting his head at rest in his hands
What are Gestures of Expression?
Gestures of expression are gestures with a biological background, which are the same all over the world. Sometimes, these gestures are also found with animals. An important class of gestures is that of facial expressions.
All primates have a broad spectrum of facial expressions. They have many well developed facial muscles, which allow many complex facial expressions. Of these primates, man has the most facial expressions and the human face is one of the most important sources of information in communication between people.
Hands
The hands also play an important role in gestures. Except from grasping, manipulation, etc. they play an important role in communication between people. Hand gestures usually support spoken words. They can also express emotional states, frequently unconsciously.
Result of Combined Expressions
Facial expressions and gestures are usually spontaneous. Quite frequently, people do not pay explicit attention to gestures. However, people will remember the emotional state of a person, which is the combined result of expressions of the face, arms, voice, etc., rather than each of these expressions separately. Together, these expressions provide a redundancy, such that only part of the gestures are enough to convey the message. It is like in speech, where some noise will not interfere with the interpretation of the spoken words.
Origin of Gestures
Our gestures of expression are originally related to gestures, which originate from previous times in another context. For example, wrinkling one's forehead when people are worried originates from covering the eyes in case of danger.
Cultural influence
Although gestures of expression can be found in many populations of people, they are influenced by cultural backgrounds. Not all people in the world smile in the same way, although we all have the same musculature.
What are Mimic Gestures?
Mimic gestures are gestures imitating a person or an object. Only humans display these gestures and they are not found with animals. A good mimic gesture can be so striking, that even someone, who has never seen the gesture, immediately understands it.
Types of Mimic Gestures
There are four types of mimics:
1. Social mimic. This is behavior as expected in a social context. For example, on a party people laugh, even though they are not in the mood, because you are expected to be happy and to laugh. Actually, social mimic is some kind of fooling other people.
2. Theatre mimic. This is behavior to amuse and entertain other people. It can be observed in movies and theatres. People can adopt it by copying behavior of actors or by simulating a particular situation.
3. Partial mimic. This is pretending someone or something, which will never occur. For example, playing the role of a bird or a tree. Or holding the hands together like holding a gun.
4. Vacuum mimic. This is a gesture or behavior indicating the absence of something. An example is suggesting the absence of food by simulating to be hungry.
What are Technical Gestures?
Technical gestures are gestures, which are used only by particular minorities. They are used exclusively within a particular group and do not have any meaning for outsiders. They have no meaning for the culture of a country, because they are not used frequently enough.
Usage
Technical gestures are used in conditions when communication by words is impossible or difficult. For example, divers under water cannot communicate. Also fireman have developed particular gestures to indicate the water supply desired .
Misunderstandings
Since these technical gestures are used by a small group of people, they can easily be misunderstood by people, not familiar with these gestures. For example, people in distress sometimes wave, which can be understood as exchange of friendly greetings
What are Coded Gestures?
Contrary to other types of gestures, coded gestures are part of a strictly formal system of gestures. They are usually part of a system of interrelated gestures. Unlike technical gestures which are well-defined and which have a meaning independent of each other, each coded gesture has a meaning which is not independent of other gestures. Coded gestures make a meaning in the context of other gestures just like the characters in a word.
If one character in a word is changed, the word may have another meaning. In the same way, another gesture may change the meaning of a sequence of coded gestures.
Example
The most well-known example of coded gestures is the language of gestures for blind people. This language of hand signals has a one-handed and a two-handed version. Another example is using flags as communication between ships.
Training
Coded gestures require a lot of training. It illustrates the wide variety of ways for communication between people.
In addition to the types of gestures mentioned above, there are two other groups of gestures, which deserve a short description.
What are Schematic Gestures?
First there are schematic gestures. These are shortened versions of mimic gestures. Schematic gestures try to emphasize particular features of the technical gestures.
Schematic gestures form a kind of shorthand dialect, which are the result of frequent and fast executed gestures.
Schematic gestures are not always uniquely interpretable and they can vary between various groups of people.
What are Symbolic Gestures?
Second, there are symbolic gestures. These gestures symbolize symbols, rituals or religious ideas. Symbolic gestures are hard to understand outside the community, which uses these gestures. Some gestures can have a different meaning in various cultural groups.
Sometimes there is a relationship between the meaning and the gesture, but this is not always the case
Body Language
Body Language
Body language is usually more informative than words. Words by other people usually tell you what other people WANT to say, while body posture usually tells, what they really feel and think. They express for example emotions, thoughts and how they think. It is easier to lie with words, than with body language.
Consequences of Body Language
Psychologists have found out that when people try to simulate body language, they change many other things. By walking more upright, people may really feel more confident. When body language is changed, people will respond different to these changes. Body language, therefore, has consequences for the interaction with other people.
Misunderstandings
There are several misunderstandings about body language:
1. In former days, people thought that body language provided the key to complete understanding of the intentions of a person. For example, according to this theory, a person was supposed to lie when he was scratching his nose. Obviously, it may also be a reason to scratch the nose. Today, we know that things are more complicated.
2. Another misunderstanding is, that speech and body language are intricately connected. Human behavior is a combination of speech and body language.
3. It is also a misconception that body language can be used to manipulate other people. Exaggerated behavior or body language in order to impress someone, will easily be detected as simulated behavior due to unnatural behavioral features. The other person will adapt to that by ignoring that behavior.
4. Interpreting Body Language
Interpretation of body language is quite difficult, since a single movement may be ambiguous. A particular movement may have multiple meanings, depending on the situation and depending on other movements and gestures.
5. Influences on Body Language
Body language is heavily influenced by cultural background and by education. As a consequence, correct interpretation of body language of a person requires knowledge about the background of that person.
6. Personal Characteristics
Body language also has many personal characteristics. Scratching the nose may be due to stress for one person, but may be a sign of feeling comfortable for another person. Due to this ambiguities, interpretation of body language is difficult, even though gestures and postures are common for most people.
7. Rituals
A more accurate impression about a person can be obtained by observation of a sequence of behavioral patterns. Such a sequence of behaviors is called a ritual. Roughly speaking, rituals are approximately the same for all people.
Interpreting Body Language
Good interpretation of body language requires careful observation. Good observation may reveal a lot of information. It requires observation of multiple movements, but also observation of speech. Not only what is said is relevant, but more even so it is important how things are said. If a person speaks rapidly and irregularly, it may reveal that he is nervous.
1. Good knowledge about interpretation of body language, gives the ability to predict how a person will behave in particular conditions and how they feel. It will also give a better understanding of yourself and may help you in communicating with other people
Meeting People
When you meet a person for the first time, the first 10 seconds will give an impression, which to a large extent will determine whether you will like this person or not. In these first ten seconds, you will notice impressions like nervousness, seriousness, etc. These first seconds will also influence to a large extent the rest of the conversation and any further contacts. Therefore the first impression is very important.
Eyes
An important factor in the first contact is the eyes. The eyes should look at the person. If you want to impress the person, you should open your eyes slightly more than usual, since raising the eye brows gives people the impression that they are welcome. After the first "hello", you should maintain eye contact, which prevents the impression of nervousness with the other person. You should also smile and look friendly.
First Meeting
During the first meeting, it is good to look carefully at the other person. If he or she disapproves your behavior, you should adapt your behavior. Also, behavior should be appropriate for the situation. For example, a firm and long hand shaking is quite usual for meeting a friend you have not seen for a long time, but quite inappropriate on a funeral.
Listening
While listening to another person, posture is very important. Even when you are not really interested in the story it is polite to listen with an attitude of interest.
Showing Interest
The best way to show interest is to listen very well and to refrain from any other thoughts not related to the topic. Refrain from other behaviors like moving on your chair, rotating your head in various directions. Also, you can express interest by head nodding at the proper times. This gives the impression that you agree and that you share the opinion of the other person.
Showing Empathy
Try to show empathy with the speaker. When the speaker laughs and you look a bit dully, it doesn't encourage the speaker to continue. So when the speaker laughs, it is polite to join in the laugh. And when the speaker gets angry, then show empathy with him to nod shorter and quicker.
Talking to someone
When you are talking to a person, you would like him to listen. By using body language the listener becomes more involved in the conversation and therefore, this is a way to reach your goal. Body language also adds new information to the speech signal alone. This is easy to check by comparing speech on a video-tape with and without the visual part of the video signal.
1. Using body language while talking
An important point in speech is to look at the person you are talking to. This keep the listener involved in your conversation.
Body language adds to that by gestures, pitch and mimics to emphasize the importance of your words. For example, when you have a sad story you can speak slowly looking sadly. And you can speak faster and at a higher pitch with a big smile for a funny story. However, exaggerated gestures may have the opposite effect. Acquiring the appropriate body language is a culturally dependent task, which has to be learned while growing up to adulthood.
Traits
Body language can be used to analyze someone's character. However, this requires some training. It requires to focus on the total behavior of that person, not on gestures which are made rarely.
We will give three examples of qualities of character, which have a clear relationship with body-language:
• Each person has a preferred sensory system. For example in determining the upright vertical people can use visual or vestibular information. People fall in two categories, they either rely mostly on visual or mostly on vestibular information. In communication between people, persons who mainly focus on visual information tend to have the head upright with slightly stressed shoulders.
People, who tend to focus more on speech, tend to have the head slightly bent forward and a little sideward. If they are deeply involved they tend to move their lips as if they are expressing their thoughts. People, focussing more on proprioceptive information, tend to lean (for example to a wall or chair) and move in a relaxed way.
The difference between these people is their way of behavior in inter-personal communication.
• Another difference in characters is related to being introvert or extrovert. People differ markedly in many aspects. Extrovert people are more energetic and have a more spontaneous behavior. Introvert people are less likely to seek contact with other people and some may even avoid it. Introvert people will prefer quiet places where they can be alone, whereas an extrovert person will like the company of many other people.
• Another striking difference in characters is related to the fact whether people are satisfied with their situation or not. A natural posture of a person, who is satisfied is straight, looking happy and self-confident. Someone, who is not satisfied with his situation, will act slowly, looking tired and somewhat sadly.
