LOUISBURG For years, visitors to Louisburgs Wildcat Stadium have had a long walk if they wanted to purchase concessions or use a rest- room. That might not be the case much longer.

USD 416 officials have been actively completing capital improvement projects in the district, including lights for the soccer field at the beginning of last school year, purchasing the districts own bus fleet and a new greenhouse at the high school for this school year.

Members of the board of education recently set their sights on some other projects they would like to see completed in the district, including a concession stand and restroom building that would serve not just the visitor side of the bleachers at football games, but also the soccer field.

Our capital outlay budget is healthy, said Brian Biermann, district superintendent. We dont need a Taj Mahal. We have a nice soccer field now, but have porta-potties and a mobile concession stand. A concession-restroom building could serve a dual purpose as visitors concession and restrooms at football games. We can even look into putting locker rooms there for visiting teams and the soccer teams if you want.

Biermann presented the board with a list containing 20 projects. This is a list the district has been working its way through the past couple of years in an effort to keep ahead of needed projects.

It is hoped that three or four of the projects can be completed this year. Other than the concession stand/restroom building, those projects include the construction of a new exit from the Broadmoor Elementary parking lot to Metcalf near South Eighth Street and the reconfiguration of the sewer line at Broadmoor to eliminate a lift station.

See the original post:
Louisburg officials consider future capital improvement projects - Miami County Republic

Column by Michael Norton

"It's not where you start, it is where you finish that counts." - Zig Ziglar

"Begin with the end in mind." - Dr. Stephen Covey

These have been two of my own personal "Go To" quotes for many years. These were quick hitting powerful reminders that helped me shape my goals and to define success of the opportunities and projects I was involved in at the time. Basically, knowing what success looks like before we even begin.

As I have been speaking with different groups of people and individuals recently, it has become increasingly apparent that too many of us do not even know or understand what success looks like in the future or what they are hoping to accomplish in the near term, let alone down the road.

Now before the Ziglar and Covey fans reading this column shout heresy, you should remember that one of Mr. Ziglar's other quotes is this, "People who never take step one, can never take step two." At first glance, these quotes may seem to contradict one another, but they really do not. The truth is that they complement each other quite nicely.

Let's think about this for a minute. It is awesome to have a vision for the future, I highly encourage it. What I am hearing from some of you is that the world is changing so much and with such frequency that it is hard to think about goals and future plans. As difficult as it is for some of us, this may still be short-sighted thinking. Maybe we can agree that it is important to have all; short-term goals, mid-range goals, and long-term goals. Before we can set any of our goals, long or short, we do at least have to know what we hope to accomplish at any level. The excuse or cop-out is thinking that it's OK to justify, explain, or defend the position of, "I don't know what it is that I want to be or do in this life."

So now we go full circle, do we start with the end in mind or do we begin with the beginning in mind? You may already have your own system for this, but if you don't I would suggest looking at all three types of goals and write down only one thing in each area. Simply fill in the blank: My one short-term goal is ______. My one mid-range goal is ______. My one long-term goal is _______. Really, do not overcomplicate this, just think of one thing for each level of your goals. And if we want to get even more specific, my immediate goal is _______.

It is a pity if we are lost or get lost in the blur of a fuzzy future because we may never take step one. All we need is one little thought that we can build upon. Just a seed of an idea that motivates us enough to take only the first step. And when we do, steps two, three, four, and more will follow.

So how about you? Do you know how to get started and are already well on your way to achieving your hopes and dreams? Or are you in the place where you need to start with that first step? Either way I would love to hear all about it at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can begin with the beginning in mind, it really will be a better than good day.

Michael Norton is a resident of Castle Rock, the former president of the Zig Ziglar Corporation, a strategic consultant and a business and personal coach.

Here is the original post:
To get a smart start, begin with the beginning in mind - Englewood Herald

Confidence is more important than competence.

That's what the entrepreneur on stage said at an event I attended recently. People were shocked, but lots of heads were nodding, including mine. I couldnt help but agree. Because the benefits of confidence truly are unlimited.

Why? Because confidence spurs action. It fuels decision-making. It gets you up off the couch and out into the world. Competence is wonderful, but it wont do any of those things for you. And heyif you can have both, youre unstoppable.

After years working as a confidence coach, heres what I know for sure about being self-assured:

Confidence is something you decide to have. Need help? Ive got you. I officially give you permission right here, right now, to be the most confident person you know! (You're welcome.)

The most successful, happy people are not born the most wealthy, beautiful, or talented. They just believe in themselves, and they go for what they want. But they built their self-belief firstand on purpose. Im sure as hell one of those people, and I became one consciously and willingly. Whats the alternative? Uh, no, thank you.

Zig Ziglar said, Showering doesnt last; thats why you do it daily. I consume inspirational material every damn day. If I miss a day, I notice itI can feel it in my physical and emotional energy. I listen to podcasts. I read books and motivational blogs. External inspiration feeds internal inspiration. I dont know how anyone lives without it.

Its way too easy to forget how far you've come and what you've done well in your life. In his best-selling book The Success Principles, author Jack Canfield discusses how transforming your opinion of yourself begins with a reflection on your wins.

Heres how:

In coaching, we learn about the confidence-competence loop. This means that when you take action and you prove you can do something, however small, you feel more confident taking the next step. This, in turn, makes you more competent. Its a gorgeous cycle!

Follow this link:
I Help People Build Confidence for a LivingHere's What I Know for Sure About My Own - Greatist

Many Jews regard attending High Holy Day services as the obligatory minimum act they must perform in order to be considered as Jews in good standing. This station identification is seen as the price one must pay for being born Jewish. They figure it is worth a few hours of tedium and perhaps enduring a pitch for money to do one's duty, in the same way we eat healthy food before dessert because our parents told us we should do so, and we would feel terribly guilty if we didn't.

However, the High Holy Days could be so much more, and could even be transformational if approached differently. As a child, I was blessed with a father whose spell-binding homilies, jokes and inspiration led me to look forward to the Days of Awe as a most portentous time, rippling with possibilities for change. My father reminded us that "The greatest of all miracles is that we need not be tomorrow who we are today and can improve if we make use of the potentials implanted in us by God."

As my dad was fond of puns, he would hopefully forgive me for saying that the practice of sacrificing animals is a lot of bull, and always got my goat. The only "ewe" we need to sacrifice to renew our lives is the "ewe" we are today for the new "you" we could become if we lived up to our highest potential, the hopes and dreams of our parents, and the exalted vision of our prophets. We sacrifice this "you" on the altar (alter) of change as we ascend the aisle (in hopes that I'll ascend to a higher level).

Unfortunately, many Jews today fail to take advantage of this annual opportunity for self-improvement, and try to feel renewed by taking a trip to some exotic place. However, the greatest voyage of all is not to see new lands, but to see with new eyes. The word "vacation" literally means to empty out, and it is only when we can declutter or empty out our minds of trivial and negative thoughts, that more positive images can take root and true change can occur. That is why we often wear white on the High Holy Days and engage in soul searching and candid reflection. By honestly reviewing our lives, and examining what works and what doesn't work, rather than just going through the motions of mere existence, we can go through the thrilling emotions involved with the exciting challenge of charting our own destiny.

The great abolitionist Frederick Douglas understood the true purpose of the Days of Awe when he said "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." Each of us is unique and filled with unrealized potential. It is up to us to rid ourselves of the self-imposed slavery to bad habits that keep us chained to the past, and to liberate ourselves from merely trying to please others, so that we can achieve our true destiny.

This challenge of self-reflection and change often seems daunting. One skeptic told motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, "I don't believe in motivation, it never lasts" to which Mr. Ziglar responded, "Neither does bathing, that's why I recommend it daily." In Judaism we seek inspiration weekly, on Shabbat and on all other days that end with the letter "y." Our sages taught us to begin preparing for the Days of Awe in the month of Elul, which precedes Rosh Hashanah, just as an athlete is trained to begin to practice and warm-up long before the big match, in order to do his best. If we begin to review our lives now, we can hit the ground running on the Days of Awe, to maximize our ability to tap into the transcendent power of these sacred days.

