Psychology News

• Thursday, December 12, 2013

  Women Hate Sexy Ads, Unless They’re for Something Expensive

  Women are turned off by sexually explicit images in advertisements. Unless, that is, the item being advertised is very precious. And valuable. And rare. Like, maybe, a once a year type gift. At least, that’s the findings of a new study by an international group of marketing professors. Read more

• Thursday, December 12, 2013

  Exercise Alleviates Sexual Side-Effects of Antidepressants in Women

  New psychology research, which could have important public health implications for alleviating some side effects of antidepressants, shows that engaging in exercise at the right time significantly improves sexual functioning in women who are taking the antidepressants. Read more

• Thursday, December 12, 2013

  Philippines: Health professionals learn psychological first aid to support survivors

  Using a train-the-trainer approach, Filipino health professionals took part in a one-day workshop to learn how teach others in their communities to provide psychological first aid to support typhoon survivors. Read more

• Wednesday, December 11, 2013

  Does Mindfulness Meditation Training help adults with ADHD?

  As aware­ness of ADHD in adults increases, so do efforts to develop effec­tive treat­ments for adults that can com­ple­ment, or sub­sti­tute for, med­ica­tion. One promis­ing treat­ment is mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion train­ing. In mind­ful­ness train­ing, indi­vid­u­als learn to ori­ent their atten­tion pur­pose­fully ... Read more

• Wednesday, December 11, 2013

  Study reveals gene expression changes with meditation

  With evidence growing that meditation can have beneficial health effects, scientists have sought to understand how these practices physically affect the body. A new study by researchers in Wisconsin, Spain, and France reports the first evidence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of mindfulness meditation. Read more

• Wednesday, December 11, 2013

  Why Generosity Is Good For Your Health

  Giving of yourself -- whether it be your time, energy or money -- isn't just a boon to those you're helping. A wealth of research shows that generosity can also have benefits for the receiver, ranging from a better outlook at your job, to more years of life. Check out these science-backed reasons to make generosity a regular part of your day. Read more

• Tuesday, December 10, 2013

  CHANGE HABITS: Breaking Bad Behaviours

  A habit, either good or bad is an automatic behavior that we engage in without thinking. So how do we change it? Read more

• Tuesday, December 10, 2013

  How to Raise Thankful Kids

  My husband and I are incredibly lucky to be able to give our son what he needs and often what he wants, and we are raising him in a wonderful town in which many families do the same. Yet he’s growing up in a bubble, and that terrifies me. If he never truly struggles for things—important things—and he doesn’t spend much time with people who do, will he ever realize he’s got it so good? ... Read more

• Tuesday, December 10, 2013

  After touching men's underwear, women take bigger financial risks and seek more rewards

  Across three studies, Anouk Festjens and her colleagues led over a hundred female undergrads to believe they were taking part in customer research for a clothing manufacturer. The women handled a pair of men's boxer shorts or a t-shirt and rated it on various factors such as the quality of the fabrics. After touching the clothing they ... Read more

• Monday, December 9, 2013

  What Brain Scans Reveal About Hurt Feelings

  Almost every language in the world uses an expression similar to ‘hurt feelings’ to describe the emotional response we have to being rejected. The question is, why are rejections so painful? Among the various kinds of psychological injuries we sustain in daily life (such as failure or guilt), rejections are by far the most common as well as the most painful. Read more

• Monday, December 9, 2013

  Working Odd Shifts Can Hurt Parent-Child Relationships

  Research from North Carolina State University shows that working a job that doesn’t keep 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours can hurt the relationships between parents and adolescents, increasing the likelihood that children will engage in delinquent behaviors. However, the researchers found that in some circumstances, an unconventional work schedule can be a ... Read more

• Saturday, December 7, 2013

  Brain connectivity lends credence to the saying Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus

  A new brain connectivity study from Penn Medicine published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found striking differences in the neural wiring of men and women that’s lending credence to some commonly-held beliefs about their behavior. Read more

• Saturday, December 7, 2013

  Depression during pregnancy may affect child's mental health

  Depression is a serious mental illness that has many negative consequences for sufferers. But depression among pregnant women may also have an impact on their developing babies. Children of depressed parents are at an increased risk of developing depression themselves, a combination of both genetic and environmental factors. These children also display alterations in the amygdala, a ... Read more

• Friday, December 6, 2013

  How Important are Dads to their Children?