People, who are not satisfied with themselves, find it more difficult to make new contacts with other people or to continue a relationship for a long time.
The way you breath
By breathing you not only provides oxygen for the body. Breathing also reflects how you feel. When you are nervous or angry you will breath faster, and when you are sad you often breath in jerks. Like when you are crying.
Your breathings are also signs: when you want to interrupt a speaking person you can do that by inhaling loudly and shortly, a loud sigh means that you understand the thing that is being told to you.
Shrugged shoulders
You can recognize stressed shoulders by the fact that they are a bit shrugged, which does make the head look smaller. The meaning of the signal comes from crouching in dangerous situations.
The meaning of this posing depends on the combination. In combination with big eyes it means that someone is concerned about something that is going to happen. In combination with a face that is turned away it means that the person wants to be left alone. An introvert person has nearly always those stressed shoulders.
Difference in level of both shoulders
By most of the people the left and the right shoulder are of the same height. When they are not, it often means that someone is doubting about what he is going to do. With this movement we simulate (unconscious) that we are weighing the possibilities. Sometimes when someone makes this movement, his head will move a little like he is looking above.
Crossed arms
There are a lot of different explanations of the meaning of crossed arms. When someone has crossed arms and he is shaking his head it means that he does not agree with you. But he can also cross his arms when he is frightened, then his arms give him some protection. Another option is that he is feeling cold and he is trying to hold his body-warmth with him. When someone is sitting in a chair with his arms crossed, it indicates that the person is relaxed.
Making a fist from your hands
A fist is a sign for aggression. It comes from hitting someone. But it is seldom used with a threatening meaning. Most of the time it is used to indicate that you are angry or irritated.
Holding the hand before the mouth
Holding a hand before your mouth means that you are hiding something. In western countries it is impolite to belch or to hiccup. So someone can hold his hand before his mouth to hide that he is hiccuping. When someone puts his hand before his mouth when he is talking it indicates that he is saying something or has said something that he did not want to say.
Making the eyes look larger
The meaning of making the eyes look larger can be that someone is astonished. In that case he opens his mouth a little. It can also mean that he is happy or that he likes the thing that is talked about. And because it means that you like something, you can use it on purpose. It pleases people when you have your eyes opened a bit further.
When people open their eyes a bit further it can also mean that they are unhappily surprised. Then they will frown their eyebrows.
Raising the eyebrows
Raising the eyebrows shortly means that people are surprised. They raise their eyebrows to allow them to look better. But it can also mean that somebody is looking at you, and that he likes you.
Raised forehead
A raised forehead often means that someone is remembering something he has seen. This often happens very quickly. It can also be a sign of a certain emotion. It is a biological reflex that you raise your forehead a little when you are crying so the tears can move easier.
Pursed lips
When somebody purses his lips it means that he has to make a decision and is thinking about that. Sometimes he also moves his lips, like he is saying the possibilities. When somebody purses his lips, he often looks a bit upward.
A big smile
A smile indicates, of course, that someone is happy. But sometimes a smile is not "real", someone can smile to please others. But you can recognize an "unreal" smile by looking at the rest of his face. Another thing that indicates that the smile is fake is that a fake smile goes on longer and disappears slower.
Crossed legs
When someone has crossed his legs it means that he is relaxed and self-confident. Very often people cross their legs and put their highest foot in the direction of the speaker. In this case it means that you are listening very carefully.
Legs wide apart
Sitting straddle-legged is a comfortable way of sitting. When people are sitting in this way they are feeling safe.
Sitting straddle-legged indicates that you are self-confident. Therefore leaders of a group often sit in this way, it forces others to give him a wide berth.
Twisted feet
Because feet are not seen by anyone when sitting at a table, people often use their feet to indicate their emotions.
Twisting the feet continiously indicates that a person is nervous or concerned. This can also mean that a person is stressed or angry and that he don't want to show that to everybody.
Body language is usually more informative than words. Words by other people usually tell you what other people WANT to say, while body posture usually tells, what they really feel and think. They express for example emotions, thoughts and how they think. It is easier to lie with words, than with body language.
Consequences of Body Language
Psychologists have found out that when people try to simulate body language, they change many other things. By walking more upright, people may really feel more confident. When body language is changed, people will respond different to these changes. Body language, therefore, has consequences for the interaction with other people.
Misunderstandings
There are several misunderstandings about body language:
1. In former days, people thought that body language provided the key to complete understanding of the intentions of a person. For example, according to this theory, a person was supposed to lie when he was scratching his nose. Obviously, it may also be a reason to scratch the nose. Today, we know that things are more complicated.
2. Another misunderstanding is, that speech and body language are intricately connected. Human behavior is a combination of speech and body language.
3. It is also a misconception that body language can be used to manipulate other people. Exaggerated behavior or body language in order to impress someone, will easily be detected as simulated behavior due to unnatural behavioral features. The other person will adapt to that by ignoring that behavior.
4. Interpreting Body Language
Interpretation of body language is quite difficult, since a single movement may be ambiguous. A particular movement may have multiple meanings, depending on the situation and depending on other movements and gestures.
5. Influences on Body Language
Body language is heavily influenced by cultural background and by education. As a consequence, correct interpretation of body language of a person requires knowledge about the background of that person.
6. Personal Characteristics
Body language also has many personal characteristics. Scratching the nose may be due to stress for one person, but may be a sign of feeling comfortable for another person. Due to this ambiguities, interpretation of body language is difficult, even though gestures and postures are common for most people.
7. Rituals
A more accurate impression about a person can be obtained by observation of a sequence of behavioral patterns. Such a sequence of behaviors is called a ritual. Roughly speaking, rituals are approximately the same for all people.
Interpreting Body Language
Good interpretation of body language requires careful observation. Good observation may reveal a lot of information. It requires observation of multiple movements, but also observation of speech. Not only what is said is relevant, but more even so it is important how things are said. If a person speaks rapidly and irregularly, it may reveal that he is nervous.
1. Good knowledge about interpretation of body language, gives the ability to predict how a person will behave in particular conditions and how they feel. It will also give a better understanding of yourself and may help you in communicating with other people
Meeting People
When you meet a person for the first time, the first 10 seconds will give an impression, which to a large extent will determine whether you will like this person or not. In these first ten seconds, you will notice impressions like nervousness, seriousness, etc. These first seconds will also influence to a large extent the rest of the conversation and any further contacts. Therefore the first impression is very important.
Eyes
An important factor in the first contact is the eyes. The eyes should look at the person. If you want to impress the person, you should open your eyes slightly more than usual, since raising the eye brows gives people the impression that they are welcome. After the first "hello", you should maintain eye contact, which prevents the impression of nervousness with the other person. You should also smile and look friendly.
First Meeting
During the first meeting, it is good to look carefully at the other person. If he or she disapproves your behavior, you should adapt your behavior. Also, behavior should be appropriate for the situation. For example, a firm and long hand shaking is quite usual for meeting a friend you have not seen for a long time, but quite inappropriate on a funeral.
Listening
While listening to another person, posture is very important. Even when you are not really interested in the story it is polite to listen with an attitude of interest.
Showing Interest
The best way to show interest is to listen very well and to refrain from any other thoughts not related to the topic. Refrain from other behaviors like moving on your chair, rotating your head in various directions. Also, you can express interest by head nodding at the proper times. This gives the impression that you agree and that you share the opinion of the other person.
Showing Empathy
Try to show empathy with the speaker. When the speaker laughs and you look a bit dully, it doesn't encourage the speaker to continue. So when the speaker laughs, it is polite to join in the laugh. And when the speaker gets angry, then show empathy with him to nod shorter and quicker.
Talking to someone
When you are talking to a person, you would like him to listen. By using body language the listener becomes more involved in the conversation and therefore, this is a way to reach your goal. Body language also adds new information to the speech signal alone. This is easy to check by comparing speech on a video-tape with and without the visual part of the video signal.
1. Using body language while talking
An important point in speech is to look at the person you are talking to. This keep the listener involved in your conversation.
Body language adds to that by gestures, pitch and mimics to emphasize the importance of your words. For example, when you have a sad story you can speak slowly looking sadly. And you can speak faster and at a higher pitch with a big smile for a funny story. However, exaggerated gestures may have the opposite effect. Acquiring the appropriate body language is a culturally dependent task, which has to be learned while growing up to adulthood.
Traits
Body language can be used to analyze someone's character. However, this requires some training. It requires to focus on the total behavior of that person, not on gestures which are made rarely.
We will give three examples of qualities of character, which have a clear relationship with body-language:
• Each person has a preferred sensory system. For example in determining the upright vertical people can use visual or vestibular information. People fall in two categories, they either rely mostly on visual or mostly on vestibular information. In communication between people, persons who mainly focus on visual information tend to have the head upright with slightly stressed shoulders.
People, who tend to focus more on speech, tend to have the head slightly bent forward and a little sideward. If they are deeply involved they tend to move their lips as if they are expressing their thoughts. People, focussing more on proprioceptive information, tend to lean (for example to a wall or chair) and move in a relaxed way.
The difference between these people is their way of behavior in inter-personal communication.
• Another difference in characters is related to being introvert or extrovert. People differ markedly in many aspects. Extrovert people are more energetic and have a more spontaneous behavior. Introvert people are less likely to seek contact with other people and some may even avoid it. Introvert people will prefer quiet places where they can be alone, whereas an extrovert person will like the company of many other people.
• Another striking difference in characters is related to the fact whether people are satisfied with their situation or not. A natural posture of a person, who is satisfied is straight, looking happy and self-confident. Someone, who is not satisfied with his situation, will act slowly, looking tired and somewhat sadly.
People, who are not satisfied with themselves, find it more difficult to make new contacts with other people or to continue a relationship for a long time.
The way you breath
By breathing you not only provides oxygen for the body. Breathing also reflects how you feel. When you are nervous or angry you will breath faster, and when you are sad you often breath in jerks. Like when you are crying.
Your breathings are also signs: when you want to interrupt a speaking person you can do that by inhaling loudly and shortly, a loud sigh means that you understand the thing that is being told to you.
