Reasoning: A mind's eye view of the process in real life.

In late September 2009, I received a summons for jury duty for Cochise County in Arizona where my wife and I reside. I informed my supervisor and my site lead and then on the morning of the 28^th I drove to the Cochise County Superior Courthouse to report for jury duty. Upon arrival I was placed into a room with the other prospective jurors. We were then taken across the street to the courtroom and were told to find seating by the bailiff. About 10 minutes after that the Judge came into the room and announced to us what we were summoned for, to pick a jury of 12 + 2 alternates for a murder trial.

The selection process seemed tedious but I watched the lawyers and judge show reason and logic in their choices. Some of the people were excused for personal reasons, moral, ethical, or just real life. All parties involved in our selection seem to blend experience, knowledge, and a lot of observational learning to make judgments about a prospective juror. It amounted to over a day and a half of selection then there the jury was formed. I had the distinction of being chosen as a juror to sit and hear this case.

That afternoon the Judge before the opening arguments by the attorneys read the jury its initial instructions. We were told to listen to all the evidence, arguments, witnesses, and statements made by the participants wholly and impartially. This I found to be not as hard as I had initially feared it would be, I found myself utilizing my experience as an analyst and my reasoning skills with logic to categorize the information presented.  We were issued note pads and writing utensils to take notes, of which most of the jury took copious notes throughout the trial.

The assumptions that I think most of us juror’s had were to the effect of “can I be truly fair and impartial?” Only one of us had ever sat upon a trial before and that juror was involved in a civil case. To say that we were apprehensive was a bit of an understatement indeed. The opening arguments took about 30 minutes and then the state called their first witness. I found myself quickly and rapidly assessing and categorizing the information as it was presented. I relied upon my logic and reasoning skills to avoid letting my emotions influence my perceptions of what was going on before me.

This is not to suggest that I ignored my emotions, to the contrary I utilized my emotional intelligence to asses each witness for their emotional state and to attempt along with rational (reason & logic) aspects of my mind to discern if they were being truthful and any dissimulation that they may have been attempting. I also made a point of looking around the room at the defendant, the attorneys the defense team and prosecution, the audience, and the judge. I was taking in the essence of the room to assist me in gauging the trial whether a witness was testifying or not.

We sat upon the trial for 2 weeks going home each night with the admonition of the judge etched into our minds. Memory was a part of the process and an important one but I was aware enough not to completely rely upon it solely. I took meticulous notes throughout the trial, these served me well when we were given our final instructions from the Judge and told to retire to the jury room to begin deliberations.  The entire jury began to pour over their notes and once a foreman was selected we began deliberations.

We the jury began by starting at the beginning of the trial and working our way through the process from its beginning. We found that we were the largest obstacles in this part of the process as a few jurors’s appeared to be dominated by their emotional intelligence and it appeared to hinder their reasoning abilities. Another obstacle that presented itself was the crime itself and the flow of events. The evidence both physical and circumstantial was powerful and compelling. This required us to find a way to “recreate” in our minds how the crime actually took place.

During the deliberation my fellow jurors and I several types of reasoning, used was the following, inductive reasoning, cause and effect, cognitive awareness, and plain old common sense.  Several of the jurors, me included were either federal law enforcement officers (US Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement) or former military. I also found myself utilizing an analytical tool that I had learned in the military to aid me in my deliberations upon the evidence.

I utilized the Association of Competing Hypothesis Matrix or ACH; this was developed by William Heuer for the Central Intelligence Agency back in the late 1990’s to combat human bias that skewed analytical assessments. I shared this process with my fellow jurors and I believe it made a critical difference in how we approached the case. I also had noted that my fellow juror’s and I had been conducting observational learning throughout the trial, whether that was observing a witness or the physical evidence.

I believed that we could as a body been more effective if we had been permitted to use my analytical model from the beginning of the trial. We were delayed in our deliberations by one juror whom could not get past their emotional reaction to the case.  Another method that would have been effective in my humble opinion would have been too been able to ask questions directly without going through the judge. But given the importance of the legal necessity of the trial I can accept that limitation that was placed upon me and my fellow jurors.

Memory and language were definitely a real aspect to this case, we relied upon it as we took our notes, when we went home for the night as we assessed the information provided that day. Still I found myself not thinking in words but a mix of words, images, and emotions.  I found myself completely drained at the end of a day in the courtroom. I attribute this to the fact that I was completely focused upon the case and trying to assess/analyze without predetermining my assessment/judgment of the case at prior to proper legal instructions from the judge to do so.