  Even with today’s technology, it still takes both a male and a female to make a baby. But is it important for both parents to raise that child? Many studies have outlined the value of a mother, but few have clearly defined the importance of a father, until now. New findings from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre ... Read more

• Friday, December 6, 2013

  More needs to be done to address Youth Mental Health Issues in Singapore

  While a majority of children in Singapore have better material comforts than their counterparts elsewhere, studies on their mental health are not so encouraging. When some international surveys [read Gallup] proclaim that Singapore is the least emotional country in the world, the common rebuttal is because life here is tough, residents are too ... Read more

• Thursday, December 5, 2013

  Ten Good Reasons Why You Should Get A Good Night’s Sleep

  Sleep is an evolutionary paradox. In pre-historic times, periods of sleep would have been windows of opportunity for predators and periods of susceptibility to dangerous natural calamities. The chances of losing life for early humans during sleep must have been very very high. Yet sleep has persisted throughout evolution in practically all animals — why? Recent research on mammalian sleep has shed some light on its role in ... Read more

• Thursday, December 5, 2013

  Fear of being single leads people to settle for less in relationships

  Fear of being single is a meaningful predictor of settling for less in relationships among both men and women, a new University of Toronto study has found. The results are published in the December edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Read more

• Thursday, December 5, 2013

  Is there really a Left Brian/Right Brian divide?

  You are hardly alone if you believe that humanity is divided into two great camps: the left-brain and the right-brain thinkers — those who are logical and analytical vs. those who are intuitive and creative. For years, an industry of books, tests and videos has flourished on this concept. It seems to be natural law. Except it isn’t. Read more

• Wednesday, December 4, 2013

  Why Gamers Can’t Stop Playing First-Person Shooters

  In the fall of 1992, a twentysomething college dropout and former juvenile offender named John Carmack was hard at work in Mesquite, Texas, on a new concept for a video game. It would merge the first-person perspective of a game like Myst with the direct combat of the shooter game Wolfenstein 3-D and the multi-player capacity of Spectre, and it ... Read more

• Wednesday, December 4, 2013

  Kids whose bond with mother was disrupted early in life show changes in brain

  Children who experience profound neglect have been found to be more prone to a behavior known as "indiscriminate friendliness," characterized by an inappropriate willingness to approach adults, including strangers. Read more

• Wednesday, December 4, 2013

  First mental health Info system launched in the Philippines

  The country’s first integrated mental health information system was launched Monday in a bid to address effectively the needs of patients suffering from mental illness. The creation of an information system was prompted by a campaign of Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson “Into the Light project. The project aims to eliminate stigma against mental illness by promoting awareness and understanding on its implications to individuals, communities, and on a national-scale. Read more

• Tuesday, December 3, 2013

  A single spray of oxytocin improves brain function in children with autism

  A single dose of the hormone oxytocin, delivered via nasal spray, has been shown to enhance brain activity while processing social information in children with autism spectrum disorders, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study published in the Dec. 2 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more

• Tuesday, December 3, 2013

  How evolution explains our spending habits

  Watch this interesting animation on how we start quantifying objects from 5 months and the way it affects our spending habits as adults. Read more

• Tuesday, December 3, 2013

  Can Long Distance Relationships Work?

  Contrary to the received wisdom, long distance relationships can work, according to new research published in the Journal of Communication. The study, which contradicts much standard dating advice, was inspired by the increasing numbers of people conducting long distance relationships because of the demands of education, employment or emigration. Read more

• Monday, December 2, 2013

  Fearful Memories Passed Down to Mouse Descendants

  Certain fears can be inherited through the generations, a provocative study of mice reports. The authors suggest that a similar phenomenon could influence anxiety and addiction in humans. But some researchers are sceptical of the findings because a biological mechanism that explains the phenomenon has not been identified. Read more

• Monday, December 2, 2013

  Economic development can only buy happiness up to a ‘sweet spot’ of $36,000 GDP per person

  Economists have shed light on the vexed question of whether economic development can buy happiness – and it seems that life satisfaction actually dips among people living in the wealthiest countries. Politicians are intensely interested in the link between national wealth and levels of happiness among the population, but it is a subject ... Read more

• Monday, December 2, 2013

  Researchers Find Gene Responsible For Susceptibility To Panic Disorder

  A study published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience points, for the first time, to the gene trkC as a factor in susceptibility to the disease. The researchers define the specific mechanism for the formation of fear memories which will help in the development of new pharmacological and cognitive treatments. Read more

• Saturday, November 30, 2013

  Should you follow your gut when walking down the aisle?

  Although newlyweds may not be completely aware of it, they may know whether their march down the aisle will result in wedded bliss or an unhappy marriage, according to new study led by a Florida State University researcher. Associate Professor of Psychology James K. McNulty and his colleagues studied 135 heterosexual couples who had been married ... Read more

• Saturday, November 30, 2013

  Nostalgia For The Past Boosts Optimism For The Future, Study Suggests

  Thinking fondly about the past can make you more excited about what's to come, according to a new study. Nostalgia seems to spur optimism for the future because it "raises self-esteem which in turn heightens optimism," study researcher Dr. Tim Wildschut, of the University of Southampton, said in a statement. Read more

• Saturday, November 30, 2013

  Where we drive affects how we drive

  According to the International Transport Forum Malaysia has one of the highest death rates from road traffic accidents in the world. While the number of road deaths continues to rise in Malaysia the number in the United Kingdom is much lower and experiencing a downward trend. Read more