Shrugged shoulders
You can recognize stressed shoulders by the fact that they are a bit shrugged, which does make the head look smaller. The meaning of the signal comes from crouching in dangerous situations.
The meaning of this posing depends on the combination. In combination with big eyes it means that someone is concerned about something that is going to happen. In combination with a face that is turned away it means that the person wants to be left alone. An introvert person has nearly always those stressed shoulders.
Difference in level of both shoulders
By most of the people the left and the right shoulder are of the same height. When they are not, it often means that someone is doubting about what he is going to do. With this movement we simulate (unconscious) that we are weighing the possibilities. Sometimes when someone makes this movement, his head will move a little like he is looking above.
Crossed arms
There are a lot of different explanations of the meaning of crossed arms. When someone has crossed arms and he is shaking his head it means that he does not agree with you. But he can also cross his arms when he is frightened, then his arms give him some protection. Another option is that he is feeling cold and he is trying to hold his body-warmth with him. When someone is sitting in a chair with his arms crossed, it indicates that the person is relaxed.
Making a fist from your hands
A fist is a sign for aggression. It comes from hitting someone. But it is seldom used with a threatening meaning. Most of the time it is used to indicate that you are angry or irritated.
Holding the hand before the mouth
Holding a hand before your mouth means that you are hiding something. In western countries it is impolite to belch or to hiccup. So someone can hold his hand before his mouth to hide that he is hiccuping. When someone puts his hand before his mouth when he is talking it indicates that he is saying something or has said something that he did not want to say.
Making the eyes look larger
The meaning of making the eyes look larger can be that someone is astonished. In that case he opens his mouth a little. It can also mean that he is happy or that he likes the thing that is talked about. And because it means that you like something, you can use it on purpose. It pleases people when you have your eyes opened a bit further.
When people open their eyes a bit further it can also mean that they are unhappily surprised. Then they will frown their eyebrows.
Raising the eyebrows
Raising the eyebrows shortly means that people are surprised. They raise their eyebrows to allow them to look better. But it can also mean that somebody is looking at you, and that he likes you.
Raised forehead
A raised forehead often means that someone is remembering something he has seen. This often happens very quickly. It can also be a sign of a certain emotion. It is a biological reflex that you raise your forehead a little when you are crying so the tears can move easier.
Pursed lips
When somebody purses his lips it means that he has to make a decision and is thinking about that. Sometimes he also moves his lips, like he is saying the possibilities. When somebody purses his lips, he often looks a bit upward.
A big smile
A smile indicates, of course, that someone is happy. But sometimes a smile is not "real", someone can smile to please others. But you can recognize an "unreal" smile by looking at the rest of his face. Another thing that indicates that the smile is fake is that a fake smile goes on longer and disappears slower.
Crossed legs
When someone has crossed his legs it means that he is relaxed and self-confident. Very often people cross their legs and put their highest foot in the direction of the speaker. In this case it means that you are listening very carefully.
Legs wide apart
Sitting straddle-legged is a comfortable way of sitting. When people are sitting in this way they are feeling safe.
Sitting straddle-legged indicates that you are self-confident. Therefore leaders of a group often sit in this way, it forces others to give him a wide berth.
Twisted feet
Because feet are not seen by anyone when sitting at a table, people often use their feet to indicate their emotions.
Twisting the feet continiously indicates that a person is nervous or concerned. This can also mean that a person is stressed or angry and that he don't want to show that to everybody.
Jumaat, 19 Mac 2010
Cognitive Processes
Introduction
Cognitive processes are very important for human behavior. It is about knowledge and the way people use their knowledge.
The first paragraph is about storing knowledge in memory and about the accuracy of the stored information. It is a short paragraph in which we will explain how you can recognize, for example, a dog as being a dog.
The second paragraph is about memory. It describes different phases in remembering. The last part tells you how you can improve your memory.
The third paragraph is about understanding and using language. How come you recognize texts and know what it means? How do you develop your speech so you can use your language in daily life?
In the fourth paragraph we will explain intelligence. How can you measure intelligence and what is the connection between creativity and intelligence? We will tell you something about the genetic influence on intelligence; how come some people are so smart, while others are not that intelligent?
The last paragraph is about learning. There are several theories about this topic. They explain the simple ways of learning, like for example the way a dog learns a trick. But they also explain the more complicated things that are learned by cognitive learning. An example of this could be learning the content of this site. The last part of this paragraph is about computer-assisted learning.
1.Mental representation
Mental representations
Our memory has stored mental representations of experiences. There are two basic forms of mental representations.
In this paragraph we will explain the analogous representations, also called mental imagery. The second form of representation, the symbolic representations, will be explained in the next paragraph.
"Memory never gives a perfect match with reality, because mental images are not perfect."
Match with the real world
Our memory never matches the real world perfectly, because stored mental representations (from now on called mental imagery) are not perfect. Mental representations have some sensory qualities, for example: in your imagination, you can make a walk through your house. Recent studies using brain imaging have shown that during mental imagery most brain structures are active as if subjects are really experiencing or acting.
An example of the fact that mental images do not always match the real world, is the following:
When you are asked which city is farther west, San Diego, California or Reno, Nevada, the answer may not correspond with the correct answer, which you would have obtained after consulting an atlas.
This example shows that our mental map is not very detailed. However, it is not necessary to have a very detailed mental image. For example: when you are searching for the keys of your car, you do not have to know that they are in the bottom of the basket on the wooden table in the kitchen. You only have to know that they are somewhere in the kitchen. Then you will have them found within a couple of moments.
When do you use it?
You use your mental imagery when you are thinking of what has happened at a specific place, and when you look in advance. For example, when someone asks you to show him the way, you use your mental imagery to mention the name of the streets and the distances
2.Memory
Memory Systems
In the external world there are a lot of memory systems, such as an appointment calendar, a video tape, a compact disc and a computer. These artificial memory systems have been a source for ideas about possible functioning of the human memory system. The computer, for example, has served as a model for psychologists about cognitive processes and human memory.
"The amount of information we can process is limited."
Levels of Memory
The classical theory of Richard C. Atkinson and Richard M. Shiffrin illustrates the information-processing approach. This is how the analogy works:
The environment stimulates one or more sensory systems. This environmental information then passes three levels of memory called sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. (These three levels will be explained later.)
At each level, cognitive processes operate on the information, giving it meaning, refreshing it and integrating it. In the sensory memory, the information is encoded to go to the short term memory. There the information is encoded to go to the long term memory. This is illustrated in the scheme.
Attention
The amount of information, that can be processed is limited. The main bottle-neck is attention. If you are distracted by a TV program, while you are trying to study, your attention will be divided over both the book and the TV. When you would study without having the TV on, you would have more attention to 'spend' on your study.
Cognitive processes determine which of the available information will be used and which will be ignored.
Flow of Information
The flow of information in this system is interactive. Sensory information streams bottom-up to more central stages and centrally guided attention driven by mental representations modulates (top-driven) sensory information.
3. Language
What is necessary to understand a sentence?
Understanding what others have written is very interesting. A writer coverts his thoughts into a series of visible marks, and the reader converts that marks into understandable ideas.
To understand the meaning of the text, the reader must identify the units of meaning, the words. But he must also apply certain rules underlying their sequence.
"A writer converts his thoughts to meaningful words, the reader converts these words to thoughts."
There are two major structural components: the syntax(or grammar) and the semantics. The syntax describes the forms of the strings of symbols. The words can only be combined in a certain sequence to be comprehensible. But when you are proficient in language you might not even be able to name any rule about syntax.
Semantics refers to the meaning of a luinguistic utterance. The meaning of any particular sentence occurs on at least three levels: First you need to know the meaning of individual words, second, you need to combine the individual words to form propositions. And third, you need to join those propositions to form a complete sentence.
What happens when you read a sentence?
To explain the levels described above we use the following easy sentence as an example:"The injured student anxiously called the family doctor".
First you have to look up every word in you "personal dictionary" in your head, this happens very quick. Then you have to understand the propositions in the sentence, you must know that the combination of family and doctor means something different than the the individual words, the same applies for "injured student" and "anxiously called".
Now you have to combine the information collected in the stadia above and understand the whole sentence. This all happens very quickly, because the perception (reading the sentence) takes between 1 and 1.5 seconds, and in the same time, you understand the meaning of the sentence.
Now we have described the understanding of one single sentence. But very often, the meaning of the sentence also depends on the context. Therefore it might be necessary to analyze larger units
4. Intelligence
The first intelligence test
To indicate the intelligence of humans several tests have been developed. We will explain some of them.
The first intelligence test was developed by Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of the famous Charles Darwin.
Galton was interested in the differences in intelligence between human beings, and he believed that certain families were more intelligent than others. Galton administered a battery of tests measuring qualities such as reaction time, breathing capacity and head size.
"The IQ is a ratio of intelligence of a person and that of an average subject."
The present-day intelligence tests
The intelligence test as we know it was formulated by the French psychologist Binet. He assumed that intelligence should be measured by tasks requiring reasoning and problem solving abilities.
Binet thought that a slow learning child was like a normal child but retarded in metal growth. So he concluded that a slow learning child would perform the same as a younger child in intelligence tests. he devised a scale of mental age. Average mental age (MA) scores correspond to chronological mental age (CA). A bright child's MA is above his CA, and a slow learning child's MA is below his CA. An advantage of the mental aged scale is that it can easily be interpreted.
The American psychologist Lewis Terman used Binet's method to develop a scale for intelligence. This index is called Intelligence Quotient (IQ), and this scale expresses intelligence as a ratio of mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA):
IQ = MA/CA × 100
The 100 is used to make the result better to compare. Numbers like 101, 125 and 89 are easier to handle than 1.01, 1.25 and .89. It is easy to conclude that when a child is smarter than the average (his MA is higher than his CA), his IQ will be above 100, and otherwise.
Failures
Tests following the pattern originated by Binet, use a great variety of items to test intelligence. Failure on one kind of item is scored the same way as a failure on another item. So this test does not show any particular strenghts or weaknesses.
To distinguish between various aspects of intelligence, the Wechsler Intelligence scale is developed. This test is almost identical to Binet's test, but it is divided in two parts, a verbal scale and a performance scale.