With the legalization of marijuana, the High Holy Days takes on new meaning for some. However, motivated Jews need no outside substance to effectuate significant internal change to renew our lives, bring joy to others, and to improve the world.

L'shanah tovah.

Silver is spiritual leader of Congregation L'Dor Va-Dor in Boynton Beach.

Go here to read the rest:
Silver: Seeking re'Jew'venation on the High Holy Days - Sun Sentinel

Finding new lead generation strategies is a necessary evil to keep up with the ever-evolving online marketing space. The key challenge is knowing how to go about it in ways which will deliver the best returns.

Quality leads are the life force of any B2B company, but designing new methods to increase leads can be a huge challenge.

Adding to this, most businesses recognise that they now operate in an era of multichannel, multimedia, multi-device, always-on connectivity that has dramaticallyand perhaps irreversibly swung the dynamic of power into the hands of buyers.

This digitally inspired chaos has spawned a customer class capable of conducting most of its buying journey behind the scenes. Today, buyers can surreptitiously flit from one informational outpost to another, gradually building up a purchasing opinion.

Fortunately however, the same technologies powering the journey of these buyers are also generating a wealth of data through which innovative companies can identify, track and assess buyer behaviour, and ultimately use that data to influence their journeys.

So while finding new lead generation strategies is a necessary evil in order for businesses to keep up with the ever-evolving online marketing space, with the surge of data-driven marketing, the explosion of B2B e-commerce and a growing focus on automation, the future has never looked brighter. In fact, by just 2020, the total B2B sales market is forecast to hit $25 trillion.

Here are some of the best ideas for generating more leads in the new financial year using data-driven marketing:

Quite often, a prospect who hits all of our demographic marks is, from a sales perspective, actually a dead end. Even though they looked picture-perfect on paper, they simply arent looking for a solution like ours.

Thats assuming all we have is demographic data. If our knowledge is limited to the prospects industry and job title, anyone can look like the perfect fit.

If we grow our view to include behavioural data, however, the picture is very different, because the way in which prospects engage with our content tells us how interested they actually are.

By shifting from a limited focus on demographic data to a blend of both demographic and behavioural data, we can then deliver leads that are less expensive to chase and far more likely to end in a sale.

Unfortunately, most marketing campaigns only deliver demographic data, usually through a download or registration form. While this data is valuable, it takes multiple touches before we can even begin to build a behavioural prole on that contact.

The new fiscal year is the time to invest your efforts and resources into making your lead-scoring behavioural.

As Zig Ziglar once said, Help enough people get what they want and you will get what you want. In other words, your success ultimately rides on the value that you can deliver to others.

At each stage of the sales funnel, prospects are evaluating you based on the value you can potentially bring to them, so make sure that what your offering addresses this.

Essentially, buyers take action for two reasons: 1) to achieve an aspiration or 2) to alleviate some pain or problem. And a relevant offer doesnt feel pushy, because its not. If its useful, the prospect will welcome it.

A good offer strategy involves knowing what stage of the buying cycle they are in, and the common questions they are trying to ask at each stage:

So if someone is in the Consideration stage, give them the in-depth education theyre searching for with a case study or best practice guide. Theyre past the need for a how-to blog post, but theyre not quite ready for a free trial.

Always deliver content that meets the prospects needs, at the appropriate time. Offering the wrong piece of content, or not having an offer strategy at all, can do great harm to your marketing and sales efforts.

In the past, sales and marketing have acted more like opposing teams in a turf war than partners working together to achieve a shared goal. Innovative companies, however, have realised this model is out-of-date, and are now changing their structure to better align the teams.

Marketing should no longer be supplying a simple list of form fills to sales, but rather should be applying a lead intelligence program that equips them to identify actual marketing-qualified leads that are genuinely ready to engage with sales.

Integration of these two teams will be crucial to company success, as they will be better equipped to tag team and deal close, instead of functioning in silos.

Aligning the two functions will mean a better understanding of the customer buying journey, aligning incentives for both teams to ensure bottom line accountability, and leading with a clear and united focus that nurtures a culture of organisation-wide partnership and co-operation between the two teams.

Michael Savanis is vice president and managing director for global digital marketing organisation ON24.

Link:
Lead generation strategies key to boosting sales - My Business

Its going to be about 80 degrees during orientation weekend and youll quickly regret overpacking.

Your dad might show off and take a big load of your stuff from the trunk through the front doors of your residence hall, perhaps down some stairs or up an elevator but the destination doesnt really matter in the end.

Wherever your stuff ends up, that space will become yours. So before you move in, get to know your home away from home.

Alliance

Originally constructed as an all-male dorm, Alliance House is currently one of the only all-female dorms on Gonzagas campus. Built in 1962, this dorm was initially erected as an experiment in foreign relations. Twenty international students were housed there each year along with 25 American upperclassmen, with the goal of educating international students on the American lifestyle. This experiment ended around 1966, when students expressed an interest in other dorms as to integrate themselves further into the Gonzaga community.

Catherine-Monica

Catherine-Monica (C/M) has been on GUs campus map since the Fall of 1962. Costing nearly $1 million to construct, C/M was initially built to increase the number of women Gonzaga could accommodate. Prior to this, GU rejected over 250 female applicants annually due to the lack of facilities. Now a coed dorm, C/M houses around 370 students each year.

The dormitory was named after two female saints. Saint Catherine of Alexandria is the patroness of students, teachers, librarians, and lawyers. Saint Monica of Hippo, mother of Saint Augustine, was the patroness of wives and abuse victims.

Nowadays, C/M is known as the social dorm of Gonzaga. Apart from an unspoken open-door policy, C/M is part of the annual C/MDeSmet football game, Bulldog Bowl, and the Midwest Block Prom.

DeSmet

Directly in the heart of Gonzagas campus rests the oldest dorm on campus, DeSmet Hall. Named for Fr. Pierre Jean DeSmet, the first Jesuit missionary to come to the Northwest, DeSmet Hall was built as a senior hall to provide housing and classroom facilities for a greater influx of students in 1923. That year, Gonzaga broke its own record by having a freshman class of more than 100 students. Housing 140 male students, DeSmet has and will continue to be a staple of the Gonzaga community.

Lincoln

Constructed in 1963, Lincoln House was named for President Abraham Lincoln. This dorm was originally adorned with a large mosaic of Lincolns head above the main door, which has since been removed due to deterioration. Lincoln House offers a small community of close and supportive residents.

Marian

Located two blocks off of central campus, Marian Hall was purchased in 2005 by the University. This dorm was originally used to house nuns, but is now used for students who want to engage with Gonzaga Outdoors. This outdoor-themed dormitory offers residents the chance to engage in adventure with their community. Primarily housing students who share a passion for outdoor recreation and environmental issues, Marian offers residents the chance to engage in regularly scheduled hall trips that focus on different outdoor experiences, such as hiking, skiing, and rafting.

Welch

Constructed in 1957, Welch Hall is another all-female dorm which was once all-male. This dorm was named after Patrick Welch, a prominent railroad builder who resided in Spokane for most of his life. After his death, his two daughters generously funded the construction of this building. Presently, this dorm houses around 150 female students. Located directly across from DeSmet Hall, Welch Hall is also a central staple of the Gonzaga campus.

Welch Hall is one of the only dorms that has an elevator, so students have a lot easier time moving in than the residents of other multiple storied dorms, such as DeSmet. Another benefit of living here is the smell of fresh-baked cookies on Wednesday nights, as the sandwich shop located on the first level of the building has a cookie event each week.

Coughlin

Constructed in 2009, Coughlin Hall houses roughly 330 first and second year students. The coed dorm has four floors plus a lobby. Being the main Learning Center on Gonzagas Campus, the dorm is lively and social, but courteous to those focused on their studies. The second, third and fifth floor accommodates those who want a quiet study room. The building is named after the Universitys 23rd president, Fr. Bernard J. Coughlin, S.J. who served from 1974 to 1996.

