Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Addressing Racism-Related Stress and Trauma in Psychotherapy – Mad in America

A new article published in the journal Psychotherapy explores a psychotherapeutic approach entitled Keeping Radical Healing in Mind a strength-based, culturally relevant, and racially responsive approach to treatment for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

Led by Hector Adames at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, the authors utilize a clinical case example and model how providers can implement antiracist and liberatory approaches to psychotherapy by using the Psychology of Radical Healing (PRH) a new theoretical framework that considers the cultural and systemic mental health concerns of BIPOC from a collectivist standpoint.

When therapists are applying the PRH to their clinical work by keeping radical healing in mind, they are helping their clients do more than merely cope with racism-related stress, Adames and his co-authors write. They provide their clients with the tools to heal and thrive in the face of systemic racism. Specifically, therapists could help their clients internalize, develop, and nurture radical healing as a multisystemic approach grounded in the five anchors of the PRH framework.

Abundant evidence shows how racism and race-related stress adversely impact the health and well-being of BIPOC, including anxiety symptoms, reduction in personal self-worth and life satisfaction, hopelessness and stress, and physical ailments such as obesity and vascular disease. Given this knowledge, the need for therapists to address the role of racism on the health of BIPOC has become increasingly discussed within the profession.

Racism can be defined as the system of structuring opportunity based on the belief that one race is superior to another. It is designed to exhaust and harm the well-being of Communities of Color. It can manifest through institutional racism, cultural racism, interpersonal racism, as well as internalized racism, which can be defined as the individual inculcation of the racist stereotypes, values, images, and ideologies perpetuated by the White dominant society about ones racial group, leading to feelings of self-doubt, disgust, and disrespect for ones race and/or oneself.

Healing, a central goal within psychotherapy, requires deconstructing how professional training and ideas of healing have been grounded in a Eurocentric understanding of human behavior. There has been ample evidence showing how psychology and psychiatry have systemically upheld racism, which has only recently been acknowledged. Both fields have been criticized for locating problems within individuals (i.e., pathology) that often stem from broader systems of oppression and social determinants.

BIPOC scholars and therapists have long advocated for the need to develop psychotherapeutic approaches designed to address the impact of racism on peoples lives and have foregrounded methods developed by and for BIPOC communities. Examples include the Treating Racist-Incident Based Trauma approach, the Ethnopolitical Approach, Intersectionality in Psychotherapy, and Community Healing and Resistance Through Storytelling.

Building upon these works, The Psychology of Radical Healing (PRH) integrates liberation psychology, Ethnopolitical Psychology, Black Psychology, and Intersectionality Theory as foundational theories for the framework. The founders of PRH, psychologists Bryana French, Jioni Lewis, and Della Mosley, discuss how this framework fosters a sense of hope and possibilities for the future. They write:

Being able to sit in a dialectic and exist in both spaces of resisting oppression and moving toward freedom. Staying in either extremethe despair of oppression or the imagination of possibilitiescould be detrimental. On one end of the spectrum, one could get lost in an overwhelming sense of disempowerment. On the other end, only focusing on dreaming for a better future removes oneself from current reality. We believe it is essential that radical healing includes both acknowledgment of and active resistance from oppression and a vision of possibilities for freedom and wellness. Moreover, the act of being in that dialectic is, in and of itself, a process of healing.

The PRH is grounded in five anchors, including (a) Critical Consciousness, described as a persons capability to critically reflect and act upon their sociopolitical conditions; (b) Cultural Authenticity and Self-Knowledge, which honors cultural wisdom and self-definition; (c) Radical Hope and Envisioning Possibilities to improve the collective human existence; (d) Collectivism and belonging to ones culture for validation, joy, and healing; and (e) Strength and Resistance to create joy-filled lives despite awareness of racism and oppression.

Much research has been done on the empirical support for psychotherapy and the actions of effective therapists, including providing an acceptable and flexible etiology of the clients distress, developing a treatment plan, not avoiding complex and challenging content in therapy, being aware of the clients demographics and context, and the importance of the therapeutic alliance.

While these foundational concepts are essential, most psychotherapy research fails to explicitly center on healing from the wounds of racial oppression, which can be linked back to the earlier point of Eurocentric underpinnings of the profession and conceptualization of what and who psychotherapy was made for. The authors write:

For instance, although most theories of psychotherapy and counseling pay attention to how peoples internal subjectivities impact their functioning (e.g., assessment of functioning in social, educational, and occupational spheres of life), they often fail to contextualize how the external world and its structures impact people intrapsychically.

Keeping Radical Healing in Mind requires a therapeutic stance of curiosity, unassuming openness, and responsiveness to the interlocking ways BIPOC clients are oppressed a more effective practice than simply matching therapists and clients by shared racial/ethnic identity. It goes beyond multicultural competence. The authors provide an image of how this cycle is used, and it can be analogous to a compass helping a BIPOC client navigate living in White supremacy culture by resisting self-blame for racism and forms of oppression directed at them and their ethnic-racial group. It also supports the client in internalizing, developing, and nurturing the five anchors of PRH.

The authors provide a clinical exchange from a two-year working alliance with a client, Brenda, demonstrating how providers can keep radical healing in mind.

Brenda is a 32-year-old cisgender, heterosexual, African American woman. She lives with her mother and has a 6-year-old son. Her reason for seeking treatment was primarily due to increased anxiety that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her symptoms included feeling on edge, difficulties with concentration, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, and gastrointestinal issues.

The authors provide an overview of various exchanges between the therapist and Brenda, including how she has been experiencing the news and her sons questions about police brutality. A valid concern of Brendas, as research shows that repeated exposure to online traumatic events such as police killings of Black people are related to youth experiencing depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Keeping Radical Healing in Mind models how client and therapist become curious together and co-develop a shared account of the presenting problem. To foster critical consciousness, the therapist validates and connects (a) what Brenda is discussing in session to what is taking place in society and (b) how oppression can be a source of distress for both her and her son.

