H1N1 is the name people call it these days. Its rather recognizable. In my opinion I think the hysteria has been shoved down our throat so many times that a single cough could mean swine flu. At my local university (University of South Florida) they have made it a priority to post fliers and brief students in every class as if we have not heard of it yet. So far, the regular flu is more dangerous than H1N1. I’m not trying to downplay being ready for a possible deadlier strain to come about, I’m simply saying WE GET IT ALREADY.

Today’s topic is trust because it’s one of my own main issues. It was a remark said to me yesterday that actually sparked the idea of this post. “That man really destroyed you”, someone said. And I thought about it for a bit and denied it vehemently.

It was a short but very memorable relationship I had a few years ago to someone who was very different than I’d assumed and the relationship changed me to the core. But did he destroy me? No. That’s a power I will not surrender to him. I was not destroyed but I was certainly a different woman, less sure of my own judgment and other people. On guard 24/7.

One single trust violation might completely destroy any trust you have built up. Or maybe it will be a small series of violations, little drops of water that one day turn into a river that will wash away your feeling of security and self esteem (like in my case). In either case, you can no longer trust people and worst of all you can no longer trust yourself. Your own judgment.

What can we do to rebuild trust?

If you’re a friend, relative or partner of someone who has a hard time trusting, you’ve got to do things that restore the trust. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re the one who has violated the trust in the first place: You’ve still got a friend, family member or spouse who has trust issues and cannot let go of them and so the challenge is also yours.

It’s an odd thing that you must reconcile when you’ve done nothing. The person may have been hurt by someone else who is no longer a part of their life because of the damage done but the point is, the damage is still there, un-repaired, unhealed. The road to healing is of course slightly different for every person and depending on the act that has broken the trust – and who has broken it – but a good thing to do is listen, answer every question under the sky, be accountable (go where you say you’re going, stick to promises), show a distinct pattern of honesty and trust-worthiness. Be very very predictable. Predictability is worth GOLD when trying to establish trust.

If you’re the one whose trust has been broken, you’ve got a different job. You need to think through what happened. Don’t beat yourself up but really consider what happened. If you think about it, trust is not something you just bestow on any person you meet. You’d never hand over your most precious thing to a stranger because he or she “deserves trust”. Don’t put trust in everyone you meet. Your own life – your mental and emotional well being – is a very precious thing and it’s not to be handed over just like that.

The good way to trust is to have an open and honest communication. Tell your friend, family member or spouse how you feel. Talk, talk, talk. And remember, trust grows over time. You don’t go down the supermarket and come back with trust. Get more realistic expectations: We’re all human and we all fail sometimes to live up to what others want from us. Don’t expect perfection. Realize that you can’t ever control people and you can’t be there all the time, watching, knowing what’s going on.

It all comes down to trusting yourself above all else. You’re probably angry, disappointed, scared – but remember that trust comes from a dynamic relationship with someone and it grows over time as soon as you see a pattern of behavior that you feel good about. In the meantime, get your feelings out, write them down, talk about them and allow people to build the pattern. Take care of yourself, exercise, be good to yourself and let go of “How could I be so stupid”.

When you know better, you will do better.

Exercise is the single most important lifestyle choice we can choose to do as we age to stay sharp mentally and physically. I’m not saying it’s the only thing you should do, but it’s probably the most important one. Now lets go over some other brain healthy activities and or habits. Reducing stress can have a huge impact on our overall well being and mental acuteness. Studies have shown that stress can cause forgetfulness, unorganized thoughts, and the reduction of mental capacities. According to a University of California professor, eating a balanced diet or brain healthy foods with omega-3 fatty acids such as salmon, wal-nuts, and kiwi fruits can increase memory, learning, and protect against mood disorders. Challenge yourself with moderately hard mental activities such as crossword puzzles, reading a novel, trivia games, or creative writing. Trivia games are especially good with keeping your brain sharp with respect to memory retrieval speed. It’s a natural consequence of aging that our cognitive processing slows down, but we can limit the extent to which it does slow down. Jeopardy is another trivia or knowledge based game that comes to mind which can help improve memory retrieval speed and overall cognitive speed. Last but not least, get a good night’s sleep. There is nothing like a good night’s sleep that can energize your brain to be at the top of its game. Sleeping with a regular schedule is the best way to stay sharp, not erratic sleeping.

I wanted to continue the discussion on caffeine by focusing on caffeine and memory. Based on popular belief, caffeine is always thought to boost mental awareness and therefore gets automatic credit in improving cognitive abilities such as memory and processing speed (thinking speed).

Memory

There has been numerous research articles written on the subject of caffeine and memory. By studying several journal articles, I wanted to take a look at the effects of caffeine on memory. According to Mednick, et al., their experimental outcomes suggested that while caffeine increases alertness, it impairs verbal memory and motor learning.(2008) Other research that has been done with children provide strong evidence that caffeine intake can impair cognitive performance tasks that include memory (Keller 1995). A study that examined caffeine levels and memory in rats found that caffeine decreases memory intake but improves memory retention (Angelucci, et al. 2002). So in other words, this study shows that caffeine can hurt intake in memory or new information but once its in, it can be retained more easily. To me, this makes sense if we apply it to humans. I know from personal experience that its harder to comprehend reading while under the influence of higher levels of caffeine. Sometimes my reading is jumpy or sporadic.