Crimont

The three-story coed dorm is located at 1321 N. Standard St. and mainly houses first year students. Named after Joseph Raphael Crimont, S.J., president to the University from 1900 to 1903, the first Crimont Hall was a large home located at 526 E. Sinto Ave. The second, and main hall, was opened in 1965. During the short time he was president, Crimont ruled with a bite the bullet kind of attitude, requiring military uniforms and parent signatures for those wishing to participate in intramural activities. One of his decisions was built into College Hall. Crimont expanded the administration building to include a gym, pool, and the students chapel. The gym has since been converted into the Magnuson Theatre, while the pool has since been removed after being closed for health reasons.

Chardin

Named after philosopher, theologian, geologist Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, Chardin House accommodates about 50 first- and second-year students. Chardin served in the French army during WWI, was member of an expedition in China that led to the discovery of the Peking Man, a subspecies of Homo Erectus, and wrote several works that were published and became famous after his death in 1955. He was a man of great personal charm, as is Chardin House. The three-floor coed dorm has common areas on each floor.

Cushing

Designed just like Crimont and located at 428 E. Sharp Ave. the three-story dorm houses first and second-year students in a suite style fashion. The coed hall was named after Cardinal Richard Cushing. He was known for his resilience in creating facilities for education, the sick, and the poor.

Madonna

Madonna Hall has three floors with a prime location across the street from the Hemmingson Center and Mulligan Field. Located at 1020 N. Cincinnati St., Madonna Hall houses around 120 freshman students. Never did anyone think it would house a serial killer. About 40 years ago, a couple students met Ted Bundy at a party and let him crash in their dorm room for a few days while he checked out Gonzagas law school. According to associate professor of business law Don Hackney, The room is all the way to the left, to the north, facing west. The story was told to him by his wifes friend, who let Bundy stay in his dorm. Hackney uses it as a warning to his female students to not get into a car with someone you dont know, after a girl hitched a ride from Bundy to Pullman. He believes the only reason she made it there alive was because people knew his name and car.

Roncalli

One of the all-male halls, Roncalli House is located at 711 E. Boone Ave. Though second-year students are eligible to apply, it predominately houses freshmen. It has three floors plus a basement, with a corridor style layout. Roncalli House was name after Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, better known as Pope John XXIII. He was unexpectedly elected and thought to become a caretaker pope, but he set in motion major church reforms.

Molly Gianerelli and Marissa Kneisel are a staff writers.

Continue reading here:
Every dorm has a story - Bulletin

Times Record staff

Transitional pastor named

Central Presbyterian Church announces that the honorably retired Rev. Rita Wilson will serve as transitional pastor while the congregation searches for a permanent pastor. Wilson joined Central in 1971 and served as director of Christian education for seven years. She retired in 2015 after 37 years of active service.

St. Scholastica offers several retreats

St. Scholastica Retreat Center, 1205 S. Albert Pike, will offer a weekend retreat Sept. 22-24 titled "Seven Sacred Pauses." Using themes drawn from Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr's book, "Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully" and Velma Frye's accompanying CD, "Seven Sacred Pauses: Singing Mindfully," the presenters will lead participants into the contemplative practice of deep listening.

Cost is $245. A $50 nonrefundable, nontransferable deposit is required at time of registration. Lodging and meals are included.

Additionally, the center will offer two ways to practice the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

Retreat in Daily Life will be held both in St. Scholastica Monastery and in northwest Arkansas. Participants will meet weekly in small groups from October through April, meet with a spiritual director twice monthly and spend time in daily prayer, scripture reading, and journaling.

Cost is $560 plus the cost of twice monthly spiritual direction at $20 per session.

Ignatius Transposed! Retreat in Daily Life "transposes" the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius for the 21st century, according to the teachings of the great mystic and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Biweekly meetings will be held between Aug. 29 and May 1 in northwest Arkansas and possibly Fort Smith, and can also be attended through Zoom conferencing.

Participants will meet from 6:30-8:30 p.m. every other Tuesday evening, meet with a spiritual director once a month and participate in 30-45 minutes daily of prayer, scripture reading and journaling.

Cost is $480 plus $20 per month for spiritual direction.

Scholarships are available.

Call (479) 783-1135 or (479) 651-1616 or email retreats@stscho.org or anahas@me.com to register or for information on these retreats.

Religion Notes is published each Saturday as a free public service. All items must reach the Times Record, 3600 Wheeler Ave., by noon Wednesday of the week the item is to be published. Photographs submitted cannot be returned but may be picked up at the office the week after they are published. Photographs will be kept for six months. The street address of the church and the name and phone number of a contact person must accompany each item submitted, or it will not be published. Email submissions to speterson@swtimes.com.

Originally posted here:
Religion notes 8.5.17 - Times Record

Primacy and death: The US president promotes America First policies, but the presidents of Syria and Russia, Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin also promote their interests

LAFAYETTE, INDIANA: Donald Trump's foreign policy is bereft of any overarching debate over the urgent threats confronting the United States and the entire global system. The most serious threats, easily identifiable, include war, terrorism and genocide. To counter such complex threats, whether as Americans or "world citizens, its vital to bear in mind that these two identifications overlap and are mutually reinforcing.

Taking a narrow "America First" stance on terrorism ignores the intersecting nature of major terrorist groups and organizations, quickly leading to unstable situations. For example, Trump's needlessly announced preference for certain Sunni dictatorships over Shiite dictatorships, or for selected Sunni dictatorships like Saudi Arabia over other Sunnis like Qatar, introduces more instability in the Middle East. If US foreign policy were conceptualized, originally, from a broadly system-wide perspective rather than from a self-defeating stance of America First, Washington could establish a single plausible criterion of support and intervention. Such an unwavering standard would benefit the US and its allies, while simultaneously countering the core strategic interests of relevant adversaries.

The Trump administration recently signed a southern Syria ceasefire agreement with Russia, underscoring a particularly visceral America First strategy for dealing with Damascus. Among other liabilities, this agreement perpetuates Iran's unhelpful presence in Syria. Taken together with Trump's soon-to-be expected endorsement of the Allen Plan for Palestinian statehood a plan, that would inter alia, replace Israeli troops in the Jordan Valley with UN forces the new ceasefire calls upon Moscow to secure Israel's border with Syria, undermining regional order in general and Israel in particular.

The president and his counselors must cope with such intersecting perils that require far more than "common sense." Many might ask, what would a suitably more thoughtful American foreign policy actually look like. Answers depend on a myriad of individual human needs and expectations. Demonstrably global elucidation, either intellectually or "operationally," is not easy.

Determinative factors include aloneness, not fully belonging to a specific tribe, nation or faith, and the primal human fear of simply "not being. Individual fear of death can contribute to collective violence, yet the insight also reveals an overlooked opportunity for widening human empathy.

Only a serious attempt to understand an imperative global oneness can save the United States from irremediable hazards. Significantly, Trump's America First orientation represents the opposite of this sorely needed global effort and could undermine any remaining chances for meaningful safety. As for the planet's physical environment, Trump is indifferent to climate change studies and the global ecology. US withdrawal from the Paris accord on climate change is a retrograde abrogation that undermines US and global interests while placing billions of people on an unalterable trajectory of human declension.

Instead, national security is about collective human growth and species survival. In global politics, true remediation requires sincere depth of analytic thought and a fully imaginative and broadly global set of policy understandings. Power over death is the most eagerly sought-after form of power in world politics. Perhaps this is why science and technology notwithstanding, cruelty still reigns throughout the world unreformed, undimmed and proudly undiminished. Historically, a juxtaposition of healing and murder is not without precedent. In Syria, dictator Bashar al-Assad is a trained ophthalmologist. During the Holocaust, death camp gassings were identified as a "medical matter," supervised by physicians.

More than many might care to admit, education and enlightenment have had precious little tangible bearing on the "human condition." Prima facie, too, steadily expanding technologies of mega-destruction have done little to transform people into more responsible stewards of this endangered planet. Instead, with unhindered arrogance, whole nations continue to revel in virtually every conceivable form of mass neglect and violence. Most of the time, this ominously primal immersion is advanced as some sort of immutably zero-sum or us-versus-them struggle for domination.

Far too many often take delight in observing the sufferings of others. The specific German term for experiencing such twisted pleasure is schadenfreude. To what extent, if any, is this markedly venal quality related to our steadily-diminishing prospects for building modern global civilizations upon aptly resurrected premises of human oneness? To what extent, if any, does this corrosive trait derive from human death fear? a crucial question for rational formulation of American foreign policy and for certain corollary obligations of global consciousness.