This conceptualization connects the ways in which Brendas concerns stem from racism-related stress and allows the therapist to observe the psychological toll of racism on Brenda to provide emotional support by recognizing how her lived experience and the sociopolitical environment impact her life. In addition, by being attuned to Brendas indirect description of her collectivistic worldview through her statement, I am not the only one who has to worry about their childs safety, the therapist has an opportunity to become curious about ways for Brenda to collectively heal.

In their clinical exchange, it was healing for Brenda to be reminded of how her mother raised her and maintained a sense of hope in the face of oppression. This gave way to helping Brenda develop Cultural Authenticity and Self-Knowledge. Thus, Radical Hope and Envisioning Possibilities were also an essential component of Brendas healing because she could begin to imagine future possibilities for her Black son to live in a more socially just world and live a joy-filled life, and in doing so, participate in community healing. Ultimately, the exchange provided in the article focused primarily on helping Brenda internalize, develop, and nurture five anchors of the approach.

In summarizing her case, the authors write:

Essentially, therapists must constantly challenge themselves to consider structural issues as they manifest themselves in clients lives and provide space to name, explore, and resist self-blame for these concerns.

In closing, the authors highlight how PRH is viewed as cyclical, ongoing, and co-constructed between therapists and their BIPOC clients. Therefore, it is essential that therapists themselves develop critical consciousness and critically reflect and act upon their sociopolitical conditions before assisting their clients in increasing their critical consciousness.

This approach requires clinicians to know the history and have an understanding of the clients culture, develop a deep understanding of what their ascribed race means to them and what it represents in a White supremacist culture, and lastly, recognize how power and oppression operate in society as well as within clinical settings.

****

Adames, H. Y., Chavez-Dueas, N. Y., Lewis, J. A., Neville, H. A., French, B. H., Chen, G. A., & Mosley, D. V. (2022, March 10). Radical healing in psychotherapy: Addressing the wounds of racism-related stress and trauma. Psychotherapy. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pst0000435 (Link)

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Addressing Racism-Related Stress and Trauma in Psychotherapy - Mad in America

Human Behavior

Poway woman with cerebral palsy finds relaxation with equine therapy – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Nancy Miller has spastic cerebral palsy and uses a walker, but when she gets atop her favorite horse, Jack, her muscles relax.

Miller, who lives at Villa de Vida in Poway, has been attending the Helen Woodward Animal Centers Therapeutic Riding program for a few years, although she has been riding since she was a kid.

Im a horse lady, Miller, 69, said. I love it. Its relaxing. Its fun.

Miller rides once a week at the Helena Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe. The program works with riders with special needs through equine-assisted activities. It serves students aged 4 and older to enhance physical, cognitive, social-emotional and motor skills, officials said.

Horseback riding can lend independence and mobility to a person with disabilities who may be otherwise restricted.

The primary goal of Equine Assisted Learning is to teach and support life skills through guided horse interactions. This experiential approach integrates human-horse interaction that is guided by an equine specialist in mental health and learning, said Courtney Mellor, Therapeutic Riding Program manager at Helen Woodward Animal Center.

As horses use mostly non-verbal communication and are in tune with human behavior, they can help participants to better understand and learn how our non-verbal communication might be influencing or impacting others in their lives, she said. Through interactions with the horses, participants learn a heightened sense of self-awareness which is important in order to reveal patterns of behavior while also giving the opportunity to think in a new way.

Miller said her doctors have suggested horse therapy since she was young.

I think its a good thing for me because of my cerebral palsy, Miller said.

I just love being on the horse, communicating with the horse and being relaxed, she said. My story with horses is that I just love them.

For more information on the program, visit https://animalcenter.org/programs-services/therapeutic-riding.

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Poway woman with cerebral palsy finds relaxation with equine therapy - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Human Behavior

Tim Bakken The Conversation – The Conversation

Tim Bakken is Professor of Law at the US Military Academy, West Point. He has practiced law in New York City, including as a homicide prosecutor in Brooklyn. He has been a visiting professor at Ural State Law University in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and he started the department of law at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan (Kabul). He has been a visiting scholar or researcher at Columbia Law School, the Australian National University College of Law, the University of Sydney Law School, and the University of Cambridge. His views are his own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. He can be reached at (845) 938-5544 or tim.bakken@westpoint.edu.

Publications

Books

Bakken, T. The Plea of Innocence: Restoring Truth to the American Legal System (New York University Press, 2022).

Bakken, T. The Cost of Loyalty: Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military (Bloomsbury, 2020).

Bakken, T. & Ramsey, W. Criminal Justice and the 2004 Elections (pamphlet) (Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005).

Bakken, T., Stock, M., & Welton, M. Guide to Criminal Law in New York (Second Edition) (Thomson/Wadsworth, 2004).

Bakken, T., Bickers, J., & Goldstein, R. Guide to Criminal Procedure in New York (Thomson/Wadsworth, 2004).

Bakken, T. Guide to Criminal Law in New York (Wadsworth, 2001).

Articles

Bakken, T. The Defendants Plea of Innocent in Sexual Abuse Cases, in Wrongful Allegations of Sexualand Child Abuse, 271, Oxford University Press (Ros Burnett, ed.) (chapter) (2016).

Bakken, T. "Legal Takeovers of Nations: The Value and Risks of Foreign Direct Investment in a Global Marketplace, 40 University of Dayton Law Review 259 (2016).

Bakken, T., Dodd-Franks Extension of Criminal Corporate Liability through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Enabling Whistleblowers and Monitoring Conflict Minerals, 36 Pace Law Review 1 (2015).

Bakken, T. India's Constitutional Restraint: Less Expression in a Large Democracy, 5 Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review 155 (2014).

Bakken, T. Constitutional Rights and Political Power of Corporations after Citizens United: the Decline of Citizens and the Rise of Foreign Corporations and Super PACs, 12 Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal 119 (2014).

Bakken, T. A Womans Right to Combat: Equal Protection in the Military, 20 William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law 271 (2014).

Bakken, T. "Dodd-Frank's Caveat Emptor: New Criminal Liability for Individuals and Corporations," 48 Wake Forest Law Review 1173 (2013).

Bakken, T. The Prosecution of Newspapers, Reporters, and Sources for Disclosing Classified Information: The Governments Softening of the First Amendment, 45 University of Toledo Law Review 1 (2013).

