Rumors and Evolution
In the context of the negative campaign tactics of the Presidential election, this article talks about the evolutionary role that rumors play. They help build social networks, give information about those higher on the social ladder, and warn about preceived threats/danger. Given their role in society, the author suggests they are best dealt with not by ignoring them, but by giving the counter story. And it's heartening to note that no matter how false the rumor is, scientists see them as rooted in a desire for truth. And therefore rumors based in truth (as the John Edwards scandal way) are virtually impossible to stop, while those that are false are best dealt with by "address[ing] them in as comprehensive a manner as possible."
"Anthony Pratkanis, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies persuasion and propaganda, says that an effective rebuttal will be more than a denial - it will create a new truth, including an explanation of why the rumor exists and who is benefiting from it.
"The more vivid that replacement is, the better," says Pratkanis. He and other rumor specialists refer to this tactic as "stealing thunder." When done correctly and early enough in a rumor's lifetime, it can shift the subsequent conversation in beneficial ways."
Facing one's fears
This reminds me of something I heard about a Native American technique of using dreams to deal with fears. They would talk about fearful dreams (about someone chasing you for example) and turn it into a story imagining what it would be like to stop running away and look at what was after you--then to try and bring that plot-line in when having a similar dream.
I guess the way I read that quoted paragraph was that trying to change the fearful thought without going through the process of feeling it wasn't as successful? Is that what you meant by tapping into a person's feelings first? That is--would the therapist ask leading questions about what the person was feeling rather than try to explain where the feeling was coming from?
That's an interesting connection to confidence/false pride.
RE: Facing one's fears
Right - it wasn't as sucessful to suppress/cotrol the emotion and ask the child to focus on the logic of the situation first.
I guess I do imagine it a little bit like walking through a story - at the end of which there is a moral and a resolution. The therapist would in a sense "ask leading questions" to keep the emotions in balance with the reality of the situation.
The child is allowed to feel, validate that feeling and then discover where the feeling was coming from. It seems the lessons learned this way (both feeling and logic in conjunction) are much more powerful and permanent.
So the confidence vs. false pride comes in when the moral of the story you tell yourself is not in line with real events. One reason that false pride may be so prevalent is because bragging can be a way of creating that story for yourself - working through a conflict with your feelings vs. the logical truth of the situation in an effort to grow. I'm recalling the discussion on the board earlier about where presenters imagine the audience naked or what not to overcome a fear of speaking in front of crowds. If you're not in touch with the fact that the story itself is a tool not a truth in and of itself - then you risk losing touch with the lesson to be learned (and reality itself) and the tools become a crutch or worse - an addiction. When that happens you're pretty much doomed to run in circles until you find a way to step outside of the stories/habits you create for yourself.
Study: Kids can beat phobias by facing them
Study: Kids can beat phobias by facing them
New research finds the best way for children to overcome their fears is to face them.
The researchers found that while the manuals state therapy should last for about 16 appointments, with exposure to fears beginning at session 10, Whiteside's team found success in an average of nine appointments with exposure beginning on average at session three.
As children were taught to face their fears, each kid's ability to function also increased. That meant kids were able to do more kid things, which were hampered prior to treatment by their fears. The more children focused on other techniques for managing their anxieties, such as relaxation or practice changing one's thoughts from fearful ones to those that are more accurate, however, the less improvement they showed in functioning.
The point of this article seems to me to be not so clear. It seems like it's more accurate to say that kids beat their phobias by facing their fears earlier instead of learning how to manage their anxiety.
To me I think this stregnthens my notion that a person's feeling evolved as a tool for our motivation to do things, and are actually a healthy and vital part of being an intelligent human being. It kind of suggests this empirical notion that I have -- that tapping into a person's feelings first will bring greater advances sooner in therapy than approaching it from a rational front first. However - to me there seems to be a stopping point for this too. and it touches on that notion of confidence vs. false pride; truth vs. fiction.
I think it's important to note that all the kids went through a type of therapy - which involved a rational analysis of the situation the children were in and making a rational goal related to a measurable behavior. So the emotions are handled in response to what an individual sees as an eminent threat, and from there you can work to a more balanced analytical view of the situation - is how I would perceive this goes.