Sigmund Freud argued that the human unconscious behaves as if it were immortal. Still, however widely disregarded, an expanded acceptance of personal mortality may represent the last best chance for the United States to endure as an enviable nation. This represents the very opposite of America First and the ongoing association of immortality with inflicting grave harms upon others.

Viable forms of wider cooperation represent the only credible path toward moving beyond schadenfreude. Such core orientations are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually reinforcing. Death "happens" to us all, but acceptance is more than most humans can bear. At times, it is almost as if dying had somehow been reserved exclusively for "others."

Most of us do not choose when we should die. Still, we can choose to recognize our common fate, and thereby our unbreakable interdependence. This powerful intellectual recognition could carry with it an equally significant global promise.

Ironically, regardless of divergent views on what actually happens after personal death, the basic mortality shared by all could represent a chance for global coexistence. This requires the difficult leap from acknowledging a shared common fate to actually "operationalizing" more generalized feelings of needed empathy and caring. Across an entire planet, we can care for one another as humans, but only after accepting that the indisputable judgment of a resolutely common fate will not be waived by palpable harms deliberately inflicted upon "others" through war, terror and genocide. Always, our just wars, counterterrorism conflicts and anti-genocide programs must be fought as intricate contests of mind over mind and not just narrowly tactical struggles of mind over matter.

Ultimately, only a dual awareness of death as our common human destination and the associated futility of sacrificial violence can offer an accessible defense against the Islamic State, North Korea, Russia, Iran and other adversaries in the global "state of nature." This "natural" or structural condition of anarchy was well known to the founding fathers of the United States, and only this difficult awareness can relieve an otherwise incessant Hobbesian war of "all against all." Significantly, US advisers H.R. McMaster and Gary D. Cohn articulated a "Trump Doctrine" premised on fully Hobbesian perspectives: "President Trump has a clear-eyed outlook that the world is not a `global community,' but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage." They then added as a concessionary coda: "Rather than deny this elemental nature of international affairs, we embrace it."

American democracy was founded upon authentic learning and not flippantly corrosive clichs or abundantly empty witticisms. Human death fear has much to do with a better understanding of enemies. Reciprocally, only a people who can feel deeply within itself the unalterable fate and suffering of a broader global population can embrace genuine compassion and thereby reject collective violence.

America can never be truly "first" as long as its president insists upon achieving such misconceived status at the unavoidable expense of others. Inevitably, the Trump administration must recognize that American and global survival remain not only bewilderingly complicated, but also mutually interdependent and inextricably intertwined.

Global politics are never a "zero-sum" game or a furiously merciless contest wherein one country's expected gain requires another's loss. Apropos of French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's relevant wisdom, no single player in this grievously complex global system can expect to survive and prosper except "with and by all the others with itself." For President Donald Trump, there is still time for lucidity, but not a great deal of time.

See the original post:
What Trump's Foreign Policy Ignores - YaleGlobal Online

Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals.[1] It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifestyle, self-awareness is the recognition of that awareness.[2]

There are questions regarding what part of the brain allows us to be self-aware and how we are biologically programmed to be self-aware. V.S. Ramachandran has speculated that mirror neurons may provide the neurological basis of human self-awareness.[3] In an essay written for the Edge Foundation in 2009 Ramachandran gave the following explanation of his theory: "... I also speculated that these neurons can not only help simulate other people's behavior but can be turned 'inward'as it wereto create second-order representations or meta-representations of your own earlier brain processes. This could be the neural basis of introspection, and of the reciprocity of self awareness and other awareness. There is obviously a chicken-or-egg question here as to which evolved first, but... The main point is that the two co-evolved, mutually enriching each other to create the mature representation of self that characterizes modern humans."[4]

Studies have been done mainly on primates to test if self-awareness is present. Apes, monkeys, elephants, and dolphins have been studied most frequently. The most relevant studies to this day that represent self-awareness in animals have been done on chimpanzees, dolphins, and magpies. Self-awareness in animals is tested through mirror self recognition. Animals who show mirror self recognition go through four stages 1) social response, 2) physical mirror inspection, 3) repetitive mirror testing behavior, and 4) the mark test; which involves the animals spontaneously touching a mark on their body which would have been difficult to see without the mirror.[5]

The Red Spot Technique created and experimented by Gordon Gallup[6] studies self-awareness in animals (primates). Toivanen says on a study done on perceptual self-awareness, "The attribution of self-perception to animals is based on a distinction between the experiential awareness of the soul and the intellectual understanding of its essence, a distinction postulated."[7] In this technique, a red odorless spot is placed on an anesthetized primate's forehead. The spot is placed on the forehead so that it can only be seen through a mirror. Once the individual awakens, independent movements toward the spot after seeing their reflection in a mirror are observed. During the Red Spot Technique, after looking in the mirror, chimpanzees used their fingers to touch the red dot that was on their forehead and,after touching the red dot they would even smell their fingertips.[8] "Animals that can recognize themselves in mirrors can conceive of themselves," says Gallup. Another prime example are elephants. Three elephants were exposed to large mirrors where experimenters studied the reaction when the elephants saw their reflection. These elephants were given the "litmus mark test" in order to see whether they were aware of what they were looking at. This visible mark was applied on the elephants and the researchers reported a large progress with self-awareness. The elephants shared this success rate with other animals such as monkeys and dolphins.[9]

Chimpanzees and other apes species which have been studied extensively compare the most to humans with the most convincing findings and straightforward evidence in the relativity of self-awareness in animals so far.[10] Dolphins were put to a similar test and achieved the same results. Diana Reiss, a psycho-biologist at the New York Aquarium discovered that bottlenose dolphins can recognize themselves in mirrors.[11]

Researchers also used the mark test or mirror test [12] to study the magpie's self-awareness. As a majority of birds are blind below the beak, Prior and colleagues[10] marked the birds neck with three different colors: red, yellow and a black imitation, as magpies are originally black. When placed in front of a mirror, the birds with the red and yellow spots began scratching at their necks, signaling the understanding of something different being on their bodies. During one trial with a mirror and a mark, three out of the five magpies showed a minimum of one example of self-directed behavior. The magpies explored the mirror by moving toward it and looking behind it. One of the magpies, Harvey, during several trials would pick up objects, pose, do some wing-flapping, all in front of the mirror with the objects in his beak. This represents a sense of self-awareness; knowing what is going on within himself and in the present. The authors suggest that self-recognition in birds and mammals may be a case of convergent evolution, where similar evolutionary pressures result in similar behaviors or traits, although they arrive at them via different routes.[13]

A few slight occurrences of behavior towards the magpie's own body happened in the trial with the black mark and the mirror. It is an assumption in this study[10] that the black mark may have been slightly visible on the black feathers. Prior and Colleagues,[10] stated "This is an indirect support for the interpretation that the behavior towards the mark region was elicited by seeing the own body in the mirror in conjunction with an unusual spot on the body."

The behaviors of the magpies clearly contrasted with no mirror present. In the no-mirror trials, a non-reflective gray plate of the same size and in the same position as the mirror was swapped in. There were not any mark directed self-behaviors when the mark was present, in color, or in black.[10] Prior and Colleagues'[10] data quantitatively matches the findings in chimpanzees. In summary of the mark test,[10] the results show that magpies understand that a mirror image represents their own body; magpies show to have self-awareness.

A new study, however, revolutionizes the idea of self-awareness in animals and suggests a new ethological approach, which may shed light on different ways of checking for cognition, and reopens the debate of ethologists (and philosophers) on consciousness. The research conducted by Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, associate professor at Tomsk State University in Russia and published in 2015 in the journal Ethology, Ecology and Evolution,[14] with the title borrowed from the novel by Lewis Carroll Self-consciousness: beyond the looking-glass and what dogs found there, could change the way some experiments on animal behaviour are validated.