Bakken, T. Models of Justice to Protect Innocent Persons, 56 New York Law School Law Review 867 (2012).

Bakken, T. & Steel, L. Exonerating the Innocent: Pre-trial Innocence Procedures, 56 New York Law School Law Review 855 (2012).

Bakken, T.Nations use of Force outside Self-defense, 8 Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 451 (2010).

Bakken, T. Truth and Innocence Procedures to Free Innocent Persons: Beyond the Adversarial System, 41 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 547 (2008).

Bakken, T. Averting Catastrophe: Combating Irans Nuclear Threat, 29 (2) Harvard International Review 84 (2007).

Bakken, T. The Prosecution of War Crimes: Military Commissions and the Procedural and Substantive Protections Beyond International Law, 30 Fordham International Law Journal 533 (2007).

Bakken, T. What Does Lawrence v. Texas Mean for the Future of Dont Ask Dont Tell, 14 Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy 1218 (symposium) (2007).

Bakken, T. The Contours of Judicial Deference to Military Personnel Policies, 14 Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy (symposium) 1231 (2007).

Bakken, T. The Preemption of Nuclear Weapons, 87 (6) Military Review 30 (2007).

Bakken, T. The Absence of Spiritual Awakening and Understanding in Religious Conversion, 59 The Journal of Religious Thought 101 (2006-07).

Casey-Acevedo, K., Bakken, T., & Karle, A. Children Visiting Mothers in Prison: The Effects on Mothers Behavior and Disciplinary Adjustment, 37 (3) The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 418 (2004).

Casey-Acevedo, K. & Bakken, T. Women Adjusting to Prison: Disciplinary Behavior and the Characteristics of Adjustment, 17 (4) Journal of Health and Social Policy Review 37 (2003).

Bakken, T. The Effects of Hate Crime Legislation: Unproven Benefits and Unintended Consequences, 5 International Journal of Discrimination and the Law (4) 231 (2002).

Casey-Acevedo, K. & Bakken, T. Visiting Women in Prison: Who Visits and Who Cares?, 43(3) Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 67 (2002).

Bransford, C. & Bakken, T. The Evolution of Mental Health Care Policy and the Implications for Social Work, 1 Social Work and Mental Health 1 (2002).

Bransford, C. & Bakken, T. Reflections of Authority in Psychotherapy: From Freud to Post-Modernism, 9 Psychoanalytic Social Work 57 (2002).

Bakken, T. & Bransford, C. The Role of Human Agency in the Creation of Normative Influences within Individuals and Groups, 5 Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 89 (2002).

Casey-Acevedo, K., Bakken, T., & Welton, M. Women as Offenders, 4 Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, 1722 (D. Levinson, ed.) (Sage) (2002).

Bakken, T. A Foundation for Practical and Successful Career Intervention, 25 The Journal (Institute of Guidance Counsellors), 63 (2001).

Casey-Acevedo, K. & Bakken, T. The Effects of Visitation on Women in Prison, 25 International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice (1) (2001).

Casey-Acevedo, K. & Bakken, T. The Effect of Time on the Disciplinary Adjustment of Women in Prison, 45 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 489 (2001).

Bransford, C. & Bakken, T. Organization Theory and the Utilization of Authority in Social Work, 9(1) Social Work and Social Sciences Review 5 (2001).

Bakken, T., Becker, E., & Welton, M. Institutional Acceptance and Legal Equality, 27 Journal of Intergroup Relations 16 (2001).

Bakken, T. The Efficacy of Reinforcement Schedules and Knowledge of Results in Effecting Behavioral Change, 6(2) Current Research in Social Psychology 22 (2001).

Bakken, T. The Incorporation of Values into the Counseling Relationship, 23 American Journal of Pastoral Counseling 1 (2000).

Bakken, T. Liberty and Equality through Freedom of Expression: The Human Rights Questions Behind Hate Crime Laws, 4(2) International Journal of Human Rights 1 (2000).

Bakken, T. Constitutional and Social Equality: Legacies and Limits of Law, Politics, and Culture, 7:1 Indian Journal of Gender Studies 71 (2000).

Bakken, T. The Use of Criminal Law to Punish Individual Motivations: Determining the Limits of Freedom of Conscience, Sentencing & Society Conference/University of Strathclyde (on-line: out of print and available from author) (2000).

Bakken, T. & Kortering, L. The Constitutional and Statutory Obligations of Schools to Prevent Special Education Students from Dropping Out, 20 Remedial and Special Education 6 (1999).

Bakken, T. A Rationale for Maximizing Freedom of Expression at Colleges and Universities, 4 Journal of Civil Liberties 102 (1999).

Bakken, T. Liberty, Obscenity, and Majoritarian Institutions: Who Determines the Value of Expression? 16 Glendale Law Review 1 (1998).

Klepper, W. M. & Bakken, T. Hate Speech: A Call to Principles, 35 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Journal 38 (1997).

Bakken, T. The Continued Failure of Modern Law to Create Fairness and Efficiency: The Presentence Investigation Report, 40 New York Law School Law Review 363 (1996).

Bakken, T. The Grand Jury (synopsis) American Justice 352 (J. M. Bessette, ed.) (Salem) (1996).

Bakken, T. The Infiltration of a Motorcycle Gang and the Codification of Its Social Norms and Psychological Processes, VI Popular Culture Review 29 (1996).

Bakken, T. Law Enforcement, Survey of Social Science: Government and Politics Series 1059 (synopsis) (F. N. Magill & J. M. Bessette, eds.) (Salem) (1995).

Bakken, T. The Quest of Law Enforcement for the Principled Interpretation of State Constitutions, 5(2) State Constitutional Commentaries and Notes 1 (1995).

Bakken, T. The Utility of Using Case Studies to Confront Ethical Dilemmas, Teaching and Interactive Methods 399 (H. E. Klein, ed.) (World Association for Case Method Research and Application) (1995).

Bakken, T. The Responsibility of Schools and Colleges to Monitor Pornography to Prevent Sexual Harassment, 45 Labor Law Journal 762 (1994).