Another failure of the tests is that performance increases with practice. There are books containing intelligence tests, and when you pratice them a couple of time, you know how to handle every problem so you will score pretty high on an IQ-test.
5. Learning
Learning is basic for understanding behavior. Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as the result of prior experience.
"Learning is a permanent change as the result of specific experiences."
Types of learning
There are several types of learning. First we will explain associative learning. This is the most basic form of learning. It is making a new association between events in the environment. Psychologists distinguish two types of associative learning: the classical conditioning and the operant conditioning. Classical conditioning will be explained in this paragraph; operant conditioning will be explained in the following paragraph.
The more complicated types of learning are called cognitive learning. This types of learning as a large overlap with memory and language.
People in all cultures cry in response to pain. This reaction does not have to be learned. Classical conditioning is illustrated by the observation that children do not cry when they see a doctor with a needle when they visit the doctor for the first time. However, in the future they will immediately cry when they see a doctor or a needle. This response is an example of classical conditioning.
Pavlov
The study of classical conditioning started with a series of experiments conducted by the Russian scientist (and Nobel Prize winner) Ivan Pavlov. He did one of the most famous experiments ever done in history:
A dog was prepared for this experiment by having a small operation exposing the salivary gland to the surface, which made it possible to measure salivation automatically.
Then the dog, which is fastened by leashes such that he cannot move, is given food while ringing a bell. This procedure was repeated several times. Normally, when ringing a bell, a dog does not salivate. A dog salivates when he gets food. However, when the bell is ringing every time when the dog receives food, he will salivate while the bell is ringning, even when there is no food.
Pavlov called this the conditioned response. The dog had been conditioned to associate the bell with food and to respond to it by salivating. Pavlov's experiment was an example of the classical conditioning. A new association between a conditioned stimulus and a response through the repeated pairing of the conditioned stimulus (the bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (the salivating when eating food), that elicts the response.
Cognitive processes are very important for human behavior. It is about knowledge and the way people use their knowledge.
The first paragraph is about storing knowledge in memory and about the accuracy of the stored information. It is a short paragraph in which we will explain how you can recognize, for example, a dog as being a dog.
The second paragraph is about memory. It describes different phases in remembering. The last part tells you how you can improve your memory.
The third paragraph is about understanding and using language. How come you recognize texts and know what it means? How do you develop your speech so you can use your language in daily life?
In the fourth paragraph we will explain intelligence. How can you measure intelligence and what is the connection between creativity and intelligence? We will tell you something about the genetic influence on intelligence; how come some people are so smart, while others are not that intelligent?
The last paragraph is about learning. There are several theories about this topic. They explain the simple ways of learning, like for example the way a dog learns a trick. But they also explain the more complicated things that are learned by cognitive learning. An example of this could be learning the content of this site. The last part of this paragraph is about computer-assisted learning.
1.Mental representation
Mental representations
Our memory has stored mental representations of experiences. There are two basic forms of mental representations.
In this paragraph we will explain the analogous representations, also called mental imagery. The second form of representation, the symbolic representations, will be explained in the next paragraph.
"Memory never gives a perfect match with reality, because mental images are not perfect."
Match with the real world
Our memory never matches the real world perfectly, because stored mental representations (from now on called mental imagery) are not perfect. Mental representations have some sensory qualities, for example: in your imagination, you can make a walk through your house. Recent studies using brain imaging have shown that during mental imagery most brain structures are active as if subjects are really experiencing or acting.
An example of the fact that mental images do not always match the real world, is the following:
When you are asked which city is farther west, San Diego, California or Reno, Nevada, the answer may not correspond with the correct answer, which you would have obtained after consulting an atlas.
This example shows that our mental map is not very detailed. However, it is not necessary to have a very detailed mental image. For example: when you are searching for the keys of your car, you do not have to know that they are in the bottom of the basket on the wooden table in the kitchen. You only have to know that they are somewhere in the kitchen. Then you will have them found within a couple of moments.
When do you use it?
You use your mental imagery when you are thinking of what has happened at a specific place, and when you look in advance. For example, when someone asks you to show him the way, you use your mental imagery to mention the name of the streets and the distances
2.Memory
Memory Systems
In the external world there are a lot of memory systems, such as an appointment calendar, a video tape, a compact disc and a computer. These artificial memory systems have been a source for ideas about possible functioning of the human memory system. The computer, for example, has served as a model for psychologists about cognitive processes and human memory.
"The amount of information we can process is limited."
Levels of Memory
The classical theory of Richard C. Atkinson and Richard M. Shiffrin illustrates the information-processing approach. This is how the analogy works:
The environment stimulates one or more sensory systems. This environmental information then passes three levels of memory called sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. (These three levels will be explained later.)
At each level, cognitive processes operate on the information, giving it meaning, refreshing it and integrating it. In the sensory memory, the information is encoded to go to the short term memory. There the information is encoded to go to the long term memory. This is illustrated in the scheme.
Attention
The amount of information, that can be processed is limited. The main bottle-neck is attention. If you are distracted by a TV program, while you are trying to study, your attention will be divided over both the book and the TV. When you would study without having the TV on, you would have more attention to 'spend' on your study.
Cognitive processes determine which of the available information will be used and which will be ignored.
Flow of Information
The flow of information in this system is interactive. Sensory information streams bottom-up to more central stages and centrally guided attention driven by mental representations modulates (top-driven) sensory information.
3. Language
What is necessary to understand a sentence?
Understanding what others have written is very interesting. A writer coverts his thoughts into a series of visible marks, and the reader converts that marks into understandable ideas.
To understand the meaning of the text, the reader must identify the units of meaning, the words. But he must also apply certain rules underlying their sequence.
"A writer converts his thoughts to meaningful words, the reader converts these words to thoughts."
There are two major structural components: the syntax(or grammar) and the semantics. The syntax describes the forms of the strings of symbols. The words can only be combined in a certain sequence to be comprehensible. But when you are proficient in language you might not even be able to name any rule about syntax.
Semantics refers to the meaning of a luinguistic utterance. The meaning of any particular sentence occurs on at least three levels: First you need to know the meaning of individual words, second, you need to combine the individual words to form propositions. And third, you need to join those propositions to form a complete sentence.
What happens when you read a sentence?
To explain the levels described above we use the following easy sentence as an example:"The injured student anxiously called the family doctor".
First you have to look up every word in you "personal dictionary" in your head, this happens very quick. Then you have to understand the propositions in the sentence, you must know that the combination of family and doctor means something different than the the individual words, the same applies for "injured student" and "anxiously called".
Now you have to combine the information collected in the stadia above and understand the whole sentence. This all happens very quickly, because the perception (reading the sentence) takes between 1 and 1.5 seconds, and in the same time, you understand the meaning of the sentence.
Now we have described the understanding of one single sentence. But very often, the meaning of the sentence also depends on the context. Therefore it might be necessary to analyze larger units
4. Intelligence
The first intelligence test
To indicate the intelligence of humans several tests have been developed. We will explain some of them.
The first intelligence test was developed by Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of the famous Charles Darwin.
Galton was interested in the differences in intelligence between human beings, and he believed that certain families were more intelligent than others. Galton administered a battery of tests measuring qualities such as reaction time, breathing capacity and head size.
"The IQ is a ratio of intelligence of a person and that of an average subject."
The present-day intelligence tests
The intelligence test as we know it was formulated by the French psychologist Binet. He assumed that intelligence should be measured by tasks requiring reasoning and problem solving abilities.
Binet thought that a slow learning child was like a normal child but retarded in metal growth. So he concluded that a slow learning child would perform the same as a younger child in intelligence tests. he devised a scale of mental age. Average mental age (MA) scores correspond to chronological mental age (CA). A bright child's MA is above his CA, and a slow learning child's MA is below his CA. An advantage of the mental aged scale is that it can easily be interpreted.
The American psychologist Lewis Terman used Binet's method to develop a scale for intelligence. This index is called Intelligence Quotient (IQ), and this scale expresses intelligence as a ratio of mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA):
IQ = MA/CA × 100
The 100 is used to make the result better to compare. Numbers like 101, 125 and 89 are easier to handle than 1.01, 1.25 and .89. It is easy to conclude that when a child is smarter than the average (his MA is higher than his CA), his IQ will be above 100, and otherwise.
Failures
Tests following the pattern originated by Binet, use a great variety of items to test intelligence. Failure on one kind of item is scored the same way as a failure on another item. So this test does not show any particular strenghts or weaknesses.
To distinguish between various aspects of intelligence, the Wechsler Intelligence scale is developed. This test is almost identical to Binet's test, but it is divided in two parts, a verbal scale and a performance scale.
Another failure of the tests is that performance increases with practice. There are books containing intelligence tests, and when you pratice them a couple of time, you know how to handle every problem so you will score pretty high on an IQ-test.
5. Learning
Learning is basic for understanding behavior. Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as the result of prior experience.
"Learning is a permanent change as the result of specific experiences."
Types of learning
There are several types of learning. First we will explain associative learning. This is the most basic form of learning. It is making a new association between events in the environment. Psychologists distinguish two types of associative learning: the classical conditioning and the operant conditioning. Classical conditioning will be explained in this paragraph; operant conditioning will be explained in the following paragraph.
The more complicated types of learning are called cognitive learning. This types of learning as a large overlap with memory and language.
People in all cultures cry in response to pain. This reaction does not have to be learned. Classical conditioning is illustrated by the observation that children do not cry when they see a doctor with a needle when they visit the doctor for the first time. However, in the future they will immediately cry when they see a doctor or a needle. This response is an example of classical conditioning.
Pavlov
The study of classical conditioning started with a series of experiments conducted by the Russian scientist (and Nobel Prize winner) Ivan Pavlov. He did one of the most famous experiments ever done in history:
A dog was prepared for this experiment by having a small operation exposing the salivary gland to the surface, which made it possible to measure salivation automatically.
Then the dog, which is fastened by leashes such that he cannot move, is given food while ringing a bell. This procedure was repeated several times. Normally, when ringing a bell, a dog does not salivate. A dog salivates when he gets food. However, when the bell is ringing every time when the dog receives food, he will salivate while the bell is ringning, even when there is no food.