I believe said prof. Cazzolla Gatti being much less sensitive to visual stimuli with respect to what, for example, humans and many apes are, it is likely that the failure of dogs and other animals in the mirror test is mainly due to sensory modality chosen by the investigator to test the self-awareness and not, necessarily, to the absence of this latter in some animal species.[15]

The study shows that the sniff test of self-recognition (STSR)[16], as defined by the Italian scientist in his study, even when applied to multiple individuals living in groups and with different ages and sexes, provides significant evidences of self-awareness in dogs, and can play a crucial role in showing that this capacity is not a specific feature of only great apes, humans and a few other animals, but it depends on the way in which researchers try to verify it.

Attempts to verify this idea have been made before, but most of them were only observational, lacked empirical evidences or had been carried out only with a single individual and not repeated systematically with other dogs of different sex and age (for example the ethologist Marc Bekoff in 2001 used a "yellow snow test[17]" to measure how long his dog was sniffing his scent of urine and those of the other dogs in the area). Therefore, the final test of self-recognition in a species phylogenetically distant from apes (thus with different sensory modalities and communication behaviour) as the dog, was not obtained.

The innovative approach to test the self-awareness with a smell test "highlights the need to shift the paradigm of the anthropocentric idea of consciousness to a species-specific perspective[18]" - said Roberto Cazzolla Gatti - "We would never expect that a mole or a bat can recognize theirselves in a mirror, but now we have strong empirical evidences to suggest that if species other than primates are tested on chemical or auditory perception base we could get really unexpected results.[18]

Just as Swiss cleaning robots perform behaviors that effectively cleans a room without being aware of it or having any program to detect debris, an organism can be effectively altruistic without being self-aware, aware of any distinction between egoism and altruism, or aware of qualia in others. This by simple reactions to specific situations which happens to benefit other individuals in the organism's natural environment. If self-awareness led to a necessity of an emotional empathy mechanism for altruism and egoism being default in its absence, that would have precluded evolution from a state without self-awareness to a self-aware state in all social animals. The ability of the theory of evolution to explain self-awareness can be rescued by abandoning the hypothesis of self-awareness being a basis for cruelty.[19][20]

Self-awareness has been called "arguably the most fundamental issue in psychology, from both a developmental and an evolutionary perspective."[21]

Self-awareness theory, developed by Duval and Wicklund in their 1972 landmark book A theory of objective self awareness, states that when we focus our attention on ourselves, we evaluate and compare our current behavior to our internal standards and values. This elicits a state of objective self-awareness. We become self-conscious as objective evaluators of ourselves.[22] However self-awareness is not to be confused with self-consciousness.[23] Various emotional states are intensified by self-awareness. However, some people may seek to increase their self-awareness through these outlets. People are more likely to align their behavior with their standards when made self-aware. People will be negatively affected if they don't live up to their personal standards. Various environmental cues and situations induce awareness of the self, such as mirrors, an audience, or being videotaped or recorded. These cues also increase accuracy of personal memory.[24] In one of Demetriou's neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, self-awareness develops systematically from birth through the life span and it is a major factor for the development of general inferential processes.[25] Moreover, a series of recent studies showed that self-awareness about cognitive processes participates in general intelligence on a par with processing efficiency functions, such as working memory, processing speed, and reasoning.[26]Albert Bandura's theory of self-efficacy builds on our varying degrees of self-awareness. It is "the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations." A person's belief in their ability to succeed sets the stage to how they think, behave and feel. Someone with a strong self-efficacy, for example, views challenges as mere tasks that must be overcome, and are not easily discouraged by setbacks. They are aware of their flaws and abilities and choose to utilize these qualities to the best of their ability. Someone with a weak sense of self-efficacy evades challenges and quickly feels discouraged by setbacks. They may not be aware of these negative reactions, and therefore do not always change their attitude. This concept is central to Bandura's social cognitive theory, "which emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experience, and reciprocal determinism in the development of personality."[27]

Individuals become conscious of themselves through the development of self-awareness.[21] This particular type of self-development pertains to becoming conscious of one's own body and mental state of mind including thoughts, actions, ideas, feelings and interactions with others.[28] "Self-awareness does not occur suddenly through one particular behavior: it develops gradually through a succession of different behaviors all of which relate to the self."[29] The monitoring of one's mental states is called metacognition and it is considered to be an indicator that there is some concept of the self.[30] It is developed through an early sense of non-self components using sensory and memory sources. In developing selfawareness through self-exploration and social experiences one can broaden his social world and become more familiar with the self.

According to Emory University's Philippe Rochat, there are five levels of self-awareness which unfold in early development and six potential prospects ranging from "Level 0" (having no self-awareness) advancing complexity to "Level 5" (explicit self-awareness).[21]

By the time an average toddler reaches 18 months they will discover themselves and recognize their own reflection in the mirror. By the age of 24 months the toddler will observe and relate their own actions to those actions of other people and the surrounding environment.[31] There are multiple experiments that show a child's self-awareness. In what has come to be known as The Shopping Cart Task, "Children were asked to push a shopping cart to their mothers but in attempting to do so they had to step on the mat and in consequence, their body weight prevented the cart from moving".[32]

Around school age a child's awareness of personal memory transitions into a sense of one's own self. At this stage, a child begins to develop interests along with likes and dislikes. This transition enables the awareness of an individual's past, present, and future to grow as conscious experiences are remembered more often.[31]

As a child's self-awareness increases they tend to separate and become their own person. Their cognitive and social development allows "the taking of another's perspective and the accepting of inconsistencies."[33] By adolescence, a coherent and integrated self-perception normally emerges. This very personal emerging perspective continues to direct and advance an individual's self-awareness throughout their adult life.

One becomes conscious of their emotions during adolescence. Most children are aware of emotions such as shame, guilt, pride and embarrassment by the age of two, but do not fully understand how those emotions affect their life.[34] By age 13, children become more in touch with these emotions and begin to apply them to their own lives. A study entitled "The Construction of the Self" found that many adolescents display happiness and self-confidence around friends, but hopelessness and anger around parents due to the fear of being a disappointment. Teenagers were also shown to feel intelligent and creative around teachers, and shy, uncomfortable and nervous around people they were not familiar with.[35]

An early philosophical discussion of self-awareness is that of John Locke. Locke was apparently influenced by Ren Descartes' statement normally translated 'I think, therefore I am' (Cogito ergo sum). In chapter XXVII "On Identity and Diversity" of Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) he conceptualized consciousness as the repeated self-identification of oneself through which moral responsibility could be attributed to the subjectand therefore punishment and guiltiness justified, as critics such as Nietzsche would point out, affirming "...the psychology of conscience is not 'the voice of God in man'; it is the instinct of cruelty ... expressed, for the first time, as one of the oldest and most indispensable elements in the foundation of culture."[36][37][38] John Locke does not use the terms self-awareness or self-consciousness though.[39]

According to Locke, personal identity (the self) "depends on consciousness, not on substance.[40] We are the same person to the extent that we are conscious of our past and future thoughts and actions in the same way as we are conscious of our present thoughts and actions. If consciousness is this "thought" which doubles all thoughts, then personal identity is only founded on the repeated act of consciousness: "This may show us wherein personal identity consists: not in the identity of substance, but ... in the identity of consciousness."[40] For example, one may claim to be a reincarnation of Plato, therefore having the same soul. However, one would be the same person as Plato only if one had the same consciousness of Plato's thoughts and actions that he himself did. Therefore, self-identity is not based on the soul. One soul may have various personalities.

