"The important thing is not to know who "I" is or what "I" is. You'll never succeed. There are no words for it.

The important thing is to drop the labels.

What do I mean by labels? Every label you can conceive of except perhaps that of human being. I am a human being. Fair enough; doesn't say very much. But when you say, "I am successful," that's crazy. Success is not part of the "I". Success is something that comes and goes; it could be here today and gone tomorrow. That's not "I". When you said, "I was a success," you were in error; you were plunged into darkness. You identified yourself with success. The same thing when you said, "I am a failure, a lawyer, a businessman." You know what's going to happen to you if you identify yourself with these things. You're going to cling to them, you're going to be worried that they may fall apart, and that's where your suffering comes in." - Anthony de Mello, Psychotherapist and Jesuit Priest

That may work for some women, but not all men are that dependent on sexual gratification. Personally, I find tactics like this to be sadistic, control methods, and I would not be turned on by such a woman as that. You want the pothole fixed, do it yourself, you are equal to men, go and do it.

Interesting music video, but what does this have to do with Synaesthesia?

Back to synaptogenesis, I posted something about it earlier. The infant brain has an over-abundance of synapses, approx. 4x the amount of the adult brain. This is precisely for facilitating imprinting. The child's brain will be stimulated by the environment, by role modelling and what-not, and that stimulation will activate specific neural pathways that re-present the value-system in the environment. Subsequently, there is not enough Neual Growth Factor (NGF) or Brain-Derived Neural Growth Factor (BDNF) or other Neurotrophins to feed the entire over-sized brain, so some 75% of it is "pruned" away. Leaving the child with what should be the rudiments of a psyche congruent with it's environment. In other words the child's brain is like a sponge, ready to soak up any values it comes in contact with, but this feature is only temporary, afterwards the child will not know the difference between it's own cognitive structure and the objective world.

A similar over-production of synapses (synaptogenesis) occurs in adolescence, but primarily in the frontal lobes which function as the executive of the brain. This explains teenage behavior (Geidd).

Here is a much better description of behavior according to folk psychology (Parsimony Argument):

If S believes that if p, then (q unless S does x); and S desires that not-q; and S does not believe that if p and S does x, then something r will be the case such that S desires not-r more than S desires that p; etc.; then, ceteris paribus, probably S will do x.

Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/folkpsych-simulation/

But still doesn't tell us what a "belief" is or "desires". Those are taken for granted in this argument.

Well that's interesting; an eliminativist would say that the Child has no "Wants". A "want" is völkerpsychologie (folk psychology) and yes they actually use German a lot of times to describe it.

Instead they would talk about imprinting effects and neuroplasticity. They would recognize that "wants" are merely phenomenal effects of brain-modelling. Feral children provide a good example of how imprinting affects a child's "wants".

But, without any genuine understanding, I can see how "kids will do what they want" is a profound analysis...

ted I don't think anyone is making that mistake. Is that a footnote because harassment is your main purpose?

"Once mature, a person prefers substance to appearance, fruit to flowers." - Lao Tzu

Hmmm. non-duality in biology and psychology. No separation between "nature and nurture" but one seemless causal continuum. Pst. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. Clue, pointer, etc...

Also nature "over" nurture or any apparent opposition between nature and nurture is a misnomer.

Taking the 'vs.' out of nature vs. nurture
Evolutionary and cultural psychologists found common ground at a first-ever conference.

By ALANA CONNER SNIBBE, PHD

November 2004, Vol 35, No. 10

http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov04/nature.aspx

@buzzbo

I was going to say that aswell, but I'm glad you said it first. Now I can say it too, and won't be a douche?

American Psychology Association
Glossary of Psychological Terms
From Gerrig, Richard J. & Philip G. Zimbardo. Psychology And Life, 16/e
Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright (c) 2002 by Pearson Education.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Gender - A psychological phenomenon that refers to learned sex-related behaviors and attitudes of males and females.

Gender identity - One's sense of maleness or femaleness; usually includes awareness and acceptance of one's biological sex.

Gender roles - Sets of behaviors and attitudes associated by society with being male or female and expressed publicly by the individual.

