Universal Human Commonalities (UHC)

Memory

Memory relates to the "storage and retrieval" of information. This information can be visual, experiential, acoustic, and or semantic. Scientists are currently studying the neurological processes that facilitate memory. Although some progress has been made, due to the incredibly complex nature of the physiological aspect of memory, more research is required to completely understand this phenomena. Memory is generally divided into short-term (0-30 seconds) and long-term memory. Adults generally can remember from 5 to 9 items in their short-term memory.

Risk-taking

Risk-taking is an intriguing human behavior and "in nearly all walks of life. Asking someone on a date, accepting a challenging work assignment, raising a sensitive issue with a spouse or a friend, confronting an abusive boss--all involve uncertain outcomes, and present some level of risk." Although somewhat counter-intuitive, some scientist hypothesize that risk taking is integral to survival and success. Other scientists and their research data suggest that extreme risk-takers often have emotional and addictive problems.

Morality: emotion and utility

Moral dilemmas pose an interesting intellectual question for all people, especially ethicists, psychologists and neurologists. Often moral dilemmas involve two or more conflicting options, offering a mixture of the emotionally driven and utilitarian elements (where benefitting a greater quantity of people can result from the detriment of a few individuals' welfare).

Pain

Pain is often thought to be a purely physical experience. However, the psychological state of the individual can greatly affect the sensation of pain. Experiments illustrate that mental expectations and conditioning affect the intensity of a painful sensation. Neurologically pain and relief from pain are experienced through a complex system that employs many regions of the nervous system including various hormones, sections of the brain and the mu opioid receptors. Pain reduction has been found to correlate directly with reward expectation and intense fear for survival.

Defense Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are defined as unconscious processes that protect people from psychological and environmental stresses. Freud stated that defense mechanisms are the ego's method of handling overwhelming stress. The enumeration of the different varieties of defense mechanisms has generated numerous theories.

Pride

The emotion of pride can have both positive and negative aspects. "Hubristic pride" is the over inflation of one's ego which can lead to negative social effects. "Specific or achievement-oriented pride," pride developed from the approval of the community due to an accomplishment, has been theorized to serve as an engine of positive social consequences. One such positive consequence supported by experimental data is the "motivational hypothesis of pride." This hypothesis states that pride serves as a motivation for persevering to achieve a goal even when faced with "short-term losses."

Self-control

"Self-control is the ability of the self to alter itself" and its responses to stimuli. This ability is particularly useful in learning to adapt to different environments and cultures. It has also been found that children who are able to perform self-control grow up to be more successful as adults than their less disciplined contemporaries. This success is evident in an individual's health, relationships, academics and financial status. Societal benefits include lower crime rates. Although the benefits of self-control are numerous, there are several "costs" of self-control.

Shame

Shame is a universal emotion among humans. As it manifests in many different forms, the concept of shame has not been standardized within the academic field of psychology. However, a general definition of shame would be a "global negative evaluation of self." This emotion is often accompanied by behavior patterns that repair one's mood or social self image, such as an increase in social insensitivity and narcissism (via aggression or blaming others) or an attempt to enhance self esteem by "acting independently."

Socialization

Extremely social creatures, humans have developed highly sophisticated and intricate methods to nurture the "social, emotional and cognitive skills" that support this evolutionary attribute. Socialization, therefore, encompasses many different rules, functions and results. Due to the importance of socialization in child development, many theories regarding this mechanism have been formed, many of which seem contradictory.

Preferences

Having preferences is an important component of an individual's decision-making process. These preferences affect all aspects of life including the artistic, romantic and consumer components. Although having preferences is universal, how people develop particular preferences is a controversial subject in psychology. Some forms of preference are genetically determined but most are learnt. Within the model of learnt preferences, associative learning is when a preferential response is based on the pairing of stimuli.

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