Bakken, T. Cultivating Civilization: The Age of the English Coffeehouse, 58 Social Education 345 (1994).

Bakken, T. International Law and Human Rights for Defendants in Criminal Trials, 25 Indian Journal of International Law 411 (1985).

Bakken, T. Religious Conversion and Social Evolution Clarified, 16 Small Group Behavior 157 (1985).

Bakken, T. Dispute Resolution under the Trading with the Enemy Act: A Cooperative Approach between Corporations and the United States, 7 Commercial Law Gazette (29) 3 & (30) 6 (1984).

Bakken, T. Recognizing the Dilemma of Psychological Religious Converts, 27 Counseling and Values 99 (1983).

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Tim Bakken The Conversation - The Conversation

Human Behavior

Opinion: More bears will be put at risk because of human behavior – Citizen Times

Laurel Rematore| OPINION COLUMNIST

John Boyles column of Humans should be euthanized, not bears, brought out the need for people to become savvy about how to store food when in bear country and directed readers to BearWise.org, an excellent source for the basics of co-existing with bears.

Boyle focused on reactions to a recent bear encounter that resulted in human injury. After gaining access to the inside of a family's tent, a bear scratched a 3-year-old girl and her mother. The father was able to scare the bear from the tent and campsite, but only after several attempts. Wildlife biologists successfully captured the bear that was responsible, and due to the risk to human safety, the bear was humanly euthanized.

In this case, when the news media sensationalized this negative humanbear interaction as an attack, it sent the wrong message. Usually, when bears rip into tents and scratch people, they have learned to expect food as a reward.

More: Great Smokies rangers: Bear euthanized after ripping tent, scratching child and mother

According to National Park Service bear management staff, two or three bears have to be killed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year. The reason for these bears deaths can almost always be traced back to food.

When people hear the slogans garbage kills bears or a fed bear is a dead bear, they may think that if bears eat garbage, it gives them stomach issues and they die as a result.

The truth is much more complex and gruesome. When bears get access to the food humans eat and feed their pets, bears come to expect this kind of food, which is often much easier for them to obtain than their natural diets of nuts and berries.

More: Man likely killed by bear attack in Great Smoky Mountains National Park: autopsy report

Bears have a powerful sense of smell 100 times as many olfactory sensors as we have so the aroma of food at a campsite and even inside a tent is definitely going to attract them. But they have often learned to seek this kind of food in park gateway communities.

Bears have excellent long-term memory and a highly evolved ability to make connections. They eat what is readily available and teach their young what they have learned about obtaining food. When they can more easily access the food that humans eat and feed to their pets, they become food conditioned and their conflict behavior escalates.

When a bear hurts someone which naturally happens when a large, clawed animal rummages for a snack wildlife managers often must kill the bear because it has become a threat. Rehabilitating a food-conditioned bear is extremely challenging, and transporting the bear to another location and then releasing it has been shown to have mixed results.

No one wants to kill these regional icons or see them killed. Drawn in part by the chance to see a live bear, over 14 million people visit the park annually, and gateway community populations are increasing. If we humans are not willing to change our behavior, we will be putting many more bears at risk to becoming food conditioned and potentially being euthanized due to conflict with humans.

More: NC Wildlife biologists: Bear that attacked couple on Blue Ridge Parkway climbed onto car

Some gateway city and county officials are moving in a positive direction with new road signs that raise awareness about stashing your trash. But these leaders also need to provide specially designed bear-resistant containers and strictly enforce proper food storage in them throughout all park gateway communities and any other developed areas where black bears live.

Because people traveling into the area are not always aware that they need to change their food-storage behaviors, officials must further require signage to raise awareness and instruct visitors about the BearWiseBasics throughout these communities especially at vacation rental companies where visitors may be much less informed than locals about proper food storage. They are:

Never feed or approach bears

Secure food, garbage, and recycling

Remove bird feeders when bears are active

Never leave pet food outdoors

Clean and store grills

Alert neighbors to bear activity.

More: Word from the Smokies: Bodacious Bear to help BearWise Taskforce raise funds for education

Id like to quote a line from Richard Powers best-seller "Overstory:" People arent the apex species they think they are. Other creatures bigger, smaller, slower, faster, older, younger, more powerful call the shots, make the air, and eat sunlight. Without them, nothing.

It's time for society to prioritize bears importance and ensure they are not fed intentionally or unintentionally. I am a part of the Smokies BearWisetask force, and on a recent Zoom call a fellow member suggested we should declare a state of wildlife emergency. I agree.

Laurel Rematore isCEO ofGreat Smoky Mountains Association.

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Opinion: More bears will be put at risk because of human behavior - Citizen Times

Human Behavior

20 New Books on Behavioral Science That Will Help You Understand Humans Better – Inc.

Between Us by Batja Mesquita. "We may think of emotions as universal responses, felt inside, but in Between Us, acclaimed psychologist Batja Mesquita asks us to reconsider them through the lens of what they do in our relationships, both one-on-one and within larger social networks."

Different by Frans de Waal. "World-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal draws on decades of observation and studies of both human and animal behavior to argue that despite the linkage between gender and biological sex, biology does not automatically support the traditional gender roles in human societies."

Don't Trust Your Gut by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. "Stephens-Davidowitz exposes that, while we often think we know how to better ourselves, the numbers disagree. Hard facts and figures consistently contradict our instincts." Here's one example of his unexpected conclusions.

Evolutionary Ideas by Sam Tatam. "Tatam shows how behavioral science and evolutionary psychology can help us solve tomorrow's challenges, not by divining something the world has never seen, but by borrowing from yesterday's solutions -- often in the most unexpected ways. " You can read an excerpt on Behavioral Scientist.

From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks. "At the height of his career at the age of 50, [Harvard professor] Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result." Get a sneak peek at Brooks's thinking here.

Get it Done by Ayelet Fishbach. "With fascinating research from the field of motivation science and compelling stories of people who learned to motivate themselves, Get It Done illuminates invaluable strategies for pulling yourself in whatever direction you want to go."Read an article by Fishbach on Behavioral Scientist.

