Bertrand Russell - Message To Future Generations (1959)

The philosopher Bertrand Russell's message from 60+ years ago is more important today than ever before.  A message worth sharing for future generations!

Cheers, 

Colin

Longitudinal Study on Long COVID

One of the most puzzling, and often misunderstood and politicized, aspects of the recent pandemic is long-Covid.  The latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine has this interesting longitudinal study (meaning it is an observational study) of long COVID.  

The study compared 189 persons who were confirmed to have had COVID (and 55% of those participants also reported symptoms of long COVID) with 120 participants who never had COVID (and yet 12% of even this group reported symptoms consistent with long COVID!).   Both groups were then subjected to an extensive array of physical exams and tests of biological functioning.  These lab tests did not reveal any identifiable biological differences between the two groups.  The two factors that did predict a higher incidence of long COVID symptoms were being a woman and having a history of anxiety disorder.      

The results of the study:

189 persons with laboratory-documented COVID-19 (12% of whom were hospitalized during acute illness) and 120 antibody-negative control participants were enrolled. At enrollment, symptoms consistent with PASC were reported by 55% of the COVID-19 cohort and 13% of control participants. Increased risk for PASC was noted in women and those with a history of anxiety disorder. Participants with findings meeting the definition of PASC reported lower quality of life on standardized testing. Abnormal findings on physical examination and diagnostic testing were uncommon. Neutralizing antibody levels to spike protein were negative in 27% of the unvaccinated COVID-19 cohort and none of the vaccinated COVID-19 cohort. Exploratory studies found no evidence of persistent viral infection, autoimmunity, or abnormal immune activation in participants with PASC.

Cheers, 

Colin 

The Impact of Hugs

This PLOS ONE study found that hugs among romantic partners reduced stress levels in women but not in men.  The abstract:

Stress is omnipresent in our everyday lives. It is therefore critical to identify potential stress-buffering behaviors that can help to prevent the negative effects of acute stress in daily life. Massages, a form of social touch, are an effective buffer against both the endocrinological and sympathetic stress response in women. However, for other forms of social touch, potential stress-buffering effects have not been investigated in detail. Furthermore, the possible stress-buffering effects of social touch on men have not been researched so far. The present study focused on embracing, one of the most common forms of social touch across many cultures. We used a short-term embrace between romantic partners as a social touch intervention prior to the induction of acute stress via the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test. Women who embraced their partner prior to being stressed showed a reduced cortisol response compared to a control group in which no embrace occurred. No stress-buffering effect could be observed in men. No differences between the embrace and control group were observed regarding sympathetic nervous system activation measured via blood pressure or subjective affect ratings. These findings suggest that in women, short-term embraces prior to stressful social situations such as examinations or stressful interviews can reduce the cortisol response in that situation.

Cheers 

Colin

Socio-economic status, the brain and nature/nurture

A new, fascinating study of over 23K individuals who had undergone both MRI and genotyping, to see how socio-economic (e.g. income, education, occupation, and neighborhood quality) status relates to brain anatomy. Complex story of both genes and environment, with some significant implications for future strategies to tackle inequality. A sample:

"In an age of growing inequality and socioeconomic disparities in health, achievement, and wellbeing, understanding the neural embedding of SES has social as well as scientific relevance. Poverty and social deprivation are associated with widespread regional reductions of GMV, which the present results confirm with unprecedented certainty and anatomical specificity. A novel implication of our findings is that this association can be explained in part, but only in part, by genetic predisposition to different degrees across the brain...

....For policy purposes, genetic influences should not be taken as a sign of intractability (36, 39). Rather, our findings imply that biological and social factors both contribute to neural disparities and that policy interventions may influence and interact with biological factors. While it would be premature to base specific policies on our results, future research in this direction could provide insights that can be translated into targeted interventions [see (40) for an in-depth discussion]. For example, further insights into whether cognitive stimulation during early life or anti-poverty policies (13, 41, 42) reduce neural disparities would be valuable."

