Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Culturally determined affective state preferences
The recent interest in mindfulness based therapeutic intervention in both psychological research and clinical practice can be put down to a number of factors including the preference for high arousal positive emotion in contemporary Western society. This contrasts with an Eastern preference for low arousal positive emotion as evident in Buddhist teachings. Mindfulness therapy can be seen as a way of counteracting the over stimulation which is promoted in contemporary Western society. For instance, recent discussions have focused on 'junk sleep' or the prolonged sleep onset and sleep disturbance associated with multimedia use prior to sleep. Negative effects of playing video games are proposed to be due to the influence of bright screens and violent or obstructive aspects of games which can disturb physiological signals such as heart rate and EEG theta waves. The source of supposedly very different culturally determined arousal preferences may be religious orientation, a possibility explored by Tsai, Miao, & Seppala (2007). As the positive arousal associated with the anticipation of gain has been implicated in response to monetary reward and increased arousal has been associated with punishment it would be interesting to see if cross-cultural differences in time and risk preferences were mediated by differences in ideal affect.
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Interesting point about the "junk sleep" Michael. According to an article from the Irish Independent last week, "so-called 'junk sleep' could soon rival junk food as a major lifestyle worry among parents of today's teenage children.
That's the startling conclusion of a Sleep Council survey of 12-16-year-olds.
It found that the unprecedented boom in teenage-owned entertainment gadgetry is having a detrimental effect on the length and quality of their sleep.
Almost a quarter (23pc) admit they fall asleep watching TV, listening to music or with other noise-making machinery still running more than once a week.
Nearly all (98.5pc) have either a phone, music system or TV in their bedroom -- and two thirds (65.3pc) have all three.
Even more worrying is how few placed much importance on the quality of sleep they get, with just one in 10 (11pc) giving it much thought".
http://www.independent.ie/health/our-hightech-teens-having-troubled-sleep-1070293.html
It looks like another typical sign of failing parenting and parental discipline compensation for poor time investment. It reminds me of the advertisement where they say that kids their product "because kids know what's good for them".
Kids clearly don't know what's good for them, well 11percent of them do in this recent survey. The rest will happily play their DS until two in the morning and doze through their early classes. The emphasis used to be on children having a good breakfast and the problems associated with this coupled with junk sleep could mean a class of veritable zombies for the morning hours.
Scientific knowledge in these domains often trails behind common sense. For instance, they are now 'unravelling' the effects of E ingredients in sweets on hyperactivity something which was common knowledge 20 years ago. Also the point that watching tv before bed makes it more difficult to sleep was a common experience prior to examination of physiological signals and EEG waves.
In regard to the current generation of children it's probably more likely that we're witnessing the decline in parental control and active involvement rather than in common sense.
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