Hidden Games by Erez Yoeli and Moshe Hoffman. "In Hidden Games,Moshe Hoffman and Erez Yoeli find a surprising middle ground between the hyperrationality of classical economics and the hyper-irrationality of behavioral economics. They...use it to explain our most puzzling behavior, from the mechanics of Stockholm syndrome and internalized misogyny to why we help strangers and have a sense of fairness."

How Minds Change by David McRaney. "How Minds Change is a book about the science, and the experience, of transformation.... It's an eye-opening journey among cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists -- from Westboro Baptist Church picketers to LGBTQ campaigners in California -- that ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs."

How to Stay Smart in a Smart World by Gerd Gigerenzer. Many in the tech industry predict "machines will soon do everything better than humans. In How to Stay Smart in a Smart World, Gerd Gigerenzer shows why that's not true, and tells us how we can stay in charge in a world populated by algorithms."

Imaginable by Jane McGonigal. "How do we map out our lives when it seems impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or next decade? [...] Jane McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our minds to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable."

Influence Is Your Superpower by Zoe Chance. "Influence doesn't work the way you think because you don't think the way you think. Move past common misconceptions -- such as the idea that asking for more will make people dislike you -- and understand why your go-to negotiation strategies are probably making you less influential."

Mindwandering by Moshe Bar. "Our brains are noisy; certain regions are always grinding away at involuntary activities like daydreaming, worrying about the future, and self-chatter, taking up to forty-seven percent of our waking time. This is mindwandering.... Cognitive neuroscientist Moshe Bar is here to tell you about the method behind this apparent madness."

The No Club by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart. "The No Club started when four women...vowed to say no to requests that pulled them away from the work that mattered most to their careers. This book reveals...their over-a-decade-long journey and subsequent groundbreaking research showing that women everywhere are unfairly burdened with 'non-promotable work,' a tremendous problem we can -- and must -- solve."

The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink. "Drawing on research in social psychology, neuroscience, and biology, Pink debunks the myth of the 'no regrets' philosophy of life. And using the largest sampling of American attitudes about regret ever conducted as well as his own World Regret Survey -- which has collected regrets from more than 15,000 people in 105 countries -- he lays out the four core regrets that each of us has." Here's a sneak peak of Pink's thinking in the book.

Ritual by Dimitris Xygalatas. Ritualspresent"a profound paradox: people ascribe the utmost importance to their rituals, but few can explain why they are so important. Apparently pointless ceremonies pervade every documented society, from handshakes to hexes, hazings to parades.... Ritual reveals the deep and subtle mechanisms that bind us together."

The Secret Life of Secrets by Michael Slepian. "At what age do children develop the cognitive capacity for secrecy? Do all secrets come with the same mental load? How can we reconcile our secrets with our human desires to relate, connect, and be known? When should we confess our secrets? Who makes for the ideal confidant? And can keeping certain types of secrets actually enhance our well-being?"

Streets of Gold by Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan. "Using the tools of modern data analysis and ten years of pioneering research, new evidence is provided about the past and present of the American Dream, debunking myths fostered by political opportunism and sentimentalized in family histories."

Thinking Like an Economist by Elizabeth Popp Berman. "Elizabeth Popp Berman tells the story of how a distinctive way of thinking -- an 'economic style of reasoning' -- became dominant in Washington between the 1960s and the 1980s and how it continues to dramatically narrow debates over public policy today."

The Voltage Effect by John A. List. "Drawing on his original research, as well as fascinating examples from the realms of business, policymaking, education, and public health, [List] identifies five measurable vital signs that a scalable idea must possess, and offers proven strategies for avoiding voltage drops and engineering voltage gains." You can read an article by List on Behavioral Scientist.

Wired for Love by Stephanie Cacioppo. "Stephanie tells not just a science story but also a love story. She shares revelatory insights into how and why we fall in love, what makes love last, and how we process love lost.... Woven through it all is her moving personal story, from astonishment to unbreakable bond to grief and healing."

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20 New Books on Behavioral Science That Will Help You Understand Humans Better - Inc.

Human Behavior

Pandemic restrictions had a lasting effect on behavior patterns – Earth.com

In a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers have investigated how COVID-19 restrictions changed behavior patterns, and how these patterns continue to change. The study focused on the U.K., where activities and social events were restricted near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to slow the spread of the virus.

A lot of research has already looked at how COVID-19 restrictions changed human behavior. The new study is unique in looking at how behavior in the U.K. changed over time as restrictions continued to evolve.

To understand their research topic better, the scientists conducted six different online surveys to track changes in behavior patterns among 203 respondents. The surveys asked participants about different activities they engaged in during various phases of the pandemic, and whether they did these activities in person or online.

An analysis of the results showed that the biggest changes were the investment of time in social and cultural activities and travel. The surveys also confirmed that most individuals shifted from more in-person activities to more online events. Furthermore, although all pandemic restrictions were removed on July 19, 2021, many of these behavioral shifts still remain in place.

This longitudinal study determines the frequency and way of people doing activities from Spring 2020 to Summer 2021 during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, said study co-author Lan Li of University College London.

The findings provide an invaluable insight into understanding how people in the UK changed their lifestyle, including what activities they do, and how they accessed those activities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health policy implemented to address the pandemic.

The scientists hope that their work will help inform policy makers on the impact of their restrictions for future decision making.

By Erin Moody , Earth.com Staff Writer

Originally posted here:
Pandemic restrictions had a lasting effect on behavior patterns - Earth.com

Human Behavior

Human-like robot tricks people into thinking it has a mind of its own – Livescience.com

An uncannily human-like robot that had been programmed to socially interact with human companions tricked people into thinking that the mindless machine was self-aware, according to a new study.

The digital deceiver, which the researchers dubbed "iCub," is a child-size humanoid robot created by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa to study social interactions between humans and robots. This advanced android, which stands at 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) tall, has a humanlike face, camera eyes that can maintain eye contact with people and 53 degrees of freedom that allow it to complete complex tasks and mimic human behaviors. Researchers can program iCub to act remarkably humanlike, as demonstrated in its 2016 appearance on Italy's Got Talent (opens in new tab) when the robot performed Tai Chi moves and wowed the judges with its clever conversational skills.

