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... in the brain that result in changes in behavior as well. Stress increases the size of the amygdala (as evidenced by the increased display of fear in rats) and causes shrinkage of another part of the brain called the hippocampus. Brain changes can also be observed in studies of patients with major depression. Stresses early in life such as low birth weight, low socioeconomic status, a negative home environment, and physical or sexual abuse can influence an individual's physical response to stress and increase the risk of depression. Judy Cameron Respondent slides Cameron concluded the session by presenting data showing that socially stressed pubertal monkeys experienced an increase in heart rate, while adults did not.
These findings support those of the other investigators by showing that stress during puberty can influence adolescent behavior through hormonal systems, but just how this happens requires more research. Session IV: Cognitive development, decision-making, and behavioral choices How does cognitive development during adolescence affect decision-making and behavioral choices, and what is going on in the brain to regulate these processes? Investigators who made slideshows during this session gave several plausible explanations. Amy Arnsten, PhD Yale University Medical School Session Integrator and Chair slides Amy Arnsten noted that when a great loss of excitatory synapses occurs, it happens in a hormone-dependent way. Moreover, high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine can cause dramatic dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex.
Stress-induced dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex can result in the kinds of poor choices and decision making observed during adolescence. Adolescent Development of Forebrain Stimulant Responsiveness: Insights from Animal Studies Frances M. Leslie, PhD University of California, Irvine see abstract | slides Leslie's studies of adolescent rats (between 28 and 45 days old) showed they were more likely to choose nicotine over a saline placebo than adult rats, owing to an immature forebrain. However, more self-administration of cocaine occurred in older adolescent and adult rats than young adolescent rats, suggesting a mechanism different than that governing nicotine sensitivity.
Nicotine may have unique effects on the developing forebrain during adolescence, she concluded. Susceptibility to drug abuse is related to impaired function in the prefrontal cortex, a finding supported by imaging studies. It is not known, however, whether these cortical changes are a cause of the behavior or a result of the substance abuse. Adolescent Cognitive and Brain Development: The Emergence of Consciousness Daniel P. Keating, PhD University of Toronto see abstract | slides There's no single way to explain why adolescents are more prone to poor choices and decision-making. Personality, cognitive style, and an individual's social setting all interact to influence adolescent cognition. "Adolescents don't use active cognitive reasoning, " Keating explained. "They go with things that feel intuitively right. " The challenge is to see if adolescents can regulate themselves to resist such gut responses.
The various elements making up cognition become integrated in a coordinated way throughout adolescence; we need to give them time to do so. "We need to avoid characterizing some adolescents as having 'bad brains' or 'problem brains, '" concluded Keating. "That's too simplistic. " Elizabeth Cauffman, PhD University of Pittsburgh Respondent slides Elizabeth Cauffman agreed that adolescence is a prime time for prevention and intervention, and she challenged investigators to see how research results can be applied to medical, school, and legal policies and practices. We also need to learn how to protect adolescents without subjecting them to too much control, she said. "Adolescents are more vulnerable in risky situations because of the immaturity of their brains, " she concluded. "By explaining these changes, we have a better chance of understanding their behavior. " SECOND SOURCE web Adolescent Coping: Theoretical and Research Perspectives. - Review - book review Adolescence, Fall, 1998 FRYDENBERG, Erica. Adolescent Coping: Theoretical and Research Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 1997. 233 pp. $ 69. 95 (h), $ 18. 95 (p).
Coping with new experiences and responsibilities of adolescence is hard. Suddenly, young people need to cope in a variety of settings, including school, home, peer group, and the workplace, with a range of life problems, from examinations to divorce. This book provides an account of the latest thinking on coping, illustrated throughout by the voices of young people. The author examines how young people cope with a range of life problems, and considers the coping styles of particular groups, such as the gifted and those with an illness. She addresses the relationships between coping and age, gender, and ethnicity, and between family functioning and coping. She also looks at the measurement of coping, how we learn to cope, and such areas as social support and depression.