Cheers,

Colin

JAMA study on Alcohol Use Disorder–Related Mortality During the Pandemic

 JAMA has this important research letter which details the increase in alcohol use disorder-mortality during the pandemic in the US. A sample from the findings:  

There were 343 384 AUD-related deaths between 2012 and 2021. We stratified these deaths into decedent groups by age (25 to 44 years, 56 985 [16.6%]; 45 to 64 years, 192 346 [56.0%]; and ≥65 years, 94 053 [27.4%]) and by sex (266 755 men [77.7%]). By comparing observed and projected mortality rates, we noticed a surge in AUD mortality both overall and among all subgroups during the pandemic (Figure and Table). The observed AUD-related mortality rates increased by 24.79% in 2020 and 21.95% in 2021 vs the projected rates. Increased mortality rates were evident even when AUD was set as the underlying cause of death (30.74% in 2020 vs 28.77% in 2021).

.... Younger persons, particularly those aged 25 to 44 years, had the steepest upward trend. The small proportion of COVID-19–related deaths suggests that excess deaths were more likely attributable to indirect effects of the pandemic such as stay-at-home policies and reduced medical and social resources for patients with AUD.

Cheers 

Colin

Teaching Large Lecture Classes (20 year Anniversary)

 

Teaching large (200+ students) lecture classes has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my 23 year academic career.  If you had told me this back at the start of my career (when I was very a quite and very nervous instructor) I would not have been very skeptical.  It took a good 5-10 years of giving large lectures for me to really find my stride and comfort zone with them.  I am very glad that I stuck with it as I really do enjoy teaching these large lecture courses.

In this post I just wanted to detail what I have taught in terms of large lectures only, to remind me of the interesting places and topics, and the volume of students, I have had the good fortune to teach over the past two decades.

My first large lecture class was an Introduction to the history of political thought at Manchester University, for a class of 320 first year students.  And it was a team taught course, with 3-4 colleagues responsible for a few thinkers each.  I then taught the first year Intro to Politics course for 200 students each year at UW.  And since joining Queen’s I have taught both the fall and winter terms of our mandatory second year course Intro to Political Theory for 250-275 students every year except when on sabbatical (2013 and fall 2018). I think that puts the number at approximately 5000 different students, at those 3 universities.  The number would be much higher if I included the smaller classes I have also taught.  But I was moved to reflect on large lecture teaching since I have not had the opportunity to do that since March 2020 when the campus first closed because of the pandemic.  

2002 Manchester University, History of Political Thought, 1^st year course, 325 students

2003 Manchester University, Freedom and Equality, 2^nd year course, 200 students

            2003 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

            2004 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

            2005 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

            2007 Waterloo University, Introduction to Politics, 1^st year course, 200 students

2009 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2010 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2010 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2011 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2011 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2012 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2012 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (fall)

2013 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 250 students (winter)

2014 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

2015 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

2016 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

2016 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

2017 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

2018 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

2019 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

[virtual] 2020 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

[virtual] 2020 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

[virtual] 2021 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (fall)

[virtual] 2022 Queen’s University, Introduction to Political Theory, 2^nd year course, 275 students (winter)

 

This coming fall term I anticipate teaching my second year course in-person to approximately 275 students.  This year it will only be a one semester course, with the second semester being offered as a third year course starting in 2024.  

So I look forward to experiencing the joy and engagement of giving large lectures again!  I have really missed it and engaging with the students in-person.

 

Cheers,

Colin 

Summer Reading Group 2022: FLOW (post #1)

This summer my PhilosophyMeetup group  is doing a reading group of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.  So I will post 3 blog posts on this book, to summarize some insights from the chapters we are reading and come up with a few questions for the group members to ponder before we meet.

Csikszentmihalyi begins Flow by noting that this book is not written as a popular book with promised secrets for being happy.  No such book could exist because, argues Csikszentmihalyi, “the joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe” (xi).  What the book does offer is it presents general principles, and some concrete examples of how these principles have been used, which can add joy and meaning to our lives.  The book summarizes decades of research on these topics.

Chapter 1 begins by noting the profound insight of one of my favourite philosophers- Aristotle- who claimed that happiness has intrinsic value and that other goals- like wealth, power and health- are pursued because we expect them to make us happy.  Despite the significant improvements in our health and economic prospects since the time of the Ancient Greeks, the problems of anxiety and boredom remain. 

Csikszentmihalyi states from the start one of the key insights he has learned from studying when people feel most happy- “It does not depend on external events [e.g. good fortune], but, rather, on how we interpret them” (2).

Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person.  People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy. (2)

            The path to more joy, meaning and fulfillment in life, argues Csikszentmihalyi, begins by achieving more control over the contents of our consciousness.  The focus of Chapter 1 is on consciousness- how does consciousness work? And how is it controlled?

