Mansi Shah

This chapter outlines the background, nature, and explanations of existential crises. An unresolved existential crisis commonly causes depression. Crises occur in periods throughout the life cycle. They usually involve careers, relationships, or identity. The resolution often requires a development of a new stage of intellectual functioning, through which people can reflect on their interests and stage. TheExistential Crisis Assessment measures severity of an existential crisis. A factor analysis showed the most important items in a person’s existential crisis. My life, life in the universe, and relationships were the most important factors determining the severity of a person’s existential crisis. The first solution is to match a person to a career. Another solution is to match one person to another. Three scales are used to match people to careers and partners: (1) decision-making measures how well a person addresses tasks of increasing difficulty; (2) perspective-taking predicts how well a person understands behavior of self and others; (3) core complexity interest scale identifies the reinforcement value of engaging. A further solution is that of cognitive behavioral therapy that can be used to both treat depression and offer training on social perspective-taking, a key ingredient to resolving one’s crisis

Punishment and its avoidance are foundational to organisms’ behavior and evolutionary development. How do responses to unfavorable situations change across animal species? We address this question using a model of developmental and evolutionary complexity (Model of Hierarchical Complexity). Tasks are ordered in terms of an ordinal scale that measures difficulty (Order of Hierarchical Complexity). Successful completion of a task at a particular order is the behavioral stage of the organism on that task. This model applies to non-human and human animals. Examples of organisms that perform tasks of punishment avoidance at each order are provided. The Model provides a useful way of explaining the differences between organisms that is consistent with evolutionary data. We argue that as animals become more complex, punishments become more harmful, but used at  decreasing frequencies. However, punishment does not disappear at even the highest stages.

There is a need to update the legal system to recognize the use of hypnosis and undue influence occurring throughout the world. Extremist groups are deceptively recruiting and indoctrinating people to do terrorist attacks. Human traffickers are grooming and using hypnosis and social influence techniques to create labor and sex slaves. In this paper, a number of key concepts and models will be used to more fully define DSM-5's Dissociative Disorder 300.15: Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory, along with Robert Jay Lifton and Margaret Singer's work (1995) are the foundation of the BITE model of mind control (Hassan, 1988). Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional Control are the four overlapping components through which destructive groups bring people to be obedient and compliant to authority. A programmed cult identity is created through a complex social influence process. That false identity dominates real identity. The ethics and morality of undue influence are understood differently. In this paper, we analyze the techniques of breaking down the existing personalityand creating a false or pseudo-identity. The Influence Continuum and BITE mind control model and Lifton's eight criteria for Thought Reform are discussed; Scheflin's Social Influence Model (2015) is presented as one tool for analyzing undue influence in a forensic and juridical context. To support the hypothesis presented here, an anonymous online research survey was conducted involving 1033 participants to gather data regarding specific variables of the BITE model, in an effort to develop an instrument that might be useful in determining key aspects of undue influence.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can cause significant social, nonverbal communication, and behavioral challenges. There is often nothing about how people with ASD look that sets them apart from other people. They may, however, communicate, interact, behave, and learn in ways that are different from most other people. Because there is no definitive medical test, diagnosing ASD can be difficult. Research has shown that intervention can improve a child’s overall development and the earlier it occurs, the more effective it may be. In this symposium, we introduce a diagnostic tool designed to improve very early diagnosis of autism. The tool is informed by extensive research on the Model of Hierarchical Complexity, a behavioral developmental model of tasks. The Model allows for the scaling of behaviors, tasks, reinforcers, stimuli, etc. in terms of their Hierarchical Complexity, a form of difficulty. This kind of scaling explains developmental sequences. The symposium first describes the Behavioral Developmental Autism Instrument, including how it was devised and comparing it to other assessments. The second paper illustrates how the Model of Hierarchical Complexity can be used to generate a developmental sequence of reinforcers. The third paper applies the model to curriculum development.