Mi-My
Micro-Environment: a small or relatively small habitat, usually distinctly specialised
and effectively isolated.
The term can be applied to a forest canopy or to a neuron. In Developmental Psychology
the womb is considered to be a micro-environment, the condition of which can have
myriad effects on the way the foetus develops.
Microsociology: one of the main branches (or focuses) of Sociology, concerning the
nature of everyday human social interactions and agency on a small scale. Microsociology
is based on interpretative analysis, rather than statistical or empirical observation,
and shares close association with the philosophy of Phenomenology.
Midbrain: this contains part of the reticular formation and part of the brainstem.
Mistaken Belief Visualisation: an Inner Child therapy exercise developed by Penny
Parks (1994) for destroying people's core limiting beliefs (maladaptive schemas)
and replacing them with new enabling beliefs - thus increasing their self-efficacy.
Modality: a sensory system - eg: the visual modality.
Monoamine Oxidase: L-monoamine oxidases (MAO) are a family of enzymes that catalyse
the oxidation of monoamine neurotransmitters. MAO are found in both neurons and glial
cells.
Because of the vital role that MAOs play in the inactivation of neurotransmitters,
MAO dysfunction (too much or too little MAO activity) is thought to be responsible
for a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders. Eg: unusually high or low
levels of MAOs in the body have been associated with Depression, Schizophrenia,substance
abuse, attention deficit disorder, migraines, and irregular sexual maturation.
Monism: in contrast to Dualism, the philosophical doctrine that the person consists
of only a single substance - or that there is no crucial difference between mental
and physical events or properties. There have come to be a number of different variations
developed from the concept. See the Mind-Body Problem.
Monozygotic: meaning from one egg, the term is applied in research to ‘identical
twins’ who share 100% the same genes.
This is in contrast to dizygotic/non-identical twins who share around 50% the same
genes. Research into how much nature or nurture is responsible for effects often
involves contrasting monozygotic and dizygotic twins; but, in fact, even newborn
‘identical twins’ are almost never truly ‘identical’ due to the twins having different
experiences in the micro-environment of the womb.
Mood Disorders: the term designating a group of psychiatric diagnoses in which the
person's mood is said to be the main underlying feature.
2 groups of mood disorders are broadly recognised:-
- Clinical Depression (aka ‘Major Depression’ or ‘Unipolar Disorder’)
- Manic Depressive Psychosis - increasingly referred to as ’Bipolar Disorder’ - which
is characterised by intermittent episodes of mania (or hypomania), usually interlaced
with depressive episodes
Motherese: aka ‘baby talk’, the simplified form of speech used by adults when talking
to babies and infants.
Motor Cortex: the term that describes regions of the cerebral cortex involved in
the planning, control, and execution of voluntary motor functions.
Motor Neuron: in vertebrates the term ‘motor neuron’ (or ‘motoneuron’) classically
applies to neurons located in the central nervous system (CNS) that project their
axons outside the CNS and directly or indirectly control muscles. The motor neuron
is also referred to as ‘efferent nerve’. See also: Neurons & Neurotransmitters.
Műllerian Inhibiting Substance (MIS): (aka: Anti-Műllerian Hormone and Műllerian
Inhibiting Factor) is the protein that, in humans, inhibits the development of the
ducts of the Műllerian System.
Műllerian System: is the precursor to the female internal sex organs which develop
into fallopian tubes, uterus and the inner 2/3 of the vagina.
Multiple Intelligences:
Howard Gardner has extended the importance NLP attaches to sensory processing and
linguistics, added in Carl Gustav Jung's Introversion-Extraversion continuum (replicated
in both Meta-Programmes and Hans Eysenck's Dimensions of Temperament) and may even
have caught onto the G-T (Graves)/Self-Actualisation (Maslow) level (with Naturalistic)
to produce his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner postulates that people have
at least 8 intelligences:-
- Linguistic: a facility with language producing sensitive readers and articulate persuasive
speakers
- Logical Mathematical: this intelligence is good at data analysis, mathematics and
speculative thinking, making it a problem-solver
- Musical: an instinctive sense of pitch, timbre, rhythm, pace, patterning and volume
- Visual-Spatial: the expression of thought in visual form
- Bodily-Kinaesthetic: this intelligence provides a high degree of control and precision
in physical movement
- Intrapersonal: intuition, reflection, self-knowledge and understanding are the characteristics
of this intelligence
- Interpersonal: this intelligence produces strong social skills and the understanding
to develop and maintain relationships
- Naturalist: an empathy with natural things and a curiosity to explore the world in
an autonomous manner
Gardner emphasises that people will prefer to work in certain intelligences over
others. He has pushed his ideas strongly at teachers and other educators - with some
notable success. However, Gardner's concepts are not without their critics - some
pyschologists labelling them as 'unscientific'. Certainly they lack an underpinning
systemic theory (such as Spiral Dynamics). Nonetheless they do provide effective
descriptors of a range of learning/thinking patterns and Gardner is to be applauded
for encouraging people to accommodate difference.
Much of the controversy around Garner's
ideas is centred around his use of the term 'intelligence' . Many feel he is confusing
it with aptitude, ability, talent, etc - but then one of Gardner's principal aims
is to challenge traditional concepts of intelligence!
Multiple Personality Disorder
(MPD): a condition in which an individual seems to have several different people
living within them. These 'alters' may have a different age to the biological age
of the host body - and may even be the opposite sex! They invariably have different
names and speak and act in totally different ways so that they do indeed seem to
be different 'people' living in the same body.
There is real controversy surrounding
MPD and much debate as to whether it really exists.
Firstly the condition was relatively unknown - only 76 documented claims were in
existence in 1944 - before the 1957 oscar-winning movie, 'The Three Faces of Eve',
based on a real-life case study. After its success, psychologists and psychiatrists
reported an explosion in the number of cases of MPD. It is claimed ongoing media
interest keeps the number of 'cases' high.
Secondly a number of high-profile deliberate
fakes and iatrogenic (therapist-induced) occurrences have been exposed, casting real
doubt on the reliability of methods of diagnosis.
Thirdly a substantial body of the
psychiatric profession have come to the point of view that true 'multiple personalities'
is a psychological and biological impossibility and that the lesser Dissociative
Identity Disorder (DID) would be a more sound diagnosis. See Dissociative Identity
Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder. However, some even claim that DID is a
fabrication!
Ralph Allison, one of the world's leading experts in the field, has argued
consistently for both MPD and DID being real conditions, with a significant qualitative
difference between them. See What’s in a Name? Dual Personality... Multiple Personality....
Dissociative Identity Disorder.
In terms of Integrated SocioPsychology, both DID and MPD are theoretically plausible.
If very different vMEMES dominate in different contexts and the selfplex is very
weak and/or ill-formed, then it is not impossible it could fragment, with dissociation
producing partial selfplexes around contextual vMEME Stacks.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): developed by Kathrine Briggs and her daughter,
Isabel Myers, during World War II, the MBTI is the most widely-used form of ‘personality
assessment’ in the Western world. Derived from Carl Gustav Jung's (1923) theories
on personality types, it is based on 4 scales:-