In the end we found the defendant guilty of Premeditated Murder in the First Degree. I believe that we did so fairly and impartially. We utilized all of our reasoning skills, our logical thinking processes, and our various intelligences. Reading about this information after going through this experience has shown me how important it is for me to attempt to better understand those processes such as thinking/reasoning, memory, language, and emotion.  If I am to assist my fellow human beings someday as a mental health professional, I must learn all that I can about how we think, perceive, judge and how our emotions, perceptions, biases play a part.

Bio-Psychology: Foundation, Present day, and Future.

It is hard to imagine an introduction to into the realm of psychology without encountering the thought of how does the body affect the mind.  What causes our emotions and behaviors to be, does some biological process provide the answer or do we still have much to learn about our bodies and ourselves? Where does bio-psychology begin and the realm of pure biology, bio-chemistry, and other “hard” sciences end? Let us begin our journey into the murky past of the foundations of bio-psychology.

            What is bio-psychology and what does it mean to be a student of bio-psychology? Biological Psychology is the study of the brain and how it produces behavior (Wickens, 2005, p. xxv).  However this definition of bio-psychology deserves more than that, bio is literally translated to mean “life”, psych is derived from psyche (Greek for mind), and logos (also Greek in origin) meaning reason or study of the mind (Wickens, 2005, p. 3).  This conflicts with the earliest stirrings of the nascent philosophy/science that become modern psychology which seeks to find a more “scientific” structure and empirically derived body of knowledge. 

The founders of what became psychology; include names from antiquity such as the Roman physician, Galen, who postulated the first recorded theory of the brain and its inner workings. The earliest bio-psychologists thought that the ventricles of the brain contained or carried some spirit that the mind told the body to function. We then see as scientific knowledge crept out from underneath the specter of religious authorities that would possible deem such knowledge or research heretical that a more scientific approach began to appear (Wickens, 2005).

The next leap was spearheaded by Rene Descartes, of the oft quoted author of the “I think therefore I am” remark. He offered a new theory that the mind and body were two distinct and separate entities; this became known as the Cartesian Dualism theory. However, this theory was unable to explain the how the body and mind affected one another. Descartes then theorized that it was the pineal gland that was the location for this exchange of information.  But Descartes noted that not all actions were clearly based solely upon conscious thought but occurred out of something he termed “reflex” This evolutionary thinking of Descartes opened the door to later research (Wickens, 2005).

As early as 1791 we saw an Italian scientist, Luigi Galvani, who demonstrated that nerves communicate via electrical impulses through his research using amputated frog’s legs. This was then further advanced when in 1875 that another Italian scientist, Camillo Golgi, who discovered a stain that allowed for the first time individual nerve cells to be clearly defined utilizing silver nitrate. This discovery allowed study of the individual component of a nerve cell to be observed. This discovery saw its greatest advance within the workings of Ramon y Cajel’s, who showed that all nerves are distinct and individual entities not a mass as previously believed. (Wickens, 2005)

It is from this earliest work in the neurological elements of bio-psychology that we began to understand the unique relationship between mind and body.  The role of genetics within bio-psychology began with the workings and research of Gregor Mendel, who first showed that a plant could be bred for specific traits from two different parent plants. Still the work of Mendel would not be as profound if it were not for Charles Darwin, considered by many to be the father of modern biology. It was upon Mendel’s work that Darwin’s theory of evolution found a bedrock upon which to stand (Wickens, 2005).

We then see where the juncture between biology and psychology merge, as we learn more about the structures of the human body beyond the micro-biological level we see how important that a clear understanding of the relationship between them becomes to the future of bio-psychology and psychology in general (Carr, 2008). It is the discovery of profound concepts as DNA and thus what role does our DNA play in who we become and how we behave do we find that connection with the field of genetics and bio-chemistry (Wickens, 2005). This cross-pollination of the science of the mind and body meet but both seem to be at odds with each other.

The major assumptions of bio-psychology is that with unlocking the interaction between the mind (a mental construct) and the brain and associated biological systems (physical reality) we will finally decide the question of “Nurture vs. Nature”.  But the assumptions of the field of bio-psychology are more than simply answering this one question how ever profound. We seek to understand why past behaviors from a previous generation of human beings find themselves reborn it seems in the genes of the next. Is mental illness or its prevalence of a likelihood of contracting one have a genetic element? If so can we modify the gene or at least study how it affects subsequent generations? 

However, we must move beyond assumptions and clearly the way is a unified and multidisciplinary approach to the field of bio-psychology. As students of the human condition, we must remember that while both the mind and body are distinct and seemingly separate entities; they are both involved in symbiotic relationship that we have yet to fully understand.  I hope this paper has shed some light upon the field of bio-psychology and its role within the science of psychology in general.