Pavlov called this the conditioned response. The dog had been conditioned to associate the bell with food and to respond to it by salivating. Pavlov's experiment was an example of the classical conditioning. A new association between a conditioned stimulus and a response through the repeated pairing of the conditioned stimulus (the bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (the salivating when eating food), that elicts the response.
Common diseases and their treatments
Psychic disorders resulting from bodily disorder and treatment
1.Disorder in the experience of the body
Origin
This disorder comes into being when people have too high expectations of themselves (and particularly of their body). They have excessive demands which they are not willing to give up. They have an obsession about their appearance. The disorder originates from feelings of inferiority and the fear to attract attention and make a fool of themselves.
Symptoms
Someone who suffers from this disorder is often too concerned about his looks and is annoyed by every small stain or lump on his body. To prevent that someone else discovers their 'physical defect' it may even happen that people do not dare to appear on the streets anymore. Often people set all their hopes on a medical surgery, but most of the time this does not have the desired result.
Treatment
Treatment cannot exist of medical surgeries. These never have the desired outcome, because if one 'defect' has disappeared people will find another one or they will focus on their scar from surgery.
However it is good if someone goes and talk to the patient. This may convince the patient that those 'physical defects' are not that bad at all. It is important to get treatment on time to prevent a depression.
2.Faking illness
Origin
This disease is a form of trying to attract attention. Usually these people fake an illness that brings them into a hospital which allows them to receive attention from family and doctors. This illness often originates from lack of attention.
Symptoms
Sometimes it is rather innocent, people only tell everyone that they suffer from some small cold or flu. However sometimes it is more serious, the patient causes infections or other injuries on purpose through which they get into the hospital
Treatment
Treatment is comparable with that of the 'Lack of attention syndrome'. One has to receive individual counselling with the help of focused attention and training of the behavior, because the patient often has the feeling that they do not get enough attention. But it is of utmost importance to realize the seriousness of the illness.
3. Alzheimer
Origin
Despite the fact that this disease does not appear among young people we considered it important enough to mention it in the Medguide.
The causes of Alzheimer are partly hereditary. It is estimated that about 40% of the Alzheimer disease has a hereditary origin. The effect of Alzheimer is in the brain, brain tissue is being broken down. The result of this is the deterioration of intellectual skills.
Symptoms
The disease manifests itself through concentration problems and forgetting things. Also personality changes appear, people become careless and get irritated quickly.
People who suffer from this disease often realize that something is wrong and because of this they get depressed.
Treatment
This disease gets more and more alarming and there is nothing you can do about it with medicine or any other kind of treatment. The velocity of the deterioration also depends on stress; the bigger the stress, the faster the deterioration.
4. Amnesia
Origin
Amnesia is a partly memory disorder. It can have different causes:
1. Meningitis
2. Concussion
3. Alcoholism
Symptoms
Amnesia patients suffer from a partly memory disorder. Things that happened a long time ago can still be remembered most of the time, but often the patient is no longer aware when and how they happened.
Amnesia patients lack the ability to learn and to remember new things. There is a total inability to remember things that just happened.
Treatment
Unfortunately there is no treatment available against amnesia. The effects of amnesia can be so strong that they unable the patient to live at home.
Mood disorders and treatment
1.Depression
Origin
A depression is a big mood change, in which people feel sad and completely powerless. Biological factors play an important role in the cause of a depression; some people have a larger tendency to suffer from the disorder than others. But also psychic factors play a role.
Symptoms
Depressed people are listless and often stay in bed or in an easy chair all day. They feel worthless and worry about everything.
Often there is nothing they find enjoyable and there is nothing one can do to cheer them up.
Treatment
The treatment depends on the age of the patient:
1. With young people it is necessary to change the environment.
2. With teenagers individual attention is more important. Also medication can be prescribed.
2.Manic episodes
Origin
A manic episode is a disorder of the mood. Its origin is similar to that of a depression.
Biological factors play an important role in the cause of a manic episode. Some people have a larger tendency to suffer from the disorder than others. But also psychic factors play a role
Symptoms
General characteristics of a manic episode are:
• The patient is abnormally busy or excited.
• During a busy period the patient has the feeling that he can do anything.
• The patient has a reduced need for sleep.
• The patient is extremely talkative.
• The patients thoughts are wild and chaotic.
• The patient gets easily distracted.
• The patient causes trouble in trying to do everything.
Treatment
It is important that people do not egg up the patient during the therapy. People should not enter into a discussion with the patient. It is important to set clear limits to what is allowed and what is not. The treatment resembles the treatment of a depression.
Fear disorders and treatment
1.Phobias
Origin
Phobias are extreme fears in specific situations lacking real danger or fears which are completely out of proportion. Most of the time the person with the phobia realizes that its fear is irrational and illogical, but he still keeps feeling the pain. Only avoiding the painful situation can bring relieve.
A phobia often originates from a negative experience with the subject concerning the phobia. There appear to be hereditary influences, but a phobia can also be taught.
Symptoms
A phobia for something exists if exposure to that something results in a panic attack. A lot of people are afraid of an injection from the doctor, but this is not called a phobia.
Kids most of the time do not get a panic attack but start crying really loud and clamp on to someone (usually their mom or dad).
Treatment
The most effective treatment is exposure to the fear, although this is very difficult. It has to be made clear that there is absolutely no reason for a phobia.
So if someone has a phobia for dogs, he or she has to learn how to get along with them through an intensive treatment.
2.Obsession
Origins
An obsession is an obsessional-compulsive disorder. The origin of obsessions is still unclear.
Symptoms
An obsession is characterized by involuntary repetitive acts or thoughts. However, not every thought that stays in ones mind is an obsession. For instance, everybody sometimes has the experience of a song that continuously pops up in ones mind. This of course is not an obsession.
An obsession often deals with a specific topic. A person is forced to think about something and subsequently cannot remove this thought from his mind anymore. Often these are specific topics which the person involved experiences as absurd or alarming.
Treatment
Treatment of an obsession is often difficult. The patient must undergo a carefully assembled behavioral therapy. Removal of the obsession has to be done in a safe environment.
3.Post-traumatic stress disorder
Origin
PTSD means post-traumatic stress disorder. This disease originates from a traumatic experience. This can be an experience in a concentration camp, a rape or a war.
Symptoms
People who suffer from PTSD often have fear-symptoms and nightmares. Sometimes people even deny the experiences they have been through, or they blame themselves.
Treatment
Treatment for PTSD is very hard. Often people do not want to talk about it as talking about it brings back the old feelings. However it is important that people discuss the matter, for example with fellow-sufferers.
Personality disorders and treatment
1.Avoiding personality
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with an avoiding personality do not dare to enter in a discussion with other people. They hardly dare to communicate with others and are afraid to be humiliated.
Treatment
Personality disorders, including the avoiding personality, are often difficult to treat. People suffering such a disorder are unaware that their personality is the cause of the disorder. In addition they have the feeling that they are unable to change their existing behavior. It is therefore important that the doctor in attendance starts by making the patient aware of the importance of his character and only then start the actual therapy. In addition to psychotherapy, use of medicine can help to overcome inferiority feelings.
2.Dependent personality
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with a dependent personality are emotionally dependent of other people. They have difficulty in taking decisions without having consulted other people. They always want to be in the company of others.
Treatment
Personality disorders, including the dependent personality, are often difficult to treat. People suffering such a disorder are unaware that their personality is the cause of the disorder. In addition they have the feeling that they are unable to change their existing behavior. It is therefore important that the doctor in attendance starts by making the patient aware of the importance of his character and only than start the actual therapy.
3.Antisocial personality
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with an antisocial personality behave asocial and do not take other people into account. Often they do not care about the law and they use others, who they humiliate and abuse, for their own pleasure. People who suffer from this disorder are often called psychopaths.
Antisocial personality is the most investigated personality disorder. This is because it is the most expensive one for society.
Treatment
In contrast to other personality disorders, psychotherapy has no effect on people with an antisocial personality as these people lie or try to lead the doctor up the garden path.
The patient has to be taken from the normal living environment so he can be put into a treatment center. There has to be kept an eye on the patient very carefully so he will follow the rules of the center. It has been proved that this treatment method works, but it may happen that the disorder comes back later.
4.Borderline personality disorder
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with a borderline personality disorder have problems maintaining a relationship. They often see small problems as huge ones.
About 2% of all the people suffer from borderline personality, about 75% of them are women. People with borderline diagnosis tend to be more liable for developing alcoholism, drug abuse, PTSD or a depression.
Treatment
The treatment of a borderline personality disorder differs from person to person.
Disorders in the ability to control oneself and treatment
1.Addiction to gambling
Origin
Mostly the problem originates when people start to gamble at a gambling machine when they have a night out. Often this gambling continues out of boredom which causes the addiction.
Symptoms
There is a continuous need to gamble and this costs money. This often leads to stealing and the patient gets social problems as a result.
Treatment
Addicts to gambling need professional help and they should get behavioral therapy. Often this happens too late and the patient has already accumulated large debts.
2.Kleptomania
Origin
Kleptomania is a strong desire to steal. Often a kleptomaniac person steals things he could have bought easily or things that are not at all expensive. The person steals just for the tension or the kick. Kleptomania can be the result of emotional shortcomings during the youth.
Symptoms
These patients have an irresistible inclination to steal. Often they throw away the stolen goods. They are mostly interested in the kick of the stealing itself. Although psychiatrists consider kleptomania as a disease, this is not a legal excuse in front of an American or British court.
Treatment
This disorder is rather easy to treat. It is important to find another occupation to replace the stealing activity. It is also very important to make the patient realize that others are harmed by the stealing activities.
3.Pyromania
Origin
Pyromania is a strong need to set things on fire. It is all about the kick it gives to see what other people have to do to extinguish the fire. The pyromaniac also enjoys reading about the effects of his activities. Pyromania can be the result of shortcomings during the youth.
Symptoms
The patient sets a lot on fire and enjoys to see what others have to do as a result of this. Often the pyromaniac is one of the spectators of the fire he has generated.