            “The function of consciousness is to represent information about what is happening outside and inside the organism in such a way that it can be evaluated and acted upon in the body” (24).  It is consciousness that allows us to daydream and write fiction and love poems.  Csikszentmihalyi argues that the most important trait in life is the ability to preserve through adversity, “to transform hopeless situations into challenges to overcome” (24).  To be able to exercise this trait, Csikszentmihalyi believes we must find ways to order our consciousness, so that we have some control over our thoughts and feelings.  He emphasizes the importance of psychic energy and focused attention.  When we drive down the highway we pass hundreds of cars without ever really noticing anything about any particular car.  If someone asked you how many yellow cars, or large trucks, you drove past in the last 30 minutes of driving we would be strained to make an estimated guess.  This is because such details do not enter our consciousness, or if they do they are at the margins of it and thus quickly forgotten.  This would of course change if we played a game, as I use to as a kid with my siblings on long family drives, to see how many yellow vehicles drove by us on the highway.  In that case our attention was focused on the colour of the vehicles around us.  In fact, we often would get immersed in this game, which made the long drives pass more quickly.  It was more fun to play this game than stare off into the open sky waiting for the long family drives to be over.

            Csikszentmihalyi claims that it is helpful to think of our attention as psychic energy.  And “we create ourselves by how we invest this energy” (33).   “Disorder in consciousness” is the label Csikszentmihalyi gives to psychic entropy, often manifest as anxiety, fear, rage etc.  Such psychic disorders arise when “information conflicts with existing intentions, or distracts us from carrying them out” (36).  For example, consider two examples of psychic entropy, one in the work place and the other in dating.  In work a person may be distracted from their work because they are too focused on a co-worker they have some conflict with, or an upcoming work assignment deadline.  Ruminating about these aspects of work can distract one from actually doing one’s work, and create more negative moods/experiences than need be. 

In the context of dating consider the anxious person who goes on a first few dates with a new potential romantic partner but wants reassurances that the other person is serious about them or that they are a good long-term match.  These anxieties compel them to interview or interrogate the love prospect vs having fun and simply being present to the dating experience without an attachment to the outcome of the dating process.  Such anxious/controlling behaviours can actually repeal vs attract potential romantic partners.  It is called “falling in love” because deep and meaningful emotional connections take time to grow and develop, and they cannot be forced by anyone. 

            Csikszentmihalyi argues that prolonged exposure to psychic entropy can weaken our sense of self, so that we no longer invest our attention in the fulfillment of work or finding a potential partner.

            The opposite state of psychic entropy is optimal experience.  This occurs “when the information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals” (39).  This as a process in which our physic energy/attention is invested in realistic goals, and when our skills match opportunities for action (6).   We achieve flow in such a state. Csikszentmihalyi gives the example of a factory worker named Rico.  Rico worked on an assembly line and, like an Olympic athlete, he aspired to improve his time and skills so that over the years he has become more proficient with performing the same task hundreds of times a day.  Rather that finding his work boring and being detached from the activity, Rico’s state of mind helps him become immersed in the activity.

            Csikszentmihalyi claims that following the flow state our organization of the self becomes more complex.  This is due to two psychological processes- differentiation and integration.  Differentiation is a process by which we separate ourselves from others, whereas integration is the opposite of this and involves a union with others.  “A complex self is one that succeeds in combining these opposing tendencies" (41). Flow facilitates differentiation because we feel more unique as our skills are fined and developed.  And flow facilitates integration because it involves activities that make us experience a harmony with other people and the world.

Chapter 3 is devoted to the themes of enjoyment and quality of life.   Csikszentmihalyi contends that there are two main strategies that we can deploy to improve the quality of life, and the key is to utilize both vs opting for just one of the two.  One strategy is to try to shape the external conditions of life to match our goals.  The second strategy is to change how we experience external conditions to make them better fit our goals.  He provides the example of security.  To feel more secure a person might buy a gun, never go out late at night, pressure the local municipality to do more to tackle city crime, etc.  Such strategies fixate on trying to align the external environment with the goal of feeling secure.  A different strategy is to modify our beliefs and understanding of what security is.  We may accept that a sense of perfect security is illusory, that accepting some degree of risk to our safety is inevitable in life.