In the new study, researchers programmed iCub to interact with human participants as they watched a series of short videos. During some of the experiments, iCub was programmed to behave in a human-like manner: greeting participants as they entered the room, and reacting to videos with vocalizations of joy, surprise and awe. But in other trials, the robot's programming directed it to behave more like a machine, ignoring nearby humans and making stereotypically robotic beeping sounds.

The researchers found that people who were exposed to the more human-like version of iCub were more inclined to view it with a perspective known as "the intentional stance," meaning they believed that the robot had its own thoughts and desires, while those who were exposed to the less human version of the robot did not. The researchers had expected that this would happen, but were "very surprised" by how well it worked, lead study author Serena Marchesi and study co-author Agnieszka Wykowska, both part of the Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction unit at IIT, told Live Science in a joint email.

Related: Human-like robot creates creepy self-portraits

The iCub robot does have a limited capacity to "learn" like a neural network (a type of artificial intelligence, or AI, that mimics the processes of a human brain), but is far from being self-aware, the researchers said.

In each of the experiments, a single human participant sat in a room with iCub and watched three short two-minute video clips of animals. The research team decided to use video-watching as the shared task because it is a common activity among friends and family, and they used footage that featured animals and "did not include a human or a robot character" in order to avoid any biases, the researchers said.

In the first set of experiments, iCub had been programmed to greet the human participants, introducing itself and asking for their names as they entered. During these interactions, iCub also moved its camera "eyes" to maintain eye contact with the human subjects. Throughout the video-watching activity, it continued to act in a human-like way, vocalizing responsively as people do. "It laughed when there was a funny scene in the movie or behaved as if it was in awe with a beautiful visual scene," the researchers said.

In the second set of experiments, iCub did not interact with participants, and while watching the videos its only reaction to the scenes was to make machine-like noises, including "beeping sounds like a car sensor would do when approaching an obstacle," the researchers said. During these experiments, the cameras in iCub's eyes were also disabled, so the robot could not maintain eye contact.

Before and after the experiments, the researchers made participants complete the InStance Test (IST). Designed by the research team in 2019, this survey is used to gauge people's opinions of the robot's mental state.

Using the IST, the study authors assessed participant's reactions to 34 different scenarios. "Each scenario consists of a series of three pictures depicting the robot in daily activities," the researchers said. "Participants then choose between two sentences describing the scenario." One sentence used intentional language that hinted at an emotional state (for example: "iCub wants") and the other sentence used mechanistic language that focused on actions ("iCub does"). In one scenario when participants were shown a series of pictures where iCub selects one of several tools from a table, they chose between statements that said the robot "grasped the closest object" (mechanical) or "was fascinated by tool use" (intentional).

The team found that if participants were exposed to iCub's human-like behaviors in the experiments, they were more likely to switch from a mechanistic stance to an intentional stance in their survey responses, hinting that iCub's human-like behavior had changed the way they perceived the robot. By comparison, participants that interacted with the more robotic version of iCub firmly maintained a mechanistic stance in the second survey. This suggests that people need to see evidence of relatable behavior from a robot in order to perceive it as human-like, the researchers said.

These findings show that humans can form social connections with robots, according to the study. This could have implications for the use of robots in healthcare, especially for elderly patients, the researchers said. However, there is still much to learn about human-robot interactions and social bonding, the scientists cautioned.

One of the big questions the team wants to answer is if people can bond with robots that do not look human, but still display human-like behaviors. "It is difficult to foresee how a robot with a less human-like appearance would elicit the same level of like-me experience," the researchers said. In the future, they hope to repeat the study's experiments with robots of different shapes and sizes, they added.

The researchers also argue that in order for humans to form lasting social bonds with robots, people must let go of preconceived notions about sentient machines that are popular fear-mongering fodder in science fiction.

"Humans have a tendency to be afraid of the unknown," the researchers said. "But robots are just machines and they are far less capable than their fictional depictions in popular culture." To help people overcome this bias, scientists can better educate the public on what robots can do and what they can't. After that, "the machines will become immediately less scary," they said.

The study was published online July 7 in the journal Technology, Mind and Behavior (opens in new tab).

Originally published on Live Science.

Original post:
Human-like robot tricks people into thinking it has a mind of its own - Livescience.com

Human Behavior

Georgia voters get only one option for over half of upcoming legislative races – Atlanta Civic Circle

Recent Supreme Court decisions have kicked issues like abortion and greenhouse gas regulation down to the state level, making Georgias statehouse elections in November even more critical for voters seeking a say.

But for over half of the legislative races, Georgia voters will have only one optioneither a Democrat or a Republican, according to an Atlanta Civic Circle tally of primary winners from Secretary of States office data. Fully 123 of the states 236 house and senate races offer voters only one candidate.

Of the candidates wholl be running uncontested in November, 68 are Republicans and 55 are Democrats. Many Democratic voters in the north Georgia mountains and the states southern plains will not have a chance to challenge Republican primary winners at the polls in November, and Atlanta-area Republicans are in the same boat.

Democrats often run unchallenged in Atlanta and its inner south and southeast suburbs, as well as in cities like Macon and Savannah and some parts of middle Georgia where the black share of population is relatively high.

Republicans tend to dominate the mountains, some of Atlantas more far-flung suburbs and parts of south and southeast Georgia, where the white share of population is relatively high.

That leaves battlegrounds in places like Gwinnett, Walton and Henry counties and neighboring areas, as well as areas outside Savannah and Macon.

Gerrymandering and regionalism

Uncontested elections happen for two main reasonsgerrymandering and regional self-sorting, according to political experts. Uncontested elections are to some extent a natural result of human behavior, because people who vote the same way tend to flock together, but political parties also play a role through gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering plays a crucial role in the number of uncontested elections, said Daniel Franklin, an emeritus political science professor at Georgia State University. Thats when state legislatures draw electoral district boundaries to favor the party in power, whether Republican or Democratic.

