Mind Matters: Persistence, messengers and more

Posted by Dr. Kayta Gajdos on September 14, 2019

Every hero and heroine in every fairy tale is beset with obstacles. In meeting challenges with persistence, the protagonist of the story achieves a happy end. And so it is with real life people too. A recent study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology describes how goal persistence “and a positive approach to challenges was … associated with lower rates of disorders” such as depression, anxiety, and panic.

“News in Brief” in the Monitor on Psychology (September, 2019) also reported research that found that young children who hear adult speech and who interact with adults “with more diverse vocabularies knew a greater variety of words themselves.”

There is also research showing that we do indeed “shoot the messenger.” Interactive experiments were done where people were given good or bad news (one example: you did or didn’t win two dollars). Invariably, across all scenarios, participants found the bearer of good news likeable and rated the bearers of bad news more unfavorably. Furthermore, it appears that the people disliking the bearer of bad news often felt that he or she had nefarious motives.

More misperception is clarified in the research that shows that those who consider themselves as of a higher social class “have an exaggerated belief in their own capabilities.” Note that other people are likewise duped into believing that these folks have greater competence. The emperor really has no clothes, despite the hoi polloithinking otherwise. (Hoi polloi being “we, of the masses.”)

Should addiction be described as a disease? One downside to this nomenclature, says the research reported in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology is that substance abusers may be less likely to seek therapy. When provided with a “growth mindset message” that allows for multiple factors contributing to substance disorders and multiple avenues for addressing addiction, participants in the study “reported more confidence” handling the addiction. They also reported being more intent in seeking help than those participants presented with a disease message.

On another note, do you envy friends that go on vacation? Research has it that you probably envy your friend more before they go on their dream vacation than after they return. Envy of past events seem to spur motivation and inspiration, in other words, a wish to emulate the traveling friend.

While the research about dream journeys may be interesting, the research on how early adversity affects young children is heart-rending. Studies continue to note how children under three years old “are especially vulnerable to epigenetic changes stemming from adverse experience.” Epigenetic change refers to what gets turned on and off in our DNA at a biochemical level. These children suffer changes in their biology down to the level of their DNA. So children experiencing poverty, abuse, family separation, and/or turmoil have biological changes occurring that deeply affect them adversely.

It appears that the earlier the timing of adverse experiences, the worse the epigenetic effects. Point is, pre-verbal and hardly verbal children can suffer profoundly from adverse conditions. For these children such obstacles bring no fairy tale ending—not without caring intervention, at least.

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.