Treatment
This disorder is rather easy to treat. It is important to find another occupation to replace the arsons activities.
4.Suicidal tendencies
Origin
Suicidal tendencies are a common phenomena. They can have different causes. Often suicidal people have the impression that nobody cares about them. They are looking for more attention. They may even blackmail people by announcing to commit suicide if they will not do what they are asked to do.
Symptoms
People have a suicidal tendency, or they really commit suicide.
Treatment
If suicidal people do not get help in an early stage, there is not so much left to do. Even if they are placed in a guarded clinic, suicidal people tend to find a way to commit suicide. Even drowning oneself in a sink seems to be possible.
Real prevention is only possible if other people recognize the signals in time. It is important to talk to the patients, but without forcing them to do so. Forcing to talk even works contra-productive.
Psychotic disorders and treatment
1.Schizophrenia
Origin
The appearance of schizophrenia is partly hereditary. Previously people said that schizophrenia was caused by the education process, but people have come back from this thought.
High vulnerability for stress plays an important role in the origin of schizophrenia. Besides stressful situations also other influences from the environment are important. Which influences is not exactly known, but people think that problems during pregnancy or around the time of birth may play a role.
It is also known that there is a disorder in a particular chemical material in the brain responsible for the processing of information.
Symptoms
To recognize schizophrenia is not always easy. Often you cannot see it from the outside and it can take a while before the symptoms become noticeable. People who suffer from the disease cannot or do not want to express what their problems are. There are certain signals that can point to schizophrenia. Schizophrenia could exist if someone:
• is frightened or confused in a way others cannot understand;
• does not succeed to perform at work, in his study or hobby in a way to be expected;
• talks in a silly way, sometimes with new made up words;
• claims to hear voices or talks to imaginary people;
• tells stories about plots or secret organizations in which friends and relatives can take part;
• walks or moves in a weird manner in such a way that others feel uncomfortable;
• scares or irritates people by the way he neglects himself;
• has unpredictable explosions of rage;
• stays in bed all day, but goes around the house at night;
• threatens to hurt himself;
• does not have any friends or at the best short or superficial contacts;
• claims to be someone else;
• says that others pull thoughts out of his head or alternatively put them in.
Treatment
Schizophrenia cannot be cured yet, but in most cases it can be treated. Medication plays a big role in the treatment. The medicine most prescribed are anti-psychotics and an anti-parkinson medicine. The latter is used to diminish the side-effects of the anti-psychotics. Recently a new generation of medicine has become available, which gives excellent results for some patients.
Apart from medication, good education and support for the patient and family are important. Furthermore the patient should get help coping with society.
2.Paranoid
Origin
This physical disease originates from fear, mostly fear from the direct neighborhood. Often the person thinks that all kind of plots are set up against him.
Symptoms
Paranoid people are characterized by delusion; they continuously have the feeling of being threatened. But also other forms exist, for example suffering from acoustic or visual hallucinations; it may happen that they think they smell a poisonous gas.
Treatment
Most of the time it is not easy to treat a paranoid person. This is because the patient himself thinks that he is not ill and it is difficult to have him change his mind on this.
Firstly there needs to be a relation of trust between the patient and the person that treats him. This person also has to tell other people how to relate with the patient. Furthermore the patient needs to have the willingness to talk to the person that treats him.
3.Syndrome of Korsakov
Origin
The syndrome of Korsakov can be the result of a chronic form of alcoholism, but it can also be caused by a trauma of the brain.
Symptoms
The syndrome of Korsakov can result in a disorder of the ability to impress upon something and a disorientation of time, place and person. Also disorder of memory can occur.
Treatment
The syndrome cannot be healed. However, if the disease is caused by alcoholism to quit drinking will prevent deterioration.
4.Delirium
Origin
A delirium can appear on short notice and may also disappear on short notice. Causes of a delirium can be:
• Poisoning (from alcohol, drugs or medication)
• Abstinence of medicine or drugs
• Disorder of the hormone metabolism (diabetes)
• Infection diseases (pneumonia)
• Metabolism diseases (uremia)
• Heart and vascular diseases (coronary, stroke)
• Trauma of the skull or brain
• Dementia
Symptoms
A person suffering from a delirium has the following symptoms:
1. Its consciousness is not clear, he sees its environment different from which it is and he makes a dizzy impression.
2. He is disorientated; most of the time he does not know what time it is and where he is.
3. He observes strange things; he sees and hears things which are not there.
4. He cannot remember things because he is not clear.
These symptoms can be apparent in different levels of seriousness. A person can also have more trouble in the morning than at night. Treatment
There is always something physical going on with a delirium. The treatment of a delirium consists of a medical investigation to find the source and subsequently taking the cause away. Often the disease is solved after this.
Addiction and treatment
1.Alcoholism
Origin
Alcoholism can be a result of relationship problems, job problems or other important problems. It can also happen that people start drinking under pressure of their friends and cannot stop afterwards. But most of the time alcohol is being used to work of one's problems.
Symptoms
There is a continuous desire for alcohol which arouses guilt feelings. Often alcoholics are drowsy and listless.
Treatment
In most western countries the alcohol addiction is a major problem. That is why there are a lot of aid institutions which can help people cope with the problem.
Of course people just have to stop drinking, but it is not that simple. A treatment has to start with a cure for addiction. It is important that someone supervises the treatment, because it often happens that people drink furtive. It is also very important that people want to be cured.
A multidisciplinary treatment generates the best effects:
• A psychiatric treatment
• A phychotherapatic treatment, if necessary supported by medicine
• Taking part in the AA (Alcoholics Anonymous)
2.Drugs
Origin
We take heroin as an example because it is one of the most addictive drugs. People start using heroin because it generates a relaxed and pleasant feeling. This feeling is very addictive and after a while the body can no longer cope without it.
Symptoms
People addicted to heroin gradually get into a bad condition. They often have inflammations and their teeth become very bad. After a while many addicts start to use heroin in combination with alcohol, which intensifies the effect.
Treatment
Treatment against drug abuse is similar to that of alcohol abuse. Of course people just have to stop using drugs, but it is not that simple. A treatment has to start with a cure for addiction. It is important that someone supervises the treatment, because it often happens that people use drugs furtive. Also it is very important that people want to be cured.
A multidisciplinary treatment generates the best effects:
• A psychiatric treatment
• A phychotherapatic treatment, if necessary supported by medicine
Eating disorders and treatment
1. Anorexia nervosa
Origin
Over time different explanations are given for the origin of eating disorders. Probably the ideal of being slim and the related pressure put on woman, plays an important role.
These days people think a combination of physical, psychical and social factors influence anorexia nervosa:
1. There is a connection between eating behavior and depression.
2. Stuffing yourself can be looked upon as a form of conditioned behavior: after unpleasant experiences or frustrations someone immediately reaches for food.
3. A disturbed mother-child relation or the fear to become an adult can play a role. Anorexia nervosa will slow down the physical growth to adulthood.
4. Innate characteristics are probably of influence. It appears that anorexic patients often have a negative way of thinking, for example the desire to be perfect, thinking in extremes or having a negative image of themselves.
5. Certain family-characteristics appear more often among patients having eating disorders. The question is however whether these characteristics are the result or the cause of the eating disorder.
Symptoms
People with anorexia nervosa are constantly afraid of becoming fat and as a result suppress their appetite and the feeling of getting hungry. People with anorexia nervosa constantly and downwardly adjust their ideal weight. In spite of a serious loss of weight, they continuously consider themselves too fat. Over time they loose the normal feelings for appetite, hunger and satisfaction. They constantly watch the calories they eat and their eating pattern becomes more and more monotonous. Society only recognizes anorexia nervosa after the patient has lost a striking amount of weight. There are, however, several variants of anorexia nervosa, which makes detection complicated. There is a variant where periods of eating very little are alternated with periods of stuffing oneself followed by throwing up or the use of laxatives. Also abuse of diuretics exists.
Treatment
Several different treatments are in use to cure anorexia nervosa, but it is still not possible to conclude which one has the best results. Some treatments are more focussed on the eating behavior, others focus more on the psychical backgrounds. A combination of both methods is probably the most effective way.
In general, enforced therapies are not effective. Inferior treatment, in particular if it is enforced can aggravate the problems. It is important that the doctor in attendance has experience in the treatment of eating disorders.
One of the first targets of the treatment is the recovery of the normal weight. In addition, the treatment should try to improve the way people look at themselves, experience their body and establish and maintain social contacts and relations.
Often a special form of behavioral treatment is used. Step by step people are learned to accommodate to a rising weight by controlled exposure to the threatening situations.
With the help of a cognitive therapy people will be learned to change the wrong notions regarding their weight and their body.
2. Bulimia nervosa
Origin
Bulimia nervosa has mainly the same causes as anorexia nervosa:
1. There is a connection between eating behavior and depression; the exact nature of the connection is still unclear (what is the cause, what is the result).
2. Stuffing yourself can be looked upon as a form of conditioned behavior: after unpleasant experiences or frustrations someone immediately reaches for food.
3. Especially with bulimia nervosa traumatic experiences from the childhood can be on the origin of the eating disorder, for example ill-treatment and sexual abuse.
4. Innate characteristics are probably of influence. It appears that bulimic patients often have a negative way of thinking, for example the desire to be perfect, thinking in extremes or having a negative image of themselves.
5. Certain family-characteristics appear more often among patients having eating disorders. The question is however whether these characteristics are the result or the cause of the eating disorder.
Symptoms
People who suffer from bulimia nervosa stuff themselves often. They just eat whatever is close at hand and afterwards they try to throw up everything. These rituals of stuffing themselves are attempts to forget their problems.
Treatment
The treatment of bulimia is about the same as for anorexia nervosa.
In general, enforced therapy is not effective. Inferior treatment, in particular if it is enforced can aggravate the problems. It is important that the doctor in attendance has experience in the treatment of eating disorders.
One of the first targets of the treatment is the recovery of the normal weight. In addition the treatment should try to improve the way people look at themselves, experience their body and establish and maintain social contacts and relations.