This segways into my next topic for my caffeine series, Caffeine and the speed at which we think.

If you enjoyed reading this article, check out the previous article about Caffeine and performance.

Sources

Angelucci, M. E. M., Cesario, C., Hiroi, R. H., Rosalen, P. L., Da Cunha, C. (2002) Effects of caffeine of learning and memory in rats tested in the Morris water maze. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 35(10), 1201-1208.

Keller, S.L. (1995) Effects of caffeine consumption on cardiovascular indices, attention, task performance, and memory retention in children. Dissertation Abstracts International, 55(12-B), 5595.

Mednick, S. C., Cai, D. J., Kanady, J., Drummond, S. P. A. (2008) Comparing the benefits of caffeine , naps, and placebo on verbal, motor and perceptual memory. Behavorial Brain Research, 193(1), 79-86.

I’m sure everyone has heard about laser eye correction also known as LASIK. This procedure has a unique background that stems from the US Military and NASA. Personnel that undergo extreme situations within these organizations have benefited greatly from LASIK vision correction. Performance is enhanced and its obvious why the US Military and NASA would choose this procedure.

By today’s standards, there is an even safer version of LASIK technology available to the general public called ILASIK. This procedure uses two lasers instead of just one ensuring extra precision and safety. The older version of LASIK would use a hand held blade to create a corneal flap which would require the precision and skills of the person doing it. ILASIK uses its first laser to do the same thing but the difference is the computer guided precision that quickly and safely finished the first part of the procedure. Then the second laser is used to quickly correct the vision while using wave-front mapping technology to follow the unique layout of the patients eye. Clinical trials have shown that that this procedure is proven to be safe and effective. When the military evaluated LASIK with 100 personnel, 95% of them reported 20/20 vision or even better.

With the LASIK information we have today, laser eye surgery has never been more safe or effective. The US Military and NASA use it for their mission intensive needs and it surely passes the test of everyday needs. Be apart of the 12 million people who have enjoyed the benefits from this procedure.

Validity of a test or assessment is important to researchers and to the participants taking them. Much of what we read today in magazines and newspapers are not valid. An example of an item that has face validity, but no real validity is an opinion poll in a popular magazine. To the person taking it, it looks real and official (face validity). In actuality, the poll is unscientific and could be completely biased.

Construct validity concerns how well or accurately an assessment measures a construct (the thing being measured). For example, how well an anxiety assessment would measure anxiety.

Content validity is how well the content or items of an assessment make sense in terms of the construct. A question asking your favorite number would not be valid on an assessment measuring depression.

Criterion validity is whether or not a test can accurately predict some future event. An example if this is that the GRE test should predict how well a student will perform in grad school.

Convergent validity is simply scores on a certain test should be related to scores on another test measuring the same thing.

Discriminant validity is just the opposite of convergent validity. Scores on a certain assessment should not be related to scores on another assessment measuring something different.

Measurement reliability is important in any kind of research. It is defined as any measurement that is consistent and dependable. No measurement score is 100% true. Therefore, we can go further and say measure = true score+ error.

Inter-rater reliability only applies to situations/ studies when there are raters or judges. This concept identifies that that raters’ scores should not differ dramatically and there should be some sort of consistency on average.

Internal consistency reliability concerns assessment items or questions and that they should be similar with one another throughout the assessment.

Test re-test reliability is the reliability of an assessment to produce similar scores the next time you take it. An example would be a college assessment test (ACT,SAT). You would expect to get similar results if you take the ACT or SAT over again.

I wanted to clarify something about a follow up comment I received. On my post regarding borderline personality disorder, I do not personally have this. I am in psychology and was writing ABOUT the issue. I received a comment of sympathy for my “condition”. I am just fine and have not been diagnosed with this disorder. In any case, I do want to thank my readers for the comments you send in. If you post them on this blog or any other blog in the blog network, I thank you. It’s almost like a pat on the back saying, “job well done”. So keep sending them in, entertain me or my other authors, and please please don’t assume I have the disorders I write about.

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I’m reading up on BPD [Borderline Personality Disorder] and decided to share some of what I’m learning. First of all, BPD is not multiple personalities. With that said, it is quite serious though. Someone with BPD can easily be suicidal. They can attempt to kill themselves or just use a form of self destruction. [Cutting] Panic attacks can occur along with disorientation.

One of the huge symptoms is a dull emotional reaction to something emotionally exhilarating or depressing. For example, the loss of a family member. Someone with BPD would feel little to no emotion. A reason for this is the body’s self defense against bad emotions or memories. The person can disassociate themselves from an emotion and worse yet use splitting as a defense mechanism. Splitting is usually done when the CNS is not fully developed yet. When splitting occurs at an older age it is a major problem. The person with BPD uses splitting and sees the world as black and white. Good or evil. Love and worship you one day, then hate you the next day if you do not live up to the high standards they set for you.

So far I’m still discovering and learning about new symptoms and causes. Women tend to have this disorder more than men. In most cases, a traumatic event happened in the past like sexual abuse or just abuse. It doesn’t happen in all cases, but most people with BPD will have a history as such.