Ontogenesis

I have merged the topics. I was tempted to leave it for better statistical control, but I figured order bias is unlikely.

Wrote a short blog on this one: http://somethingpsychology.com/2014/05/27/psychology-debate-nomothetic-or-idiographic-approaches/ Focusing on mainly research methods though (as that's what I've been focusing on recently!)and threw in some history because I like criticising psychoanalysis.

Interesting questions, particularly second one as I'm currently doing some IPA research - will write a post up by the weekend. I'll be sure to use this excuse next time. On a serious note: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, psychology is of slight interest to me given my past experiences with psychotherapists (not to mention my mother is planning to go on a psychology-relative course I think), so it's something I'm quite tweaked by every so often. Glad you like it. I've heard a lot about experiences with psychotherapists, some good, some bad. Hopefully you had a positive one. Thanks everyone for reading - never know if people are interested in these sorts of things.

Answers! http://somethingpsychology.com/2014/05/20/qa-time-sectioning-drugs-lobotomies-and-complex-care/

Glad you like it! Currently writing a post in response to your questions Keep, will post in good time.

Hello zomboiders. I've started a new blog for all things clinical psychology, short stories, Lua and D&D You may find it interesting: http://somethingpsychology.com/ If you want to request a topic or have a question, feel free to leave a message.

I like the way we keep our traditional values in this suggestion

Useful!

Would dead bodies in lakes affect fish? Like disease and such? I imagine zombies ending up in the water would be a common occurrence.

If it was socially acceptable, I'd eat chocolate all day. Down with 'candy'!

The cult of Boris?

Yep, there is no obligation to present suggestions in any particular form. Let's not forgot our rule number one, keep to discussing the suggestions, if you so wish.

Never seen it, but inteligent design is just silly.

Simple, but I like this idea a lot +1

In reply to the above, I hope you don't mind if I summarise the points as I understand them so I can respond: 1) Too complex of a system for a single problem, with the inclusion of others it would be too much Agreed. However, I consider depression and anxiety to be transdiagnostic, that is, no matter the 'diagnosis', these still feature frequently. I actually believe it would be a mistake to include any more than those two disorders. Personality disorders would be oversimplifed to interpersonal problems, and thus just be irritating. With bipolar disorder it would be difficult to represent manic/hypomanic states with them either being greatly beneficial or taking control from the player. Schizophrenia and it's variants you... could probably do, though the player would quickly realise, although there are ways of countering this. In all though, if you were going to do one or two, and do them right, it'd be depression and anxiety. 2) 'Rolling' schemas might interfer with desired play style True. Like any sandbox game, it would be good to either set them yourself, or have the option to randomise (and be unknown). However, it would spice things up if they were rolled for the NPCs in the game. You would have to learn what NPCs are sensitive to what, and how to manage them more easily, without them exploding, being offended, getting depressed, or leaving the group (through repeated abuse). You could use the last one to deliberately press buttons if you wanted to provoke someone for whatever reason, although have to hide it from other group members or be kicked out yourself. 3) Benefits for being happy/good state of mind Also agreed. I tend to think of happiness as the result of: the absense of something negative, and the presence of something positive. Some people aren't depressed, but they're not especially happy. Keeping up morale, a solid group, well fed, supplied, protected, good relationships, would all lead to a sense of wellbeing. Performance increases for people in good moods (I remember one study where doctors were better at spotting lung cancer, depending if they were in a good mood or not). 4) Inclusion of positive/adapative schemas A good idea, I only focused on the maladaptive schemas above, i.e. the ones that lead to problematic patterns (not necessarily personaality disorders though) in a way to provide variability for what leads to depression by person. The system would bode well to include other useful ones too. Although the assumption is that not having maladaptive schemas means you have adaptive ones. Good discussion points here:) Also, sorry about the second essay