Locke argues that self-identity is not founded either on the body or the substance, as the substance may change while the person remains the same. "Animal identity is preserved in identity of life, and not of substance", as the body of the animal grows and changes during its life.[40] describes a case of a prince and a cobbler in which the soul of the prince is transferred to the body of the cobbler and vice versa. The prince still views himself as a prince, though he no longer looks like one. This border-case leads to the problematic thought that since personal identity is based on consciousness, and that only oneself can be aware of his consciousness, exterior human judges may never know if they really are judgingand punishingthe same person, or simply the same body. Locke argues that one may be judged for the actions of one's body rather than one's soul, and only God knows how to correctly judge a man's actions. Men also are only responsible for the acts of which they are conscious. This forms the basis of the insanity defense which argues that one cannot be held accountable for acts in which they were unconsciously irrational, or mentally ill[41] In reference to man's personality, Locke claims that "whatever past actions it cannot reconcile or appropriate to that present self by consciousness, it can be no more concerned in it than if they had never been done: and to receive pleasure or pain, i.e. reward or punishment, on the account of any such action, is all one as to be made happy or miserable in its first being, without any demerit at all."[42]

The medical term for not being aware of one's deficits is anosognosia, or more commonly known as a lack of insight. Having a lack of awareness raises the risks of treatment and service nonadherence.[43] Individuals who deny having an illness may be against seeking professional help because they are convinced that nothing is wrong with them. Disorders of self-awareness frequently follow frontal lobe damage.[44] There are two common methods used to measure how severe an individual's lack of self-awareness is. The Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS) evaluates self-awareness in patients who have endured a traumatic brain injury.[45] PCRS is a 30-item self-report instrument which asks the subject to use a 5-point Likert scale to rate his or her degree of difficulty in a variety of tasks and functions. Independently, relatives or significant others who know the patient well are also asked to rate the patient on each of the same behavioral items. The difference between the relatives and patient's perceptions is considered an indirect measure of impaired self-awareness. The limitations of this experiment rest on the answers of the relatives. Results of their answers can lead to a bias. This limitation prompted a second method of testing a patient's self-awareness. Simply asking a patient why they are in the hospital or what is wrong with their body can give compelling answers as to what they see and are analyzing.[46]

Dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder is a disorder involving a disturbance of identity in which two or more separate and distinct personality states (or identities) control an individual's behavior at different times.[47] One identity may be different from another, and when an individual with DID is under the influence of one of their identities, they may forget their experiences when they switch to the other identity. "When under the control of one identity, a person is usually unable to remember some of the events that occurred while other personalities were in control."[48] They may experience time loss, amnesia, and adopt different mannerisms, attitudes, speech and ideas under different personalities. They are often unaware of the different lives they lead or their condition in general, feeling as though they are looking at their life through the lens of someone else, and even being unable to recognize themselves in a mirror.[49] Two cases of DID have brought awareness to the disorder, the first case being that of Eve. This patient harbored three different personalities: Eve White the good wife and mother, Eve Black the party girl, and Jane the intellectual. Under stress, her episodes would worsen. She even tried to strangle her own daughter and had no recollection of the act afterward. Eve went through years of therapy before she was able to learn how to control her alters and be mindful of her disorder and episodes. Her condition, being so rare at the time, inspired the book and film adaptation The Three Faces of Eve, as well as a memoir by Eve herself entitled I'm Eve. Doctors speculated that growing up during the Depression and witnessing horrific things being done to other people could have triggered emotional distress, periodic amnesia, and eventually DID.[50] In the second case, Shirley Mason, or Sybil, was described as having over 16 separate personalities with different characteristics and talents. Her accounts of horrific and sadistic abuse by her mother during childhood prompted doctors to believe that this trauma caused her personalities to split, furthering the unproven idea that this disorder was rooted in child abuse, while also making the disorder famous. In 1998 however, Sybil's case was exposed as a sham. Her therapist would encourage Sybil to act as her other alter ego although she felt perfectly like herself. Her condition was exaggerated in order to seal book deals and television adaptations.[51] Awareness of this disorder began to crumble shortly after this finding. To this day, no proven cause of DID has been found, but treatments such as psychotherapy, medications, hypnotherapy, and adjunctive therapies have proven to be very effective.[52]

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disabilities that can adversely impact social communication and create behavioral challenges (Understanding Autism, 2003).[53] "Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors."[54] ASDs can also cause imaginative abnormalities and can range from mild to severe, especially in sensory-motor, perceptual and affective dimensions.[55] Children with ASD may struggle with self-awareness and self acceptance. Their different thinking patterns and brain processing functions in the area of social thinking and actions may compromise their ability to understand themselves and social connections to others.[56] About 75% diagnosed autistics are mentally handicapped in some general way and the other 25% diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome show average to good cognitive functioning.[57] When we compare our own behavior to the morals and values that we were taught, we can focus more attention on ourselves which increases self-awareness. To understand the many effects of autism spectrum disorders on those afflicted have led many scientists to theorize what level of self-awareness occurs and in what degree. Research found that ASD can be associated with intellectual disability and difficulties in motor coordination and attention. It can also result in physical health issues as well, such as sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances. As a result of all those problems, individuals are literally unaware of themselves.[58] It is well known that children suffering from varying degrees of autism struggle in social situations. Scientists at the University of Cambridge have produced evidence that self-awareness is a main problem for people with ASD. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance scans (FMRI) to measure brain activity in volunteers being asked to make judgments about their own thoughts, opinions, preferences, as well as about someone else's. One area of the brain closely examined was the ventromedial pre-frontal cortex (vMPFC) which is known to be active when people think about themselves.[59]

A study out of Stanford University has tried to map out brain circuits with understanding self-awareness in Autism Spectrum Disorders.[60] This study suggests that self-awareness is primarily lacking in social situations but when in private they are more self-aware and present. It is in the company of others while engaging in interpersonal interaction that the self-awareness mechanism seems to fail. Higher functioning individuals on the ASD scale have reported that they are more self-aware when alone unless they are in sensory overload or immediately following social exposure.[61] Self-awareness dissipates when an autistic is faced with a demanding social situation. This theory suggests that this happens due to the behavioral inhibitory system which is responsible for self-preservation. This is the system that prevents human from self-harm like jumping out of a speeding bus or putting our hand on a hot stove. Once a dangerous situation is perceived then the behavioral inhibitory system kicks in and restrains our activities. "For individuals with ASD, this inhibitory mechanism is so powerful, it operates on the least possible trigger and shows an over sensitivity to impending danger and possible threats.[61] Some of these dangers may be perceived as being in the presence of strangers, or a loud noise from a radio. In these situations self-awareness can be compromised due to the desire of self preservation, which trumps social composure and proper interaction.

The Hobson hypothesis reports that autism begins in infancy due to the lack of cognitive and linguistic engagement which in turn results in impaired reflective self-awareness. In this study ten children with Asperger's Syndrome were examined using the Self-understanding Interview. This interview was created by Damon and Hart and focuses on seven core areas or schemas that measure the capacity to think in increasingly difficult levels. This interview will estimate the level of self understanding present. "The study showed that the Asperger group demonstrated impairment in the 'self-as-object' and 'self-as-subject domains of the Self-understanding Interview, which supported Hobson's concept of an impaired capacity for self-awareness and self-reflection in people with ASD.".[62] Self-understanding is a self description in an individual's past, present and future. Without self-understanding it is reported that self-awareness is lacking in people with ASD.

Joint attention (JA) was developed as a teaching strategy to help increase positive self-awareness in those with autism spectrum disorder.[63] JA strategies were first used to directly teach about reflected mirror images and how they relate to their reflected image. Mirror Self Awareness Development (MSAD) activities were used as a four-step framework to measure increases in self-awareness in those with ASD. Self-awareness and knowledge is not something that can simply be taught through direct instruction. Instead, students acquire this knowledge by interacting with their environment.[63] Mirror understanding and its relation to the development of self leads to measurable increases in self-awareness in those with ASD. It also proves to be a highly engaging and highly preferred tool in understanding the developmental stages of self- awareness.

There have been many different theories and studies done on what degree of self-awareness is displayed among people with autism spectrum disorder. Scientists have done research about the various parts of the brain associated with understanding self and self-awareness. Studies have shown evidence of areas of the brain that are impacted by ASD. Other theories suggest that helping an individual learn more about themselves through Joint Activities, such as the Mirror Self Awareness Development may help teach positive self-awareness and growth. In helping to build self-awareness it is also possible to build self-esteem and self acceptance. This in turn can help to allow the individual with ASD to relate better to their environment and have better social interactions with others.

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric illness characterized by excessive dopamine activity in the mesolimbic tract and insufficient dopamine activity in the mesocortical tract leading to symptoms of psychosis along with poor cognition in socialization. Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, people with schizophrenia have a combination of positive, negative and psychomotor symptoms. These cognitive disturbances involve rare beliefs and/or thoughts of a distorted reality that creates an abnormal pattern of functioning for the patient. Multiple studies have investigated this issue. Although it has been studied and proven that schizophrenia is hereditary,[64] most patients that inherit this gene are not aware of their disorder, regardless of their family history. It is believed that Schizophrenia, in individuals of a family history of the disease, can be triggered by stressful life events.[65] The level of self-awareness among patients with schizophrenia is a heavily studied topic.

