March 2011

Do you lack empathy? What are the signs

  • If someone asked you if you liked their haircut would you tell them the truth even if you didn’t like it?
  • When people talk do you prefer to talk about their experiences rather than your own?
  • Do friends talk to you about their problems, do they say you are understanding

Empathy is one of our most powerful emotions yet society has all but ignored it. In an excellent article in today’s’ Guardian Autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen reveals the science behind “the world’s most valuable resource”.

Zero degrees of empathy means you have no awareness of how you come across to others, how to interact with others, or how to anticipate their feelings or reactions. It leaves you feeling mystified by why relationships don’t work out, and it creates a deep-seated self-centredness. Other people’s thoughts and feelings are just off your radar. It leaves you doomed to do your own thing, in your own little bubble, not just oblivious of other people’s feelings and thoughts but oblivious to the idea that there might even be other points of view. The consequence is that you believe 100% in the rightness of your own ideas and beliefs, and judge anyone who does not hold your beliefs as wrong, or stupid.

Zero degrees of empathy does not strike at random in the population. There are at least three well-defined routes to getting to this end-point: borderline, psychopathic, and borderline personality disorders. I group these as zero-negative because they have nothing positive to recommend them. They are unequivocally bad for the sufferer and for those around them. Of course these are not all the sub-types that exist. Indeed, alcohol, fatigue and depression are just a few examples of states that can temporarily reduce one’s empathy, and schizophrenia is another example of a medical condition that can reduce one’s empathy. Link to read this article

How empathetic are you? Find out take the Empathy Quotient test test

Baron Cohen book jacket

Source: The Guardian

*This is not an affiliate link

Zero Degrees of Empathy
By Simon BaronCohen

 

old woman's hands

Photo credit: Sarah Day

The human brain loses 5 to 10% of its weight between the ages of 20 and 90 years old. While some cells are lost, the brain is equipped with two compensatory mechanisms: plasticity and redundancy. Based on the results of her most recent clinical study published today in the online version of Brain: A Journal of Neurology, Dr. Sylvie Belleville, PhD in neuropsychology, the principal author of this study and Director of Research at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM), which is affiliated with the Université de Montréal, has found that for elderly subjects at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, hope may lie in brain plasticity. [continue reading…]

lovers feet

istockphoto

Are you happy with the frequency of sex in your relationship? Because according to new a newly published Australian research study many men and women are not.

A population-based survey of 4,290 men and 4,366 women found only 46% of men and 58% of women were satisfied with their current frequency of sex.

  • Dissatisfied men were overwhelmingly likely to desire sex more frequently
  • Among dissatisfied women, only two thirds wanted sex more frequently.

Age also plays a part…. but only for men, with those aged 35-44 years tending to be among the least satisfied.

Men and women who were dissatisfied with their frequency of sex are also more likely to express overall lower sexual and relationship satisfaction.

The authors’ findings not only highlight desired frequency of sex as a major factor in satisfaction, but also reveal important gender and other socio-demographic differences that need to be taken into account by researchers and therapists seeking to understand and improve sexual and relationship satisfaction among heterosexual couples.

Other issues such as length of time spent having sex and practices engaged in may also be relevant, particularly for women

One thing that emerges from this study is that if couples value sex as an important part of their relationship, then they need to put sex higher up the priority list.

Source: Journal of Sex Marital Therapy; 2011 Mar;37(2):104-15.

Feeling Angry? Say a Little Prayer

Durer Hands

Albrecht Durer

S aying a prayer may help many people feel less angry and behave less aggressively after someone has left them fuming, new research suggests.

A series of studies showed that people who were provoked by insulting comments from a stranger showed less anger and aggression soon afterwards if they prayed for another person in the meantime.

People often turn to prayer when they’re feeling negative emotions, including anger

The benefits of prayer identified in this study don’t rely on divine intervention: they probably occur because the act of praying changed the way people think about a negative situation, said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University. [continue reading…]