There's a book by Stephen King called 'Misery', where the main character is held hostage by an obsessed fan in order to write another book of her favourite series. There's a scene (leg amputation aside) where she flies into a rage after he writes a dead character back to life by changing the circumstances already written. She's angry because she considers this 'cheating'. I mention this in terms of this suggestion because I think moodles that state 'depressed' is cheating - depression is a diagnostic label that covers huge range of somatic (physical), emotional, interpersonal and cognitive experiences. These experiences should be shown, otherwise the label is meaningless. I propose: > Include emotion moodle > Depression that is represented by in-game effects and not just a moodle > Schemas - rolled at the beginning that determine characters sensivities 1) Emotion Moodle Moodles currently show physical symptoms (hunger, temperature, pain, tiredness). I think it would be useful to include a semi permanent emotion moodle that expresses the characters current feeling. This would provide information on their state. E.g. content, sad, anger, happy, joy, frustration, surprise, love, anxiety etc. This would particularly come into play within any mental health system introduced into the game, where affective components are generally what defines the experience (even schizophrenia). 2) Depression Symptoms (in game effects): - Low mood or sadness occuring frequently and for long periods - Irritability - quick to anger when interacting with NPCs - Increased, or decreased appetite - Increased, or decreased sleep - Disturbed sleep - difficulty falling asleep or waking in the night - Tiredness regardless of sleep - Lack of energy and low motivation - Slower movement, decreased holding weight, fatigue much faster - Difficulty concentrating - reading skill books is much slower, crafting is much slower - Memory problems - less xp from performing tasks There are multiple cognitive symptoms (e.g. the 'cognitive triad' or low self esteem) that currently can't really be portrayed. I thought about proposing a 'thoughts' moodle to give the topic the character was thinking about, but it may be too much work to include (would be very interesting though!). Severity: Depression should be a continuum from mild, to moderate, to severe. The above symptoms effects should increase appropriately. Severe depression is crippling, and the PC should suffer appropriately. Causes: See the schemas section. Other could include trauma, upheaval (e.g. losing a long term safe house) or long term deprivation of other needs (e.g. food, water, safety, social etc.). Depression does not fall from the sky, so should never occur randomly, but should always been in context of the characters world. Considerations: - Social support - evidence shows support acts as a buffer against negative events. Those in groups with close relationships have reduced chance of developing depression, and/or it passes more quickly - Behaviour - currently the game has boredom. Although this is sort of related: depression tends to lead to self-isolation and withdrawal from activites, and thus from any rewarding engagement with the environment. The lack of activities can lead to, or at least maintain depression. - Suicide - control taken away from the player I consider false difficulty and comes under my 'cheating' category. Suicide should come from the frustration of the player not being able to deal with a depressed charater, and thus reflecting the important element of hopelessness about the future. - Relapse - the biggest factor that predicts relapse is the number of relapses in the past. The more times someone has been depressed, the more likely they'll get depressed (can explain this if anyone wants further info). Recovering: The most obvious treatments include: - Time (no treatment) - called spontaneous remission, one article states about a quarter of people will recover from depression without any treatment after approximately three months, this goes up to about half in a about a year. Of course this means it can take much longer without. - Antidepressants - different strengths depending on depth of depression. Risk of side effects. Only treats current episode of depression. - Self help books - slow recover, but increased protection against future depressive episodes. - Psychological therapy - if an NPC in the group is trained. Faster recover, good protection against future depressive episodes. Variable effects depending on person. 3) Schemas Schemas is a psychological term to describe our knowledge structures. Young developed it into it's own type of therapy (which is brilliant by the way). It describes how our early experiences developed patterns we tend to repeat when we're older, especially in relationships. In the sense in could be used in PZ, is that it could determine how each character is more sensitive to different events, i.e. what makes one character depressed, doesn't necessarily make another. These would be invinsible but used behind the scenes for calcualtions for emotions and onset of depression. Some good ones are: - Loss - losses through death or abandonment are particulary stressful - Rejection - percieved rejection from groups or their members leads to stress - Isolation - being alone too long leads to stress - Separate in a group - part of a group, but not really fitting in leads to feelings of alienation - Mistrust/Abuse - being robbed or used by other people is particulary hurtful - Subjugation - being under an authoratarian leader leads to resentful and internalised anger - Shame - performing acts that the character is shameful of leads later to depression - Unrelenting Standards - being not the best at something leads to stress - Entitlement - not being given what they want leads to resentment These could be rolled on each character creation to determine their makeup. Random may mean mean they are more vunerable to a few things, or none of them.

Mods work in mysterious ways

Isn't that guy just waving?

What do think about the Unionists and Nationalists conflict? From the news recently is still seems a very sore point (e.g. protesting at parades, glorifying bombers etc.), but from the outside (and before my time) the whole thing seems very bizarre. Also, how's the country doing at the moment? Been running into a lot of Irish nurses coming over lately, apparently work is light on the ground.

Your title could already be poop related, Footmuffin.

He doesn't mean for the zombification, just general infections

I usually make the distinction: Anxiety - future orientated threat preparation. Panic - present focused survival response Being anxious means more likely to panic (as less emotional increase is required to reach panic threshold). Both involve threat evaluation, with often ability to cope appraisals mingled in. Physical symptoms of both include activation of the sympathetic nervous system - increased heart rate, muscle tension, increased breathing, sweating etc. Although the degree of which is dependent on level of anxiety or panic, with panic being the most active. Panic is a survival response - the 'fight or flight', giving boosts to either (due to 'symptoms' described above). Fighting would likely to be a lot less controlled and much more frantic, but physically you would be more prepared to do either, in the short term. Chronic anxiety leads to fatigue, aches and pains, poor sleep and restlessness (due to constant increased muscle tension). Attention is diverted to threat detection when in both states, which is often why people who are anxious have memory problems, as they find it difficult to concentrate or are distracted. So you would have heightened perception of threat, but less likely to notice other things. I would suggest anxiety has a detrimential effect on any tasks requiring concentration, and perhaps even spotting loot. Depression and anxiety often occur together, for many reasons.

Must... resist....

A small bump to NPC interactions couldn't hurt either. Nobody wants to smell stewed rat breath, after all.

All the mods can give titles. I think everyone has their own stye