Schizophrenia as a disease state is characterized by severe cognitive dysfunction and it is uncertain to what extent patients are aware of this deficiency. Medalia and Lim (2004),[66] investigated patients awareness of their cognitive deficit in the areas of attention, nonverbal memory, and verbal memory. Results from this study (N=185) revealed large discrepancy in patients assessment of their cognitive functioning relative to the assessment of their clinicians. Though it is impossible to access ones consciousness and truly understand what a schizophrenic believes, regardless in this study, patients were not aware of their cognitive dysfunctional reasoning. In the DSM-5, to receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia, they must have two or more of the following symptoms in the duration of one month: delusions*, hallucinations*, disorganized speech*, grossly disorganized/catatonic behavior and negative symptoms (*these three symptoms above all other symptoms must be present to correctly diagnose a patient.) Sometimes these symptoms are very prominent and are treated with a combination of antipsychotics (i.e. haloperidol, loxapine), atypical antipsychotics (such as clozapine and risperdone) and psychosocial therapies that include family interventions and socials skills. When a patient is undergoing treatment and recovering from the disorder, the memory of their behavior is present in a diminutive amount; thus, self-awareness of diagnoses of schizophrenia after treatment is rare, as well as subsequent to onset and prevalence in the patient.

The above findings are further supported by a study conducted by Amador and colleagues.[67] The study suggests a correlation exists between patient insight, compliance and disease progression. Investigators assess insight of illness was assessed via Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder and was used along with rating of psychopathology, course of illness, and compliance with treatments in a sample of 43 patients. Patients with poor insight are less likely to be compliant with treatment and are more likely to have a poorer prognosis. Patients with hallucinations sometimes experience positive symptoms, which can include delusions of reference, thought insertion/withdrawal, thought broadcast, delusions of persecution, grandiosity and many more. These psychoses skew the patient's perspectives of reality in ways in which they truly believe are really happening. For instance, a patient that is experiencing delusions of reference may believe while watching the weather forecast that when the weatherman says it will rain, he is really sending a message to the patient in which rain symbolizes a specific warning completely irrelevant to what the weather is. Another example would be thought broadcast, which is when a patient believes that everyone can hear their thoughts. These positive symptoms sometimes are so severe to where the schizophrenic believes that something is crawling on them or smelling something that is not there in reality. These strong hallucinations are intense and difficult to convince the patient that they do not exist outside of their cognitive beliefs, making it extremely difficult for a patient to understand and become self-aware that what they are experiencing is in fact not there.

Furthermore, a study by Bedford and Davis[68] (2013) was conducted to look at the association of denial vs. acceptance of multiple facets of schizophrenia (self reflection, self perception and insight) and its effect on self-reflection (N=26). Study results suggest patients with increased disease denial have lower recollection for self evaluated mental illnesses. To a great extent, disease denial creates a hardship for patients to undergo recovery because their feelings and sensations are intensely outstanding. But just as this and the above studies imply, a large proportion of schizophrenics do not have self-awareness of their illness for many factors and severity of reasoning of their diagnoses.

Bipolar disorder is an illness that causes shifts in mood, energy, and ability to function. Self-awareness is crucial in those suffering from this disease, as they must be able to distinguish between feeling a certain way because of the disorder or because of separate issues. "Personality, behavior, and dysfunction affect your bipolar disorder, so you must 'know' yourself in order to make the distinction."[69] This disorder is a difficult one to diagnose, as self-awareness changes with mood. "For instance, what might appear to you as confidence and clever ideas for a new business venture might be a pattern of grandiose thinking and manic behavior".[70] Issues occur between understanding irrationality in a mood swing and being completely wrapped in a manic episode, rationalizing that the exhibited behaviors are normal.

Bodily (Self-)Awareness [1] is related to Proprioception (& Visualization).

According to a British survey, managers have a gap in self-awareness. Managers rate their own performance far higher than their team members do.[71]

Theater also concerns itself with other awareness besides self-awareness. There is a possible correlation between the experience of the theater audience and individual self-awareness. As actors and audiences must not "break" the fourth wall in order to maintain context, so individuals must not be aware of the artificial, or the constructed perception of his or her reality. This suggests that both self-awareness and the social constructs applied to others are artificial continuums just as theater is. Theatrical efforts such as Six Characters in Search of an Author, or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, construct yet another layer of the fourth wall, but they do not destroy the primary illusion. Refer to Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience.[citation needed]

In science fiction, self-awareness describes an essential human property that often (depending on the circumstances of the story) bestows personhood onto a non-human. If a computer, alien or other object is described as "self-aware", the reader may assume that it will be treated as a completely human character, with similar rights, capabilities and desires to a normal human being.[72] The words "sentience", "sapience" and "consciousness" are used in similar ways in science fiction.

Go here to see the original:
Self-awareness - Wikipedia

The mirror test, sometimes called the mark test or the mirror self-recognition test (MSR), is a behavioural technique developed in 1970 by psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. as an attempt to determine whether a non-human animal possesses the ability of visual self-recognition.[1] The MSR test is the traditional method for attempting to measure self-awareness; however, there has been controversy whether the test is a true indicator.

In the classic MSR test, an animal is anaesthetised and then marked (e.g. painted, or a sticker attached) on an area of the body the animal cannot normally see. When the animal recovers from the anaesthetic, it is given access to a mirror. If the animal then touches or investigates the mark, it is taken as an indication that the animal perceives the reflected image as itself, rather than of another animal.

Very few species have passed the MSR test. As of 2016, only great apes (including humans), a single Asiatic elephant, dolphins, orcas, and the Eurasian magpie have passed the MSR test. A wide range of species has been reported to fail the test, including several monkey species, giant pandas, sea lions, and dogs.[2][3]

In 1970, Gordon Gallup, Jr., experimentally investigated the possibility of self-recognition with two male and two female wild pre-adolescent chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), none of which had presumably seen a mirror previously. Each chimpanzee was put into a room by itself for two days. Next, a full-length mirror was placed in the room for a total of 80 hours at periodically decreasing distances. A multitude of behaviours was recorded upon introducing the mirrors to the chimpanzees. Initially, the chimpanzees made threatening gestures at their own images, ostensibly seeing their own reflections as threatening. Eventually, the chimps used their own reflections for self-directed responding behaviours, such as grooming parts of their body previously not observed without a mirror, picking their noses, making faces, and blowing bubbles at their own reflections.

Gallup expanded the study by manipulating the chimpanzees' appearance and observing their reaction to their reflection in the mirror. Gallup anaesthetised the chimpanzees and then painted a red alcohol-soluble dye on the eyebrow ridge and on the top half of the opposite ear. When the dye dried, it had virtually no olfactory or tactile cues. Gallup then returned the chimpanzees to the cage (with the mirror removed) and allowed them to regain full consciousness. He then recorded the frequency with which the chimpanzees spontaneously touched the marked areas of skin. After 30 minutes, the mirror was re-introduced into the room and the frequency of touching the marked areas again determined. The frequency of touching increased to 4-10 with the mirror present, compared to only 1 when the mirror had been removed. The chimpanzees sometimes inspected their fingers visually or olfactorily after touching the marks. Other mark-directed behaviour includes turning and adjusting of the body to better view the mark in the mirror, or tactile examination of the mark with an appendage while viewing the mirror.[1]

An important aspect of the classical mark-test is that the mark/dye is non-tactile, preventing attention being drawn to the marking through additional perceptual cues (somesthesis). For this reason, animals in the majority of classical tests are anesthetised. Some tests, use a tactile marker.[4]

Animals that are considered to be able to recognise themselves in a mirror typically progress through four stages of behaviour when facing a mirror:[5]

Gallup conducted a follow-up study in which two chimpanzees with no prior experience of a mirror were put under anesthesia, marked and observed. After recovery, they made no mark-directed behaviours either before or after being provided with a mirror.[citation needed]

The inspiration for the mirror test comes from an anecdote about Charles Darwin and a captive orangutan. While visiting the London Zoo in 1838, Darwin observed an orangutan, named Jenny, throwing a tantrum after being teased with an apple by her keeper. This started him thinking about the subjective experience of an orangutan.[6] He also watched Jenny gaze into a mirror and noted the possibility that she recognised herself in the reflection.[7]

A large number of studies using a wide range of species have investigated the occurrence of spontaneous, mark-directed behaviour when given a mirror, as originally proposed by Gallup. Most marked animals given a mirror initially respond with social behaviour, such as aggressive displays, and continue to do so during repeated testing. Only a small number of species have touched or directed behaviour toward the mark, thereby passing the classic MSR test.

