9
votes
Accepted
Is there a scientific explanation for dramatic body shaking and trembling in religious settings? (see videos for illustrative examples)
The exhibited behaviours are episodic glossolalia, collapsing, fainting, trembling, jerking, convulsing, contorting, and shaking. The individuals performing these episodic behaviours report ...
- 1,748
9
votes
Accepted
What are the real motives of people helping to each other?
TLDR
While I have provided a full answer explaining Karpman's Drama Triangle, you can skip that and go to the last heading (Your question).
Basis of my answer
If you are approaching this question as a ...
- 12.3k
7
votes
What is the difference between a bias and a heuristic explained in layman terms?
A heuristic is an approach to problem solving, a bias is a prejudice; so in what way do these terms confuse you?
I respectfully disagree. I have noticed that the term bias and heuristic are used ...
- 1,247
6
votes
Name for problems with a short-term pay off but small long term cost?
I agree with @Fizz that there is probably no specific name for the type of problem in question, but the behaviour involved is referred to as self-control, or more loosely, willpower. Thus, the type ...
- 19.8k
5
votes
Accepted
How does one escape learned helplessness?
History
Martin E. P. Seligman, has written extensively on the nature, etiology, and significance of learned helplessness, and in 1975, he broadened the scope of learned helplessness from animal ...
- 12.3k
5
votes
Accepted
What hormones stimulate non-sexual intimate behaviour?
But I'm wondering if any of these hormones are linked with physically intimate non-sexual behaviour, like hugs, kisses and cuddles.
Kissing is a little messy because it could be characterised as ...
- 1,247
5
votes
Is talking to oneself loudly a very common sign of schizophrenia?
Before I answer this question, I would like to point out that at the bottom of Schizophrenia.com is a disclaimer, and part of it says
No health information on Schizophrenia.com, including ...
- 12.3k
5
votes
Is an avoidance of incest/inbreeding learned or instinctive?
This is not my field, but I gave it a quick search. This article seems to speak directly to this question, summarizing and comparing multiple theories to each other. In light of these theories, the ...
- 1,283
5
votes
Accepted
Does suppressing a desire make it more powerful?
First of all, your question title asks about suppression, and your question in the main text asks
what empirical evidence exists to support the notion that repressed desires will make them stronger?
...
- 12.3k
5
votes
Accepted
What's the behaviour of downplaying the importance of something you wanted but didn't get called?
In general, rationalization is:
... a defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings
are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner
to avoid the true ...
- 19.8k
4
votes
Do we all look at pictures from left to right?
When reading you are performing a trained or learned skill, so if your instruction taught you to follow certain order that's what you do. There is a transfer of this behavior ( or any other learnt one ...
- 597
4
votes
Accepted
Name for problems with a short-term pay off but small long term cost?
I don't think there is quite an established term for it; I found several:
"difficulty of envisioning long-term consequences" will turn up occasionally in discussing behavior such as smoking
"reward ...
4
votes
Do we know a priori any rules about the world?
This is a pretty popular research topic!
One good place to start might be with the work of Spelke, she's all over this.
Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNq_a_wgdgQ
If you prefer written ...
- 1,399
4
votes
Nature vs. nurture in irritability?
You will have to investigate quite a few factors:
There must be a genetic/epigenetic factors to this because we know that personality trait neuroticism has genetic and environmental factors.
You ...
- 185
4
votes
Accepted
Why some papers suggest that losses and gains are coded by the same mechanism while other suggest that distinct circuits anticipate gain and loss?
Because we still don't know exactly how the brain works. That's why we do research. If these authors knew the answer ahead of time, neither of them would have done the study.
These are research ...
- 7,705
4
votes
Is there a scientific explanation for dramatic body shaking and trembling in religious settings? (see videos for illustrative examples)
As the OP notes, this has been a difficult topic for Skeptics.SE. I'm going to try to answer here, but over on Skeptics this would probably be labelled as "Original Research".
The problem ...
- 149
3
votes
Accepted
Does the brain's reward system also work when the reward comes before the experience?
Short answer
Operant conditioning through positive reinforcement is always established by applying a stimulus after the behavior. Negative reinforcers can, however, be deployed before the wanted ...
- 20.7k
3
votes
In a class room setting, why do people look at you when you are asking a question?
Well, your ears are shaped in a way that is optimized for sound sources in front of you, so it could be that. But my non-expert bet is that probably they're using gaze to signal that they're paying ...
- 1,399
3
votes
How is hypnosis not mind control?
Since I vaguely remember a similar question not that long ago, let me use this one to quote from one the few peer-reviewed papers (doi link; preprint pdf). that discusses the notion of "mind control":
...
3
votes
Best meditation techniques to overcome Behavioral Addictions?
Several years ago, I was unsuccessfully searching for a study that evaluates the efficacy of many different interventions in the context of addictions. However, I did find a cognitive behavioral ...
3
votes
Accepted
Is there a named psychological condition for people who find every bad thing to be someone's "fault?"
I thing what you are looking for is scapegoating :
Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited
negative treatment or blame as a scapegoat. Scapegoating may be
conducted ...
- 2,187
3
votes
Is an avoidance of incest/inbreeding learned or instinctive?
The answer is that we don't really know. It is understandably difficult to conduct experiments on humans in this field, so many theories remain speculative.
The two competing forces (nature and ...
- 19.8k
3
votes
What is this stratagem called when someone talks to you like you're a slow-witted kid?
There are a few terms which can be used for this. The answer from @AlwaysConfused could describe the situation if you are actually talking to them like a child as stipulated in the title, but ...
- 12.3k
3
votes
Is there a Big Five personality assessment under an open-commercial license?
IPIP Scales:
The IPIP scales are in the public domain: https://ipip.ori.org/
They are intended to have no restrictions on use (see https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm ).
See in particular, the ...
- 30.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What is it called to attack a person then say something uplifting?
It sounds like a variant on the sandwich technique, which is advocated by some as the preferred way to deliver critical feedback to a person, like a student or employee. The sandwich technique can be ...
- 20.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Why do right-handed people put things in their left pocket, and vice versa?
Q: Why do right-handed people put things in their left pocket, and vice versa?
A: I suppose that the left pocket means the left shirt-pocket because, in the case of pant-pockets, it is the right pant-...
- 1,845
3
votes
Accepted
Are there any studies regarding elderly people and learning resiliance?
This isn't quite my area of expertise, but I did find a couple recent papers that attempted to use behavioral interventions to improve some measure of resilience in older populations and showed ...
- 7,705
3
votes
Hobbies / interests correlated with Big 5 scores?
Yes. One example is that people high in Openness to New Experiences are interested in aesthetic experiences including museums and being in nature, and novel experiences as you'd expect from the name. ...
- 1,478
3
votes
Accepted
Psychological explanation for exorcisms?
Google Scholar reveals a substantial quantity of learned research on the topic of exorcisms, of which the items below are but a few:
Ferracuti, S., & Sacco, R. (1996). Dissociative trance ...
- 1,748
3
votes
What's the behaviour of downplaying the importance of something you wanted but didn't get called?
Being the mother of 2 teenage daughters, I'm going with...
Self-deception
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-deception
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