            Csikszentmihalyi makes a contrast between pleasure and enjoyment.  “Pleasure is a feeling of contentment that one achieves whenever information in consciousness says the expectations set by biological programs or by social conditioning have been met” (45).  An example would be the pleasant feeling we enjoy when eating a meal we like when hungry.  By contrast, enjoyable events “occur when a person has not only met some prior expectation or satisfied a need or desire but also gone beyond what he or she has been programmed to do and achieved something unexpected, perhaps something even unimagined before” (46).  Such events possess a forward movement, they elicit a sense of novelty or accomplishment.  For example, playing in a competitive sporting event, or reading a book that opens our minds to new insights.  Or engaging in a challenging intellectual discussion and debate that compels us to express beliefs or assumptions we did not realize we held. 

            Pleasure can be experienced with minimal or no effort- stick the chocolate in your mouth, chew and swallow!  But enjoyment cannot be realized in this way.  Csikszentmihalyi claims that enjoyment cannot be realized unless our attention is fully concentrated on the activity (e.g. reading, conversing or playing).

            Csikszentmihalyi identifies the following 8 major components of enjoyment:   

1.     The experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing.

2.     We must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.

3.     The concentration is possible because the task undertaken has clear goals.

4.     The task provides immediate feedback.

5.     One acts with deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.

6.     They allow us to exercise a sense of control over our actions.

7.     Concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.

8.     The sense of duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours. (49)

“The combination of all these elements causes a sense of deep enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it” (49).

As an academic I am very fortunate to have a career that permits me to enjoy a “flow” intense life.  I will expand on the examples of writing academic journal articles and teaching.  When I sit down to write a new journal article I believe I have some chance of accomplishing this task.  I have published over 50 articles in the past.  But success is not guaranteed.  Most journals have a high rejection rate, especially in the top ranked journals.  So the process often involves many (often very painful) rejections and revisions before being realized.  Writing can also take a long time.  The longest time it took me to research, write and revise before appearing in print a journal article was this piece that took 9 years, and this book took 16 years.  By contrast this piece was my quickest, which only took a long weekend to write (but then 2 more years to appear in print).  Writing academic research takes immense concentration, and there are clear goals (i.e. publication, advancing the debates in a novel direction, contributing new insights/arguments, etc.).  There is (often delayed vs immediate) feedback.  Referee feedback on my journal submissions have ranged from 4 days to over 12 months.  Academics do get to exercise a sense of control over our actions, referees and editors may encourage, even demand, revisions before acceptance but the decision to make these changes are ultimately up to us.  My sense of self nearly disappears when I am in the intense creative stage of writing.  3-4 days may pass and I have really loss sense of what day in the week it is, or I forget to have a meal, clean the house, etc.  I am so immersed in the activity other things fade, temporarily, from my consciousness until I work out my ideas.  I cannot stay in this stage indefinitely (3-4 days at most), and I need a break once I have the breakthrough that enables me to get most of my ideas worked out in writing.

 I also experience a sense of flow in teaching, especially in my large lecture course of around 270 students.  Lecturing requires giving attention to the material, being attuned to the audience (ready to answer questions), the puzzled looks, or laughs at my jokes provide immediate feedback. The time (at least for me, the student experience may be very different!) often flies by and I cannot believe the 2 hour class is over so quickly.  I have not given a large lecture since March 2020 and miss it dearly.  It adds so much enjoyment to my life, online teaching does not replicate the enjoyment experience of in-class lecturing.  I can experience some elements of flow recording a video lecture (it does require great concentration, etc.) but it lacks the social interaction which is a crucial element of the Socratic nature of in-person teaching.

To encourage the reading group members to think of some concrete personal examples that engage with the material in the first three chapters of the book I invite you to ponder the following 3 questions:

1. Can you think of examples from your own personal life where either your control or lack of control of your inner experiences impacted the quality of your life?  Perhaps examples from jobs you did at work, or personal relationships, or hobbies. For me I can think of many summer jobs I did that involved tedious manual labour that I made more engaging for myself by trying to improve and outperform myself [like the example of Rico in the book].  And having experienced divorce and re-entering the dating pool I can think of many examples of thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that have impeded and improved the quality of my life.  

2. Which activities provide you with “optimal experience”?  Have these changed over time or is their a continuity with them since your childhood or adolescence?

3.  Can you think of specific examples of “flow” activities where specific aspects of the  8 components Csikszentmihalyi identifies are clearly present to you?  For me some     clear examples are exercise, cooking, reading, writing, intellectual conversations, and  playing sport (and writing blog posts like this one!).

Cheers

Colin