Findings in MSR studies are not always conclusive. Even in chimpanzees, the species most studied and with the most convincing findings, clear-cut evidence of self-recognition is not obtained in all individuals tested.[8] Prevalence is about 75% in young adults and considerably less in young and aging individuals.[9]

Until the study on magpies, self-recognition was thought to reside in the neocortex area of the brain. However, said brain region is absent in birds. Self-recognition in birds and mammals may be a case of convergent evolution, where similar evolutionary pressures result in similar behaviours or traits, although they arrive at them via different routes and the underlying mechanism may be different.[24]

A range of species have been exposed to mirrors. Although these might have failed the classic MSR test, they have sometimes shown mirror-related behaviour:

Two captive giant manta rays showed frequent, unusual and repetitive movements in front of a mirror suggested contingency checking. They also showed unusual self-directed behaviours when exposed to the mirror.[41]

The MSR test has been criticised for several reasons, in particular, because it may result in findings that are false negatives.[24]

The MSR test may be of limited value when applied to species that primarily use senses other than vision.[42][verification needed] For example, dogs mainly use olfaction and audition; vision is used only third. It is suggested this is why dogs fail the MSR test. With this in mind, the biologist Marc Bekoff developed a scent-based paradigm using dog urine to test self-recognition in canines.[19][42] He tested his own dog, but his results were inconclusive.[43] A 2015 study[44] suggested a new ethological approach, the Sniff test of self-recognition (STSR) which may shed light on different ways of checking for self-recognition.

Another concern with the MSR test is that some species quickly respond aggressively to their mirror reflection as if it were a threatening conspecific thereby preventing the animal to calmly consider what the reflection actually represents. It has been suggested this is the reason why gorillas and monkeys fail the MSR test.[45][46]

In a MSR test, animals may not recognise the mark as abnormal, or, may not be sufficiently motivated to react to it. However, this does not mean they are unable to recognise themselves. For example, in a MSR test conducted on three elephants, only one elephant passed the test but the two elephants that failed still demonstrated behaviours that can be interpreted as self-recognition. The researchers commented that the elephants might not have touched the mark because it was not important enough to them.[47] Similarly, lesser apes infrequently engage in self-grooming, which may explain their failure to touch a mark on their head in the mirror test.[24]

Primates, other than the great apes, have so far universally failed the mirror test. However, mirror tests with three species of gibbon (Hylobates syndactylus, H.gabriellae, H. leucogenys) have shown convincing evidence of self-recognition despite the fact that the animals failed the standard version of the mirror test.[48]

Rhesus macaques have failed the MSR test, but use mirrors to study otherwise-hidden parts of their bodies, such as their genitals and the implants in their heads. It has been suggested this demonstrates at least a partial self-awareness, although this is disputed.[49]

Pigs can use visual information seen in a mirror to find food, and show evidence of self-recognition when presented with their reflection. In an experiment, 7 of the 8 pigs tested were able to find a bowl of food hidden behind a wall and revealed using a mirror. The eighth pig looked behind the mirror for the food.[50] BBC Earth also showed the foodbowl test, and the "matching shapes to holes" test, in the Extraordinary Animals series.[51]

Pigeons are capable of passing a highly modified mirror test, but only after extensive training.[52][53] In the experiment, a pigeon was trained to look in a mirror to find a response key behind it, which the pigeon then turned to peck to obtain food. Thus, the pigeon learned to use a mirror to find critical elements of its environment. Next, the pigeon was trained to peck at dots placed on its feathers; food was, again, the consequence of touching the dot. The latter training was accomplished in the absence of the mirror. The final test was placing a small bib on the pigeonenough to cover a dot placed on its lower belly. A control period without the mirror present yielded no pecking at the dot. When the mirror was revealed, the pigeon became active, looked in the mirror and then tried to peck on the dot under the bib. However, untrained pigeons have never passed the mirror test.[54]

Manta rays repeatedly swim in front of the mirror, turning over to show their undersides and moving their fins. When in front of the mirror, they blow bubbles, an unusual behaviour. They do not try to socially interact with the mirror image, suggesting that they recognise that the mirror image is not another ray. However, a classic mirror test using marks on the rays bodies has yet to be done.[55]

In 2012, early steps were taken to make a robot pass the mirror test.[56]

The rouge test is a version of the mirror test used with children.[57] Using rouge makeup, an experimenter surreptitiously places a dot on the face of the child. The child is then placed in front of a mirror and their reactions are monitored; depending on the child's development, distinct categories of responses are demonstrated. This test is widely cited as the primary measure for mirror self-recognition in human children.[58][59][60]

From the age of 6 to 12 months, the child typically sees a "sociable playmate" in the mirror's reflection. Self-admiring and embarrassment usually begin at 12 months, and at 14 to 20 months most children demonstrate avoidance behaviours.[57] Finally, at 18 months half of children recognise the reflection in the mirror as their own[58] and by 20 to 24 months self-recognition climbs to 65%. Children do so by evincing mark-directed behaviour; they touch their own nose or try to wipe the mark off.[57]

It appears that self-recognition in mirrors is independent of familiarity with reflecting surfaces.[59] In some cases the rouge test has been shown to have differing results, depending on sociocultural orientation. For example, a Cameroonian Nso sample of infants 18 to 20 months of age had an extremely low amount of self-recognition outcomes at 3.2%. The study also found two strong predictors of self-recognition: object stimulation (maternal effort of attracting the attention of the infant to an object either person touched) and mutual eye contact.[61] A strong correlation between self-concept and object permanence have also been demonstrated using the rouge test.[62]

The rouge test is a measure of self-concept; the child who touches the rouge on his own nose upon looking into a mirror demonstrates the basic ability to understand self-awareness.[63][64][65] Animals,[42] young children,[20] and people who have their sight restored after being blind from birth,[19] sometimes react to their reflection in the mirror as though it were another individual[citation needed].

Theorists have remarked on the significance of this period in a child's life. For example, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan used a similar test in marking the mirror stage when growing up.[66] Current views of the self in psychology position the self as playing an integral part in human motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity.[60]

There is some debate as to the interpretation of the results of the mirror test,[42] and researchers in one study have identified some potential problems with the test as a means of gauging self-awareness in young children.[67]

Proposing that a self-recognising child may not demonstrate mark-directed behaviour because they are not motivated to clean up their faces, thus providing incorrect results, the study compared results of the standard rouge test methodology against a modified version of the test.[67]

In the classic test, the experimenter first played with the children, making sure that they looked in the mirror at least three times. Then, the rouge test was performed using a dot of rouge below the child's right eye. For their modified testing, the experimenter introduced a doll with a rouge spot under its eye and asked the child to help clean the doll. The experimenter would ask up to three times before cleaning the doll themselves. The doll was then put away, and the mirror test performed using a rouge dot on the child's face. These modifications were shown to increase the number of self-recognisers.[67]

The results uncovered by this study at least suggest some issues with the classic mirror test; primarily, that it assumes that children will recognise the dot of rouge as abnormal and attempt to examine or remove it. The classic test may have produced false negatives, because the child's recognition of the dot did not lead to them cleaning it. In their modified test, in which the doll was cleaned first, they found a stronger relationship between cleaning the doll's face and the child cleaning its own face. The demonstration with the doll, postulated to demonstrate to the children what to do, may lead to more reliable confirmation of self-recognition.[67]

On a more general level, it remains debatable whether recognition of one's mirror image implies self-awareness.[67]

See more here:
Mirror test - Wikipedia