Also, read any introductory psychology textbook for the same info.

Also in Canada we have $2 coins, called "Toonies" that work in most vending machines.

According to the Canadian Mint, Canada left the gold standard behind during the war of 1812. The gold-standard was the prefered monetary system, but financing for the war overran the nations coffers, so Canada switched over to a fractional-reserve system. To date, however, the reserve fraction required by banks is null and void.

All the more reason to put as much detail into the fiat currency as possible, something has to convince us it has worth, or it doesn't.

@Ted

Well, according to this paper women by-and-large are explicitly turned-off by explicitly sexual ads, but if the ad conveys a commitment from man to woman, the effect is reversed. In addition, there is a subset of women who are aroused by explicit sexual stimuli. Then it is no surprise to find that advertising agencies that are promoting products aimed at women generally focus on intimacy and relational commitment (i.e. Jewelry Ads).

"For instance, one study examined reactions to
a perfume ad that featured overt and explicit sexual content
(i.e., a couple shown in an intercourse-like position). In
comparison with a control perfume ad with milder content
(i.e., an attractive female model), both men and women
found the explicitly sexual ad to be unethical and manipulative,
and reported equivalently negative attitudes toward
the ad (Mittal and Lassar 2000). Other research corroborated
the notion that, irrespective of gender, the explicit and inappropriate
use of sex typically induces unfavorable reactions
(e.g., Peterson and Kerin 1977; Simpson, Horton, and
Brown 1996).

Although the premise that gratuitous sexual appeals produce
negative reactions because of perceptions of unethical
and manipulative practices is straightforward and logical, it
also presupposes a deliberative, cognitive mechanism. Past
research has found that the process of judging whether a
persuasive message violates ethical norms requires cognitive
effort (Campbell and Kirmani 2000). Yet consumers typically
spend little time and effort when viewing an ad (Burnett
and Moriarty 1998; Kassarjian 1977; Sengupta and
Gorn 2002). It is important, therefore, to understand reactions
to inappropriate sex appeals under “thin slice” processing
(Ambady, Bernieri, and Richeson 2000), such as
when consumers view ads under constrained cognitive capacity.

Men tend to adopt a
relatively recreational orientation, an approach that emphasizes
physical gratification and views sex as an end in itself
(Cohen and Shotland 1996; Hill 2002). In contrast, women
tend to adopt a relationship-based orientation to sexuality,
an approach that emphasizes the importance of intimacy and
commitment in a sexual relationship (Birnbaum et al. 2006;
Hill 2002; Malamuth 1996; Schachner and Shaver 2004).

A socialization-based account arrives at a similar conclusion,
albeit from a different perspective. Socialization influences
are almost without exception biased toward promoting
a recreational attitude toward sex in men but a
relationship orientation in women (Baumeister and Twenge
2002; Schwartz and Rutter 1998). For instance, sexual behaviors
that are primarily linked with physical gratification
(e.g., masturbation) are subjected to more parental discouragement
and condemnation for daughters than sons
(Schwartz and Rutter 1998).

Women shirk
emotionless sex perhaps because their experience of sex is
saturated with emotional and relational implications. One
in-depth study showed that women experience the act of
sexual intercourse as laden with relationship-centered
thoughts and feelings (Birnbaum and Laser-Brandt 2002;
also Birnbaum et al. 2006).

Indeed,
women reported equally high intentions of engaging
in sex as did men when either of these conditions was present.
When neither signal was present (i.e., a casual dating
relationship or partner’s behavior lacked an emotional connotation),
the typical gender difference prevailed such that
women reported a lower likelihood of engaging in sex than
did men.

In summary, the extant research on gender differences in
sexual motivations suggests that for both evolutionary and
socialization-based reasons women will have relatively unfavorable
feelings about sexual behavior that is not linked
with relationship commitment. When sexual behavior can
be seen in terms of relational commitment, however,
women’s attitudes about sex would be expected to improve.

