Psychological states

All five psychological states in the process of human creativity can be described as states in which the human brain uses mostly its right hemisphere that is, thinking is creative, the dominant reasoning is abduction, and emotions play the dominant role. Obviously, not all five states take place at the same time, but during a synectics session all states could occur and therefore should be understood to become operational. 

Much more difficult is seeing the object from various personal or professional perspectives. For example, a Synector may see the object from the perspectives both of a child (who knows very little) and of an expert (who knows everything ). Similarly, a Synector may see the object from various professional perspectives. A building may be seen from an architectural perspective (elevations), from a structural engineering perspective (structural system), or from a heating perspective (heating system). 

The emergence of the state of detachment may be stimulated through asking appropriate questions, for example, 

What would you see standing in the middle of a lane on a highway  

What is the most terrifying part of its image Lights or bumpers  

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For some conditions, a large placebo effect can be anticipated. For example, studies of hormone replacement therapies for hot flashes in postmenopausal women consistently show a 50% decline from baseline in the number of daily hot flashes in the placebo group. Therefore, in order to show significance, an active treatment must produce an effect that is substantially larger than 50%. A marked placebo response is commonly observed with any condition that has a subjective component, such as chronic pain (e.g. arthritis), episodic pain (e.g. headaches), psychological states (e.g. anxiety), and certain physiologic measurements (e.g. blood pressure). 

Alex Rosenberg What would an acceptable explanation of the phenomena be, if not one in terms of the individual psychological states of the subject ... 

Claims of commercial manufacturers notwithstanding, it is evident that pheromones do not function as behavioural releasers in humans in the same way as they do in other species. Instead of searching for specific reactions to purported human pheromones, it may be that these chemicals are better described as modulators (Jacob and McClintock 2000) which influence psychological states and, thereby, also influence behaviour in a variety of fashions depending on the situation in which they are experienced, or the accompanying cues. The co-occurrence of different cues can affect their interpretation (Rowe 1999). In humans, we know that odour cues provide non-redundant information about potential mates because, while both visual and olfactory cues may be used to gauge physical attractiveness, the information in each is not equivalent (Roberts, Little, Gosling, Jones, Perrett, Carter and Petrie 2005). 

Jacob, S. and McClintock, M. K. (2000) Psychological state and mood effects of steroidal chemosignals in women and men. Horm. Behav. 37, 57-78. 

Psychological state of subject (e.g., stress increases gastric emptying rate, and depression decreases rate). 

A self-rating scale which gives a profile of psychological state, diagnostic information and personality (Crown and Crisp 1979). 

Distinguished Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook... 

FIGURE 8—6. Subsyndromal mixed anxiety depression (MAD) may be an unstable psychological state, characterized by vulnerability under stress to decompensation to more severe psychiatric disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), full-syndrome MAD, or major depressive disorder (MDD). 

Katz, M. M., Waskow, I. E., and Olsson, J. "Characterizing the Psychological State Produced by LSD," Journal of Abnormal Psychology 73,1-14,1968. 

Schiff I, Regestein Q, Tulchinsky D, Ryan KJ (1979) Effects of estrogens on sleep and psychological state of hypogonadal women. JAMA 242 2405-2407... 

In the section of the figure reporting post-experience outcomes, varied levels of the range of benefits and psychological states are portrayed. These outcomes include appreciation, achievement, knowledge, skills, social capital, rejuvenation, satiation and even boredom. These three phases of the experience lead to an array of product classifications of tourists. Although the labels are flexible and synonyms may be equally appropriate for some of the terms, the system identifies specialists, the serious and the involved, the determined, generalists, accidental and incidental visitors, dabblers and amateurs, and the disinterested. 

In the United States today, more than 150 million prescriptions are written for sedative-hypnotic medications every year. - (Hypnotic used in this sense means sleep-inducing and has nothing to do with the psychological state known as a hypnotic trance.) Most of these drugs fall into two groups the benzodiazepines and the barbiturates. 

Knowing the sense of an expression is being in a narrow psychological state. 

So we have established that there were powerful interests behind the adoption of drugs as the principle form of psychiatric treatment and behind the transformation of views about drugs from chemical restraints to chemical cures. The question we now need to address is whether the evidence supports the idea that modern drugs are disease-specific treatments. Do psychiatric drugs deserve the prominence and respectability that they have now achieved And if the evidence does not suggest that they act on disease processes, then how do they act What are the characteristics of the psychological state they induce and how does this impact on normal mental functioning ... 

While the issues listed under 2. are easily verified, the circumstances listed under 1. are often difficult or impossible to determine and thus involve the greatest effort for the least return. One must keep in mind that every witness experienced a certain event differently, from a purely subjective and personal point of view. He or she internalized it differently, depending on his/her physical and psychological state. He/she will ultimately recount the experience in a strictly subjective manner depending on his/her abilities and on the occasion at hand. So even if two witnesses are completely impartial and credible and their statements are plausible, they nevertheless may not report the same thing.9... 

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