References

Binnie-Dawson, J. L. (1982). A Bio-Social Approach to Environmental Psychology and Problems of Stress. International Journal of Psychology, 17(4), 397-495. doi: AN 5774948

Carr, J. E. (2008, March). Advancing Psychology as a Bio-behavioral Science. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 15(1), 40-44. doi: 10.1007/s10880-008-9093-z; (AN 31518202)

Read, J.,  Fink, P. J., Rudegeair, T., Felitti, V., & Whitfield, C. L. (2008, Oct). Child Maltreatment and Psychosis:A Return to a Genuinely IntegratedBio-Psycho-Social Model. Clinical Schizophrenia & Related Psychoses, 2(3),  p235-254. doi: (AN 34715675)

Wickens, A. (2005). Foundations of Biopsychology (2nd ed.). [e Book Collection, PDF]. doi: 1000-0001-60A1-0003C4E4

Abnormal Psychology and Therapy

We have compared and contrasted the similarities/differences of Normal psychology vs. Abnormal psychology. We will now begin to highlight some mental disorders and mental illnesses to show those similarities and differences. Then upon the completion of this portion we will discuss therapies for treating such illnesses as currently utilized among the mental health professionals in the United States today.  We will begin by discussing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or (PTSD) as it is more commonly referred to as in public discourse.

Post-Traumatic Stress disorder has an unusual history as it has likely been with us since the biblical reference to the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. It is most often associated with military personnel that have directly or at least closely involved in a combat environment. PTSD was not recognized as a mental health issue until Vietnam and was poorly understood by the military leadership, general public, as well as the mental health community. Prior to its acknowledgement during the Vietnam era it was often referred to as “combat-stress” or “battle-fatigue”. 

 It’s most public display of ignorance in regards to its existence and being a serious issue worthy of medical treatment was the slapping incident involving General George S. Patton during WWII. General Patton was attending to his wounded soldiers at a field hospital when he chanced upon a visibly unwounded soldier, when Gen. Patton asked the soldier why he was not at the front fighting the soldier’s reply was “Sir, I can’t take it anymore.” Gen. Patton became incensed at this apparent “cowardice” and struck the soldier with a leather glove in the face. Gen. Patton berated the soldier and ordered him immediately to return to the front or face a court-martial for cowardice in the face of the enemy. The remaining history of this incident is public record and not pertinent to this discussion.

Yet even with the acknowledgement of the existence of PTSD during Vietnam, it was at least 20 years before the Veterans Administration began to seek new methods of treatment or simply even acknowledge a veteran was suffering from the condition. I saw this first hand as a boy, my father had served from 1968 till 1971 in Vietnam and saw direct combat. He rarely if ever spoke to anyone about his experiences there but I saw much of his suffering directly if he had an episode. The most graphic was back in 1987, it was during the night and we were experiencing a severe thunderstorm with hail. 

My father was apparently triggered by the hail, it sounded like gunfire to him. I was sleeping in a bedroom over our garage. He low-crawled all the way from his bedroom and up the stairs into my room, I was awaked by him hissing in a low voice “Gooks are in the fucking wire, man your position and be ready to kill them when the move towards the perimeter.” Needless to say this frightened me but I learned much about my father after that when I began to slowly discuss it with him. Despite his own wounds from his service he did not discourage from me seeking to become a soldier myself upon graduating high-school in 1992

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To provide some more technical details of PTSD, it is defined as Disorder and not a Psychosis. This simply refers to the fact that most disorders are at least treatable and often a “cure” can be found to mitigate the effects of the disorder. The symptoms are somewhat vague and are often mistaken for an anxiety or depressive issue but there are clear distinctions of PTSD from a regular anxiety or depressive disorder.  Individuals that suffer from PTSD in any form often will “re-live” the incident that caused the disorder over and over, will experience arousal in response to a trigger such as a smelling cooking meat on a grill or a sound. PTSD is not simply a disorder suffered by the military but by any human being such as victims of sexual assault or abuse or anyone whom is likely to encounter life-threatening situations either for themselves or others.

I am currently actively seeking treatment for PTSD due to my service in Iraq and can say that we have learned much but still have many gaps in our knowledge of how to treat this disorder. I currently have been provided both counseling and medication to deal with my PTSD. One of the more popular and successful approaches used today is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT involves the active participation of the patient and provider to find ways to deal with or prevent the PTSD from being triggered or how to mitigate its effects once triggered. This usually involves one on one or group therapy with others whom suffer from PTSD. By active discourse and by learning how to recognize triggers, the patient can be better prepared for his or her own issues as they arise. 