In defending the draft Constitution, James Madison said in Federalist No. 10 that no man would be a judge in his own cause, Franklin said, but he noted that is precisely what happens with gerrymandering. State legislators draw their own district boundaries.Of course, they will do that in their own interest.

Our democracy would be healthier and stronger if every race were a meaningful contest between two competing camps, said GSU political science professor Jeffrey Lazarus, but he does not foresee an end to gerrymandering any time soon, despite the practices many critics.

People also tend to live near other people with similar backgrounds or political party affiliations, which can create single-party districts that are either majority Democratic or Republican, Franklin said.

It used to be that sorting was generally along racial and class lines.Now, racial sorting is still there, but less prominent.Sorting now is more likely to be along ideological lines, he said.

Uncontested election risks

Gerrymandering and regional self-sorting are big reasons why uncontested elections are pervasive, both in Georgia and nationally, but the difficulty of fundraising for potential challengers with low odds of getting elected is also a factor.

A high concentration of uncontested elections calls into question how much freedom of electoral choice some U.S. voters actually have, and it risks creating a political environment where legislators shirk their lawmaking duties to voters. But Franklin said the United States still has a functioning democracy.

The Soviet Union had regular electionsso does Iran. They are certainly not democracies. It takes more than elections to have a democracy. You must have a genuine choice, otherwise elections are just for show, he explained. We are certainly not Iran or the Soviet Union. In our federal system, elections are competitive at some level. [And] in Georgia, statewide elections have become quite competitive.

In electoral districts that are heavily Democratic or Republican, many potential candidates from the opposing party decide not to run because they already know theyll lose, said University of Georgia political science professor Trey Hood, an expert in Southern elections.

A lot of people wont run against incumbents because its not easy to defeat an entrenched [one], Hood said. In a district that skews heavily Republican or Democratic, he added, a candidate from the opposing party will likely have a difficult time garnering support and raising money.

Political parties also dont have much incentive to fund candidates in districts where the partys voters are heavily in the minority, Hood said. If you do give them resources, its still likely theyre going to loseand those are resources that are being diverted from other races that are more competitive.

The real conversation might be in the primary for those districts, he addedthat is, in the primary for the districts dominant party.

Uncontested elections can create powerful incumbent legislators who, unchallenged, may shirk their lawmaking duties, Franklin cautioned. Even more concerning, he added, theyre likely to become less representative of their constituents if they no longer think they need to listen to voters to get reelected.

However, Hood said, even in uncontested districts lawmakers are still keeping future competition in mindas a threat in their partys primary, at least, if not from the opposing party.

These lawmakers are acutely aware that they could be challenged in an upcoming election if they do shirk their responsibilities too much, Hood said. Weve asked legislators in surveys, and, usually, their number one goal is reelection. Even if theyre not being contested, theyre still thinking about what their constituents are thinking.

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Georgia voters get only one option for over half of upcoming legislative races - Atlanta Civic Circle

Human Behavior

ASU New College recognizes 1st graduates of growing law and psychology PhD program – ASU News Now

July 14, 2022

This summer, Arizona State Universitys New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences recognized Emily Denne and Kristen McCowan as the first two graduates of the growing law and psychology PhD program.

The fact that we were able to get such high-caliber students during our first year was key to the growth and reputation of our PhD program, said Nick Schweitzer, founding director of the Law and Behavioral Science initiative and associate professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. We are so proud of Emily and Kristen not just for their success in our program, but in how they are using their experience and training to tackle such important issues. This summer, ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences recognized Emily Denne (left) and Kristen McCowan as the first two graduates of the growing law and psychology PhD program. Download Full Image

The program, which was established in 2017 as part of the universitys Law and Behavioral Science initiative, melds the fields of law and psychology to help explain how human behavior interacts with and is affected by the legal system. The program aims to train students by taking a broad interdisciplinary approach with the goal of encouraging them to use this knowledge to tackle understudied areas where the legal system is in need of empirical psychological research.

"Emily and Kristen were wonderful students who started together as part of the first cohort of the PhD program, said Tess Neal, associate professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. They learned leadership and mentorship skills, honed their craft in empirical methodology and statistics, and enriched the lives and labs of the students and faculty in the law and behavioral sciences program. We are proud of them and will miss them as they move on into the next stages of their careers, continuing on their quest to improve understanding and functioning of the justice system."

Here, Denne and McCowan share about themselves, their experiences and whats next for them.

Denne was born in England and moved to the U.S. when she was 6 years old. She grew up in a small town in Indiana and completed her bachelors degree in psychology at the University of Evansville.

It was there that I began research on child maltreatment under the mentorship of Professor Margaret Stevenson, Denne said. Her work on child custody coupled with my own lived experiences sparked my interest in child maltreatment research more broadly.

She began studying law and psychology at ASU in 2018 and was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to fund her education. She successfully defended her thesis on understanding childrens reports of grooming in child sexual abuse cases.

Question: What inspired you to pursue the law and psychology PhD program at ASU?

Answer: I met Jessica Salerno, a professor in the law and psychology department, at the American Psychology-Law Society conference in 2018. At the time, I had just withdrawn from a school psychology PhD program and was struggling to find direction for my research interests. She introduced me to the work of Professor Neal and Professor (Stacia) Stolzenberg at ASU. Both lines of work were exciting and interesting to me and directly aligned with my own research interests the investigation and prosecution of child maltreatment. It was Professor Salerno who introduced me to this exciting work and gave me a foot in the door at ASU. I am very grateful for the opportunity she gave me.

Q: What was your favorite part of this program?

A: I have many fond memories from the program. I have really enjoyed the meaningful connections and relationships I have built with my mentors and other students in the program. It has been exciting to learn with them, from them, and grow as an academic.

Q: How does this PhD help you to achieve your goals?

A: I am deeply grateful to the rigorous law and psychology program that the faculty at ASU have built. I have learned so much about myself, my ability to do hard and challenging things, as well as developing content area expertise in child maltreatment. I have been given so many opportunities and so much support for my advisers. When I began graduate school, I hoped to publish 10 peer-reviewed articles by graduation. By the time my degree is conferred, I will likely have reached this goal. I could not have done so without the incredible support and guidance of the faculty in the law and psychology program.