THIRD SOURCE web I read Stephen Kings Carrie this weekend, and it was a fascinating read for me. It was the earliest example of Stephen Kings work that Ive read so far, and I thought the whole voice of the novel was entirely different from his later works. Of course there are some similarities in style, but I still found it interesting to compare the style of this novel with Kings other work. Naturally, my main concern while reading Carrie was Kings portrayal of women. Ive read my fair share of King novels, but now that Im looking back (after reading several critical essays as well), I see that King has often had female monsters in his novels. Its easy for a Feminist critic to analyze his work, but I think it would be interesting if there was more work done from a psychoanalytic perspective, focusing specifically on male sexual anxieties.
Im truly beginning to think that his female characters (which often share similar horrifying traits) speak to some kind of preoccupation with or fear he has of the opposite sex. The very fact that he wrote an entire book about menstruation and the doom it brings speaks largely of these fears. In Carrie, menstruation is so closely connected to feelings of horror and disgust. In the shower, when Carrie first receives her period, she is pelted with tampons and sanitary napkins from the girls who are horrified by the display.
They scream at Carrie clean yourself up and plug it up, and theyre mystified about how a 17 -year-old girl could not have known about menstruation (King 7). What I find so alarming about this account is not just that the author could be expressing disgust at menstruation, but that he shows women themselves being horrified by their own biology. Then, the horror of menstruation is reinforced by Carries mother, Margaret White, a religious fanatic who believes that the start of menstruation represents the Curse of Blood originally set upon Eve by God (56). Margaret is so convinced that women are evil because of their reproductive capacities that she refrained from having sex with her husband, and once pregnant, almost killed her newborn daughter (218).
And of course, theres the prank that provokes Carries rage. Chris Hargensen initially asks her boyfriend, Billy Nolan, to help her put Carrie in her place. Billy takes up Chris request, but the idea of a prank goes too far when he obtains pig blood and sets it above the prom stage. When Carrie is crowned queen and the blood pours down on her, one cant help but think of the shower scene and associate the gruesome crowning with menstruation.
In my opinion, this image is even more shocking and disgusting in film, where an image is even more confrontational and immediate than words. But disgusting as it may be, menstruation is also the source of Carries power. The various researchers whose documentations are cited throughout the novel explain that Carries telekinetic abilities emerged due to her period, or due to the traumatic experience that she endured in the shower as a result of her period. Either way, Carrie ultimately becomes powerful when she enters womanhood and the tables turn. Where once Carrie was the butt of every joke, she is now the one laughing as she destroys the town and those around her. What does Carrie represent?
She is portrayed as a figure of abject horror and utter disgust. Throughout the novel, King describes her as being animal-like (a frog among swans, sacrificial goat, a patient ox, bovinely, an ape, and cow) and she is seen as ugly because she does not have the same looks of the girls around her. She dresses conservatively and her body is hidden underneath her clothes. However, when Carrie attends the prom, she wears a form-fitting dress that calls attention to her breasts and curvy waist. It seems that the night Carrie finally embraces her body (and her sexuality), she loses control and causes the destruction of an entire town. Why is Carrie so terrifying?
Is it because of her body, or because her body is so powerful? Although Carrie is described through derogatory terms throughout the novel, I would argue that she is also admired because she does possess so much power. She becomes more horrifying because she wields total control over everyone, and this power to do whatever she wants is what makes her ultimately terrifying. Additionally, I was very concerned with the violent sexual encounters between men and women within the novel. Chris and Billy Nolan's relationship (if one can call it that) is based solely on sex and violence. Billy, although disgusted with his pig of a girlfriend, remains with her.
Chris, for some reason, does not leave him, despite his abuse. There is one instance when King describes Chris as laying passively beneath her lovers until it was over and then reaching climax later by herself while viewing the incident as a single closed loop of memory (133). Chris passivity and waiting until sex was over hardly seems to account for enjoyment. Yet King describes Chris in a way that suggests she takes pleasure in painful sexual experiences. Is this why she stays with Billy? Also, Carrie herself was the product of a rape.
When Margaret refused the advances of husband, he left the house. He returned several hours later, apparently drunk, and took Margaret White. Margaret called it dirty fucking, but because of her previous refusal to have sex with her husband, this appears to be rape. Whats worse is that Margaret liked it (217).
Gee, Stephen. You write female characters with startling authenticity. Posted by Kate Cielinski at 05: 18 PM | Comments (2)
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Research essay sample on Prefrontal Cortex Stephen Kings