Often a special form of behavioral treatment is used. Step by step people are learned to accommodate to a rising weight by controlled exposure to the threatening situations.
With the help of a cognitive therapy people will be learned to change the wrong notions regarding their weight and their body.
1.Disorder in the experience of the body
Origin
This disorder comes into being when people have too high expectations of themselves (and particularly of their body). They have excessive demands which they are not willing to give up. They have an obsession about their appearance. The disorder originates from feelings of inferiority and the fear to attract attention and make a fool of themselves.
Symptoms
Someone who suffers from this disorder is often too concerned about his looks and is annoyed by every small stain or lump on his body. To prevent that someone else discovers their 'physical defect' it may even happen that people do not dare to appear on the streets anymore. Often people set all their hopes on a medical surgery, but most of the time this does not have the desired result.
Treatment
Treatment cannot exist of medical surgeries. These never have the desired outcome, because if one 'defect' has disappeared people will find another one or they will focus on their scar from surgery.
However it is good if someone goes and talk to the patient. This may convince the patient that those 'physical defects' are not that bad at all. It is important to get treatment on time to prevent a depression.
2.Faking illness
Origin
This disease is a form of trying to attract attention. Usually these people fake an illness that brings them into a hospital which allows them to receive attention from family and doctors. This illness often originates from lack of attention.
Symptoms
Sometimes it is rather innocent, people only tell everyone that they suffer from some small cold or flu. However sometimes it is more serious, the patient causes infections or other injuries on purpose through which they get into the hospital
Treatment
Treatment is comparable with that of the 'Lack of attention syndrome'. One has to receive individual counselling with the help of focused attention and training of the behavior, because the patient often has the feeling that they do not get enough attention. But it is of utmost importance to realize the seriousness of the illness.
3. Alzheimer
Origin
Despite the fact that this disease does not appear among young people we considered it important enough to mention it in the Medguide.
The causes of Alzheimer are partly hereditary. It is estimated that about 40% of the Alzheimer disease has a hereditary origin. The effect of Alzheimer is in the brain, brain tissue is being broken down. The result of this is the deterioration of intellectual skills.
Symptoms
The disease manifests itself through concentration problems and forgetting things. Also personality changes appear, people become careless and get irritated quickly.
People who suffer from this disease often realize that something is wrong and because of this they get depressed.
Treatment
This disease gets more and more alarming and there is nothing you can do about it with medicine or any other kind of treatment. The velocity of the deterioration also depends on stress; the bigger the stress, the faster the deterioration.
4. Amnesia
Origin
Amnesia is a partly memory disorder. It can have different causes:
1. Meningitis
2. Concussion
3. Alcoholism
Symptoms
Amnesia patients suffer from a partly memory disorder. Things that happened a long time ago can still be remembered most of the time, but often the patient is no longer aware when and how they happened.
Amnesia patients lack the ability to learn and to remember new things. There is a total inability to remember things that just happened.
Treatment
Unfortunately there is no treatment available against amnesia. The effects of amnesia can be so strong that they unable the patient to live at home.
Mood disorders and treatment
1.Depression
Origin
A depression is a big mood change, in which people feel sad and completely powerless. Biological factors play an important role in the cause of a depression; some people have a larger tendency to suffer from the disorder than others. But also psychic factors play a role.
Symptoms
Depressed people are listless and often stay in bed or in an easy chair all day. They feel worthless and worry about everything.
Often there is nothing they find enjoyable and there is nothing one can do to cheer them up.
Treatment
The treatment depends on the age of the patient:
1. With young people it is necessary to change the environment.
2. With teenagers individual attention is more important. Also medication can be prescribed.
2.Manic episodes
Origin
A manic episode is a disorder of the mood. Its origin is similar to that of a depression.
Biological factors play an important role in the cause of a manic episode. Some people have a larger tendency to suffer from the disorder than others. But also psychic factors play a role
Symptoms
General characteristics of a manic episode are:
• The patient is abnormally busy or excited.
• During a busy period the patient has the feeling that he can do anything.
• The patient has a reduced need for sleep.
• The patient is extremely talkative.
• The patients thoughts are wild and chaotic.
• The patient gets easily distracted.
• The patient causes trouble in trying to do everything.
Treatment
It is important that people do not egg up the patient during the therapy. People should not enter into a discussion with the patient. It is important to set clear limits to what is allowed and what is not. The treatment resembles the treatment of a depression.
Fear disorders and treatment
1.Phobias
Origin
Phobias are extreme fears in specific situations lacking real danger or fears which are completely out of proportion. Most of the time the person with the phobia realizes that its fear is irrational and illogical, but he still keeps feeling the pain. Only avoiding the painful situation can bring relieve.
A phobia often originates from a negative experience with the subject concerning the phobia. There appear to be hereditary influences, but a phobia can also be taught.
Symptoms
A phobia for something exists if exposure to that something results in a panic attack. A lot of people are afraid of an injection from the doctor, but this is not called a phobia.
Kids most of the time do not get a panic attack but start crying really loud and clamp on to someone (usually their mom or dad).
Treatment
The most effective treatment is exposure to the fear, although this is very difficult. It has to be made clear that there is absolutely no reason for a phobia.
So if someone has a phobia for dogs, he or she has to learn how to get along with them through an intensive treatment.
2.Obsession
Origins
An obsession is an obsessional-compulsive disorder. The origin of obsessions is still unclear.
Symptoms
An obsession is characterized by involuntary repetitive acts or thoughts. However, not every thought that stays in ones mind is an obsession. For instance, everybody sometimes has the experience of a song that continuously pops up in ones mind. This of course is not an obsession.
An obsession often deals with a specific topic. A person is forced to think about something and subsequently cannot remove this thought from his mind anymore. Often these are specific topics which the person involved experiences as absurd or alarming.
Treatment
Treatment of an obsession is often difficult. The patient must undergo a carefully assembled behavioral therapy. Removal of the obsession has to be done in a safe environment.
3.Post-traumatic stress disorder
Origin
PTSD means post-traumatic stress disorder. This disease originates from a traumatic experience. This can be an experience in a concentration camp, a rape or a war.
Symptoms
People who suffer from PTSD often have fear-symptoms and nightmares. Sometimes people even deny the experiences they have been through, or they blame themselves.
Treatment
Treatment for PTSD is very hard. Often people do not want to talk about it as talking about it brings back the old feelings. However it is important that people discuss the matter, for example with fellow-sufferers.
Personality disorders and treatment
1.Avoiding personality
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with an avoiding personality do not dare to enter in a discussion with other people. They hardly dare to communicate with others and are afraid to be humiliated.
Treatment
Personality disorders, including the avoiding personality, are often difficult to treat. People suffering such a disorder are unaware that their personality is the cause of the disorder. In addition they have the feeling that they are unable to change their existing behavior. It is therefore important that the doctor in attendance starts by making the patient aware of the importance of his character and only then start the actual therapy. In addition to psychotherapy, use of medicine can help to overcome inferiority feelings.
2.Dependent personality
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with a dependent personality are emotionally dependent of other people. They have difficulty in taking decisions without having consulted other people. They always want to be in the company of others.
Treatment
Personality disorders, including the dependent personality, are often difficult to treat. People suffering such a disorder are unaware that their personality is the cause of the disorder. In addition they have the feeling that they are unable to change their existing behavior. It is therefore important that the doctor in attendance starts by making the patient aware of the importance of his character and only than start the actual therapy.
3.Antisocial personality
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with an antisocial personality behave asocial and do not take other people into account. Often they do not care about the law and they use others, who they humiliate and abuse, for their own pleasure. People who suffer from this disorder are often called psychopaths.
Antisocial personality is the most investigated personality disorder. This is because it is the most expensive one for society.
Treatment
In contrast to other personality disorders, psychotherapy has no effect on people with an antisocial personality as these people lie or try to lead the doctor up the garden path.
The patient has to be taken from the normal living environment so he can be put into a treatment center. There has to be kept an eye on the patient very carefully so he will follow the rules of the center. It has been proved that this treatment method works, but it may happen that the disorder comes back later.
4.Borderline personality disorder
Origin
Both hereditary factors and environmental factors play a role at the origin of a personality disorder.
Symptoms
People with a borderline personality disorder have problems maintaining a relationship. They often see small problems as huge ones.
About 2% of all the people suffer from borderline personality, about 75% of them are women. People with borderline diagnosis tend to be more liable for developing alcoholism, drug abuse, PTSD or a depression.
Treatment
The treatment of a borderline personality disorder differs from person to person.
Disorders in the ability to control oneself and treatment
1.Addiction to gambling
Origin
Mostly the problem originates when people start to gamble at a gambling machine when they have a night out. Often this gambling continues out of boredom which causes the addiction.
Symptoms
There is a continuous need to gamble and this costs money. This often leads to stealing and the patient gets social problems as a result.
Treatment
Addicts to gambling need professional help and they should get behavioral therapy. Often this happens too late and the patient has already accumulated large debts.
2.Kleptomania
Origin
Kleptomania is a strong desire to steal. Often a kleptomaniac person steals things he could have bought easily or things that are not at all expensive. The person steals just for the tension or the kick. Kleptomania can be the result of emotional shortcomings during the youth.
Symptoms
These patients have an irresistible inclination to steal. Often they throw away the stolen goods. They are mostly interested in the kick of the stealing itself. Although psychiatrists consider kleptomania as a disease, this is not a legal excuse in front of an American or British court.
Treatment
This disorder is rather easy to treat. It is important to find another occupation to replace the stealing activity. It is also very important to make the patient realize that others are harmed by the stealing activities.
3.Pyromania
Origin
Pyromania is a strong need to set things on fire. It is all about the kick it gives to see what other people have to do to extinguish the fire. The pyromaniac also enjoys reading about the effects of his activities. Pyromania can be the result of shortcomings during the youth.
Symptoms
The patient sets a lot on fire and enjoys to see what others have to do as a result of this. Often the pyromaniac is one of the spectators of the fire he has generated.
Treatment
This disorder is rather easy to treat. It is important to find another occupation to replace the arsons activities.