PSTD is not a death sentence but if left untreated can become aggravated and lead to other behaviors that are either self-destructive or potentially dangerous for society as a whole. This is not to insinuate that anyone who suffers from PTSD is a danger but that we should be cognizant of its severity and the risks if left untreated. Like any mental illness education and raising awareness of the issue is critical to avoiding the stereotyping of the disorder and its victims.

Reference

Laugharne, J., Lillee, A., & Aleksandar, J. (2009, November). Role of psychological trauma in the cause and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders [Abstract]. Current Opinion in Psychiatry,, 1-5.

Critical Observation: Post-Traumatic Stress

Note this post is from one of my papers I have written in the course of my pursuit of a degree in Psychology so it is academic in nature.

The subject of this paper is Post-Traumatic Stress or as it is more commonly known Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD among most individuals today. The term in current usage in the psychological field is Post Traumatic Stress or PTS. PTS was not given its current name until the Vietnam War and shortly after when returning veterans began to have difficulty re-adjusting to life outside of a combat zone.  This label very quickly gathered a negative stigma to be associated with it; veterans who found themselves unable to get proper treatment languished in a personal hell for many years. Only in the last 15 years has the public’s perception changed in regards to PTS but there are many still ignorant of what it really means. 

The subject of this paper is myself; I am a decorated Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran with my initial combat tour occurring in 2003-2004. I returned for a 2^nd combat tour that was cut short when my degenerative disc disease was aggravated and I was returned to the continental United States in June 2005. My symptoms appeared approximately about 6 months after my return. I found myself very quickly reverting back to the hyper-vigilant mode of awareness. I became easily agitated in crowded locations and did not wish to be around such gatherings. 

I was able for quite a while to deal with the PTS by having a strong support network of close friends and family.  But by late 2005 my first marriage after 12 years ended in divorce I found myself adrift. The dreams and feelings seemed stronger and more intense; I then threw myself into my work as a Military instructor at Fort Huachuca, teaching other analysts to perform in combat the same job I did. I enjoyed the work and it became my security blanket to teach the soldiers how to do the job right and bring your guys home alive.

Things were going smoothly then around mid-2006 I met and began dating the woman, who would become my 2^nd wife, Kathryn.  Kate as she prefers to be address became very quickly an anchor against the darkness that I felt sometimes was going to swallow me whole.  Assisting me in dealing with my PTS was a fellow veteran, Paul Matsuzak; he served with me as a fellow instructor. Paul and I became very close as we shared many of our issues with each other and became that friend you call at 2 a.m. and you can’t sleep because of the nightmares. In September 2006 the Army moved me to Camp Parks, where I spent the next two years training soldiers whom were about to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.

For myself my PTS episodes begin very innocently, usually restlessness when attempting to fall asleep. I will hear voices, smell burnt flesh, or see images of comrades that died over there during my tour(s). I also see my father whom I was informed of his death the day we lost 5 men to a grenade attack while during a shift change so some of them were lying down, the others getting ready to pull their shift.  I cannot ever forget that day, it is burned in my soul till I die and beyond.  I can recall how I begged my mother to not make me return home as I had a mission do take care of, that my father would understand why.  I finally sought treatment in August of 2009 for my PTS through the Veterans Administration; I was diagnosed with a “mild-anxiety” disorder shortly after being discharged for my degenerative disc disease in 2008. 

The effects of a PTS episode upon me range from mild to severe, examples of my PTS is I with draw from social activities for a few days, possibly miss work, or feel the pain in my back reach excruciating levels beyond the pain medications I take to control the pain.  The emotional toll is I am left feeling numb to everything around me as I slowly recover from the latest episode.  I have been proscribed medication to deal with the anxiety and with the counseling seem to be effective in managing my PTS so far. 

The psychology that is used to explain my behavior is still developing as we learn more about how/why PTS occurs in human beings. The current and ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have dramatically increased the number of individuals that now seek or are directed to mental health professionals for treatment. This is the reason I have sought a degree in psychology, to better understand myself and my issues and to eventually seek to become a mental health professional to treat others whom suffer as I have. 

The ethical dilemmas that could arise from my PTS and the fact I seek to become a mental health professional to treat others, first I must have my own issues in control and be able to set aside my biases so that I can treat others. Another that could arise is the danger of becoming too emotionally invested in a patient, preventing effective treatment based on sound psychological/scientific practice.  Yet another issue is putting my issues upon my patient and not treating their issues as a separate and unique issue. This can be avoided by a solid grounding in professional ethics and ensuring that I am able to separate self from patient/client needs.