Q: Whats something you learned while at New College in the classroom or otherwise that surprised you or changed your perspective?

A: At New College, I learned so much that challenged my perspectives and drove me to really value being a consumer of science on a daily basis. One thing that's stuck with me the most was something I learned in Professor Neal's lab. She continually challenges us to engage with the opposite point of view, to consider adversarial collaborations and critically evaluate both sides of an argument. This idea of adversarial collaboration, or directly engaging with and working with those who would have opposite viewpoints, has been something I have worked to do in both my personal and professional life. It has helped me really develop my own opinions and stances, but has also challenged me to be open to changing my opinion in light of new and different evidence.

Q: What are your post-graduation plans?

A: I hope to spend some time working as a child forensic interviewer. I study how forensic interviewers gather reports from maltreated children, so I hope to really immerse myself in the field and learn more from those who do this work directly. I am also currently pursuing a post-doctorate at Griffith University in Australia at the Center for Forensic Interviewing. Should I receive the postdoc, I will have the opportunity to study under Martine Powell and Sonja Brubacher at the center.

McCowan is originally from Chicago, Illinois, and has lived in Phoenix since she first started attending ASU. She received her bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

She first became interested in legal psychology after taking a psychology and law course and learning about the limitations in our criminal justice system. After learning more about the field, she became involved in research looking at jury decision-making in a sexual assault case, which sparked her interest in jury research and how people weigh different types of evidence and the effect of biases on judgments throughout a case.

Knowing I wanted to do this type of work, Professor Tess Neal's research stood out to me, and I liked that the program had a strong emphasis on the intersection of psych and law, with classes that were specific to this area of research, McCowan said.

She successfully defended her thesis on predictors of jurors understanding of evidence strength.

Question: What was your favorite part of this program?

Answer: My favorite part of this program was expanding my areas of interest and getting to work closely with Tess and the rest of the faculty and students. The program would every once in a while have other researchers in the field visit to present their work, and it was a great chance to get to know people better in both an academic and social setting afterwards. The courses we were able to take specific to the intersection of psychology and the legal system also taught me a lot about the field, and with the classes being smaller and discussion-based, it was great getting to hear everyone's perspectives on the research we read.

Q: How does this PhD help you to achieve your goals?

A: As a whole, the program's emphasis on research methodology and writing helped me on the job market pursuing a research-centric position. Tess' research lab gave me opportunities to take leadership roles in the research process which, as a research analyst, taught me skills I continue to use day to day. The faculty also encouraged students to attend conferences and give research talks that helped with networking and getting involved in the field.

Q: Whats something you learned while at New College in the classroom or otherwise that surprised you or changed your perspective?

A: I learned a lot about the diverse career opportunities that opened my eyes to ways to make positive changes in the legal system through research without necessarily having to pursue a strictly academic-based job.

Q: What are your post-graduation plans?

A: Post-graduation, I am going to continue working in the legal psychology realm, working as a research analyst for the Center of Integrity in Forensic Sciences doing research for forensic evidence reform.

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ASU New College recognizes 1st graduates of growing law and psychology PhD program - ASU News Now

Human Behavior

Dangers of aggressive dog breeds and threat of not training them well – The Statesman

An 82 years old woman, Savitri, was fatally attacked by her pet dog and suffered grave bite injuries in her abdomen and neck and died during treatment at a trauma center in Qaiserbagh area of Lucknow, on Wednesday. This unfortunate incident raises a lot of questions on why pets attack the very owners who train and raise them.

Is it because of the fact that the pet owners in most cases, while selecting the breeds, are ignorant about the temperament of the animal they bring home. Also, people who live in close proximity with aggressive pet breeds are not well equipped with knowledge about the special training needed for breeds like Pit Bull. In the above incident the dog of the said breed, attacked its owner to death.

Dog care and training go hand-in-hand. Even if you consider your dog as your family member, you cannot turn your back to the fact that it is, after all, an animal and would behave in a certain manner.

Some dog breeds are considered to be aggressive and they require special training. In certain cases, people love to own fancy dog breeds as a fashion-statement, while they dont pay much attention to the special care these breeds require. It is entirely not about the breed of the dog, it is about proper care and training. Many breeds have special training requirements.

If you wish to bring home a pet and make it your family member, you must keep certain things in mind:

Dogs are social

Dogs of all breeds are some of the most social animals. They have excellent people-skills and they love to be surrounded by other animals and humans. The more they interact with people, the better their mind functions and they remain calm and composed.

According to a research based article, Dogs Supporting Human Health and Well-Being: A Biopsychosocial Approach, Through the processes of domestication and natural selection, dogs have become adept at socializing with humans.

In reality, it is discouraging to see most people keeping their pet dogs confined to a particular area, away from people. Such dogs become very tired of their solitary state and tend to develop an overtly aggressive behavior.

Treat them well

Dogs require special treatment at times. Once domesticated, they must be allocated a particular place and their boundaries must be defined for them. Catering to their needs is considered as a motivating action and dogs are very reciprocative to the ones who treat them well.

According to The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), The safest and most effective way to treat an aggression problem is to implement behavior modification under the guidance of a qualified professional. Modifying a dogs behavior involves rewarding her for good behavior so youll likely be more successful if your dog enjoys praise, treats and toys.

Proper training

Training is very important especially if you live with a dog breed which is considered aggressive. The root cause of any untoward incident involving a dog is; human behaviour itself. The very concept of being a dog lover is misconstrued. Domesticating an animal is against its very basic nature, which is meant to behave untamed. With proper training by a certified dog trainer, the behavior of the dog can be mended according to the domestic surroundings. It is just like sending your kid to school. It is for their and your benefit. A well trained dog would know about the areas where they are allowed inside the house and how to conduct themselves.

According to Importance of Puppy Training for Future Behavior of the Dog, published in Journal of Veterinary Medical Science, Adequate socialization is necessary for producing a well-balanced and well-adjusted dog.

Some important tips to keep in mind:

Above all, mend your own behaviour. If you are disciplined, your dog will replicate.

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Dangers of aggressive dog breeds and threat of not training them well - The Statesman