4.Suicidal tendencies
Origin
Suicidal tendencies are a common phenomena. They can have different causes. Often suicidal people have the impression that nobody cares about them. They are looking for more attention. They may even blackmail people by announcing to commit suicide if they will not do what they are asked to do.
Symptoms
People have a suicidal tendency, or they really commit suicide.
Treatment
If suicidal people do not get help in an early stage, there is not so much left to do. Even if they are placed in a guarded clinic, suicidal people tend to find a way to commit suicide. Even drowning oneself in a sink seems to be possible.
Real prevention is only possible if other people recognize the signals in time. It is important to talk to the patients, but without forcing them to do so. Forcing to talk even works contra-productive.
Psychotic disorders and treatment
1.Schizophrenia
Origin
The appearance of schizophrenia is partly hereditary. Previously people said that schizophrenia was caused by the education process, but people have come back from this thought.
High vulnerability for stress plays an important role in the origin of schizophrenia. Besides stressful situations also other influences from the environment are important. Which influences is not exactly known, but people think that problems during pregnancy or around the time of birth may play a role.
It is also known that there is a disorder in a particular chemical material in the brain responsible for the processing of information.
Symptoms
To recognize schizophrenia is not always easy. Often you cannot see it from the outside and it can take a while before the symptoms become noticeable. People who suffer from the disease cannot or do not want to express what their problems are. There are certain signals that can point to schizophrenia. Schizophrenia could exist if someone:
• is frightened or confused in a way others cannot understand;
• does not succeed to perform at work, in his study or hobby in a way to be expected;
• talks in a silly way, sometimes with new made up words;
• claims to hear voices or talks to imaginary people;
• tells stories about plots or secret organizations in which friends and relatives can take part;
• walks or moves in a weird manner in such a way that others feel uncomfortable;
• scares or irritates people by the way he neglects himself;
• has unpredictable explosions of rage;
• stays in bed all day, but goes around the house at night;
• threatens to hurt himself;
• does not have any friends or at the best short or superficial contacts;
• claims to be someone else;
• says that others pull thoughts out of his head or alternatively put them in.
Treatment
Schizophrenia cannot be cured yet, but in most cases it can be treated. Medication plays a big role in the treatment. The medicine most prescribed are anti-psychotics and an anti-parkinson medicine. The latter is used to diminish the side-effects of the anti-psychotics. Recently a new generation of medicine has become available, which gives excellent results for some patients.
Apart from medication, good education and support for the patient and family are important. Furthermore the patient should get help coping with society.
2.Paranoid
Origin
This physical disease originates from fear, mostly fear from the direct neighborhood. Often the person thinks that all kind of plots are set up against him.
Symptoms
Paranoid people are characterized by delusion; they continuously have the feeling of being threatened. But also other forms exist, for example suffering from acoustic or visual hallucinations; it may happen that they think they smell a poisonous gas.
Treatment
Most of the time it is not easy to treat a paranoid person. This is because the patient himself thinks that he is not ill and it is difficult to have him change his mind on this.
Firstly there needs to be a relation of trust between the patient and the person that treats him. This person also has to tell other people how to relate with the patient. Furthermore the patient needs to have the willingness to talk to the person that treats him.
3.Syndrome of Korsakov
Origin
The syndrome of Korsakov can be the result of a chronic form of alcoholism, but it can also be caused by a trauma of the brain.
Symptoms
The syndrome of Korsakov can result in a disorder of the ability to impress upon something and a disorientation of time, place and person. Also disorder of memory can occur.
Treatment
The syndrome cannot be healed. However, if the disease is caused by alcoholism to quit drinking will prevent deterioration.
4.Delirium
Origin
A delirium can appear on short notice and may also disappear on short notice. Causes of a delirium can be:
• Poisoning (from alcohol, drugs or medication)
• Abstinence of medicine or drugs
• Disorder of the hormone metabolism (diabetes)
• Infection diseases (pneumonia)
• Metabolism diseases (uremia)
• Heart and vascular diseases (coronary, stroke)
• Trauma of the skull or brain
• Dementia
Symptoms
A person suffering from a delirium has the following symptoms:
1. Its consciousness is not clear, he sees its environment different from which it is and he makes a dizzy impression.
2. He is disorientated; most of the time he does not know what time it is and where he is.
3. He observes strange things; he sees and hears things which are not there.
4. He cannot remember things because he is not clear.
These symptoms can be apparent in different levels of seriousness. A person can also have more trouble in the morning than at night. Treatment
There is always something physical going on with a delirium. The treatment of a delirium consists of a medical investigation to find the source and subsequently taking the cause away. Often the disease is solved after this.
Addiction and treatment
1.Alcoholism
Origin
Alcoholism can be a result of relationship problems, job problems or other important problems. It can also happen that people start drinking under pressure of their friends and cannot stop afterwards. But most of the time alcohol is being used to work of one's problems.
Symptoms
There is a continuous desire for alcohol which arouses guilt feelings. Often alcoholics are drowsy and listless.
Treatment
In most western countries the alcohol addiction is a major problem. That is why there are a lot of aid institutions which can help people cope with the problem.
Of course people just have to stop drinking, but it is not that simple. A treatment has to start with a cure for addiction. It is important that someone supervises the treatment, because it often happens that people drink furtive. It is also very important that people want to be cured.
A multidisciplinary treatment generates the best effects:
• A psychiatric treatment
• A phychotherapatic treatment, if necessary supported by medicine
• Taking part in the AA (Alcoholics Anonymous)
2.Drugs
Origin
We take heroin as an example because it is one of the most addictive drugs. People start using heroin because it generates a relaxed and pleasant feeling. This feeling is very addictive and after a while the body can no longer cope without it.
Symptoms
People addicted to heroin gradually get into a bad condition. They often have inflammations and their teeth become very bad. After a while many addicts start to use heroin in combination with alcohol, which intensifies the effect.
Treatment
Treatment against drug abuse is similar to that of alcohol abuse. Of course people just have to stop using drugs, but it is not that simple. A treatment has to start with a cure for addiction. It is important that someone supervises the treatment, because it often happens that people use drugs furtive. Also it is very important that people want to be cured.
A multidisciplinary treatment generates the best effects:
• A psychiatric treatment
• A phychotherapatic treatment, if necessary supported by medicine
Eating disorders and treatment
1. Anorexia nervosa
Origin
Over time different explanations are given for the origin of eating disorders. Probably the ideal of being slim and the related pressure put on woman, plays an important role.
These days people think a combination of physical, psychical and social factors influence anorexia nervosa:
1. There is a connection between eating behavior and depression.
2. Stuffing yourself can be looked upon as a form of conditioned behavior: after unpleasant experiences or frustrations someone immediately reaches for food.
3. A disturbed mother-child relation or the fear to become an adult can play a role. Anorexia nervosa will slow down the physical growth to adulthood.
4. Innate characteristics are probably of influence. It appears that anorexic patients often have a negative way of thinking, for example the desire to be perfect, thinking in extremes or having a negative image of themselves.
5. Certain family-characteristics appear more often among patients having eating disorders. The question is however whether these characteristics are the result or the cause of the eating disorder.
Symptoms
People with anorexia nervosa are constantly afraid of becoming fat and as a result suppress their appetite and the feeling of getting hungry. People with anorexia nervosa constantly and downwardly adjust their ideal weight. In spite of a serious loss of weight, they continuously consider themselves too fat. Over time they loose the normal feelings for appetite, hunger and satisfaction. They constantly watch the calories they eat and their eating pattern becomes more and more monotonous. Society only recognizes anorexia nervosa after the patient has lost a striking amount of weight. There are, however, several variants of anorexia nervosa, which makes detection complicated. There is a variant where periods of eating very little are alternated with periods of stuffing oneself followed by throwing up or the use of laxatives. Also abuse of diuretics exists.
Treatment
Several different treatments are in use to cure anorexia nervosa, but it is still not possible to conclude which one has the best results. Some treatments are more focussed on the eating behavior, others focus more on the psychical backgrounds. A combination of both methods is probably the most effective way.
In general, enforced therapies are not effective. Inferior treatment, in particular if it is enforced can aggravate the problems. It is important that the doctor in attendance has experience in the treatment of eating disorders.
One of the first targets of the treatment is the recovery of the normal weight. In addition, the treatment should try to improve the way people look at themselves, experience their body and establish and maintain social contacts and relations.
Often a special form of behavioral treatment is used. Step by step people are learned to accommodate to a rising weight by controlled exposure to the threatening situations.
With the help of a cognitive therapy people will be learned to change the wrong notions regarding their weight and their body.
2. Bulimia nervosa
Origin
Bulimia nervosa has mainly the same causes as anorexia nervosa:
1. There is a connection between eating behavior and depression; the exact nature of the connection is still unclear (what is the cause, what is the result).
2. Stuffing yourself can be looked upon as a form of conditioned behavior: after unpleasant experiences or frustrations someone immediately reaches for food.
3. Especially with bulimia nervosa traumatic experiences from the childhood can be on the origin of the eating disorder, for example ill-treatment and sexual abuse.
4. Innate characteristics are probably of influence. It appears that bulimic patients often have a negative way of thinking, for example the desire to be perfect, thinking in extremes or having a negative image of themselves.
5. Certain family-characteristics appear more often among patients having eating disorders. The question is however whether these characteristics are the result or the cause of the eating disorder.
Symptoms
People who suffer from bulimia nervosa stuff themselves often. They just eat whatever is close at hand and afterwards they try to throw up everything. These rituals of stuffing themselves are attempts to forget their problems.
Treatment
The treatment of bulimia is about the same as for anorexia nervosa.
In general, enforced therapy is not effective. Inferior treatment, in particular if it is enforced can aggravate the problems. It is important that the doctor in attendance has experience in the treatment of eating disorders.
One of the first targets of the treatment is the recovery of the normal weight. In addition the treatment should try to improve the way people look at themselves, experience their body and establish and maintain social contacts and relations.
Often a special form of behavioral treatment is used. Step by step people are learned to accommodate to a rising weight by controlled exposure to the threatening situations.
With the help of a cognitive therapy people will be learned to change the wrong notions regarding their weight and their body.
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