The key hypothesis was that women’s attitudes toward
the ad would be more positive for the sexual ad when it
was positioned as a gift than when the same ad did not
feature a gift positioning, whereas attitudinal improvement
was not expected among men. Consistent with these predictions,
a 2#2 analysis of variance (ANOVA)with gender
and sexual ad positioning (gift versus nongift) revealed a
significant interaction of gender and sexual ad positioning
(F(1, 84) p 7.72, p p .007; fig. 1). No other significant
effects were found. For female participants, contrasts revealed
more positive attitudes when the watch in the ad was
positioned as a gift than when it was not (M p 4.67, gift
M p 3.83; F(1, 84) p 4.33, p p .039). As predicted, nongift
attitude improvement was not found among men—in fact,
an interesting reversal was obtained, with men preferring
the nongift ad to the gift ad (M p 4.18, M p 5.02; gift nongift
F(1, 84) p 4.24, p p .041). In terms of a between-gender
comparison, our results for the nongift sexual ad replicated
past findings (Sengupta and Dahl 2008) in that men’s reactions
were more positive than women’s (F(1, 84) p
8.88, p p .004). Crucially, however, this gender difference
vanished when the sexual ad featured a gift positioning
(p p .238).

In one study, Sengupta and Dahl (2008)
found that sexually liberal women showed a strong preference
for a sexual ad versus a nonsexual ad. Recent work
by Reichert, LaTour, and Kim (2007) found that women’s
sexual self-schemas—that is, a woman’s perception of herself
as a sexual person—had a positive influence on attitudes
and affective reactions to sexual ads. These constructs are
worthy avenues for future research to test if and when
women’s reactions to sexually explicit ads mirror men’s.
Indeed, this general line of inquiry would be consistent with
findings in sex research that suggest that personality variables
can exert a significant influence on attitudes toward
uncommitted sex—for instance, socially dominant, more extroverted
women tend to be less restricted in their attitudes
toward sex (Gangestad and Simpson 2000)."

@Ted

Nevermind, I found it here: http://www.sauder.ubc.ca/Faculty/Divisions/Marketing/~/media/Files/Faculty%20Research/Publications/Dahl%20-%20Gender%20Differences.ashx

I have to study it first though.

@Ted

If you can provide me with the article title I can do a better job of looking it up, all I was able to find was this article on the research from the CBC, which seems to indicate slightly different findings:

""...We found that overweight consumers feel worse about themselves when looking at any models (compared to a no-model control ad), because they see the similarities between themselves and the heavy models, and they see the differences between themselves and the thin models -- either way, it reminds them of the fact that they're heavy," Mandel told ABCNews.com.


In the meantime, "underweight consumers feel better about themselves when looking at any models (compared to a no-model control ad), because this reminds them of the fact that they're thin," Mandel said. "

Source: http://blogs.abcnews.com/campuschatter/2010/04/real-women-dont-like-curves-in-ads-study-says.html

Anyway, I was referring to implicit and not explicit associations, for women to give a verbal report of how they feel means the association in that case is explicit. Yet, there may be myriad implied associations that they are not able to speak of.

During the first 2 years of life, there is sequential growth, prodigious proliferation, and overproduction of axons, dendrites, and synapses in different regions of the brain [*1].

[*1] Neurons are nerve cells, which communicate with each other by sending out "messages" from extensions of the cell body called axons and receiving "messages" into extensions called dendrites. The axon-dendrite point of communication is termed a synapse. Synaptogenesis is the creation of synapses.

This process is genetically determined. However, not all the synaptic connections survive, many being subsequently "pruned" due to lack of use (Singer, 1995). During this period of plasticity, or potential for change, the determination of which synaptic connections will persist is environmentally regulated, being dependent on information received by the brain. A competitive process operates, determining which neurons and neural connections will survive. The competition is, for instance, for potential binding sites on the receiving neuron. To quote Courchesne, Chisum, and Townsend (1994) "neurons that fire together, wire together". Synaptic connections that are not utilised gradually disappear. The progressive neuronal maturation and the establishment of synaptic connections are reflected in changes in the infant's increasing functional maturity.

Source: http://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/glaser/glaser_2.htm