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Other new research and reviews of note:Why extraverts are happier than introverts. The use of toys in clinical interviews with children. A behaviourist criticism of the DSM manual. A quick guide to Tourette’s. And see here. The effect on kids of seeing their mum or dad be violent to their partner. More evidence showing the efficacy of dilectical behavioural therapy for borderline personality disorder – this time in an in-patient [ Read More ]
Science magazine looks at ‘life‘: some of the insights that social scientists are making as they study humans at different stages of the life cycle. (Science). Four papers that showcase the power and promise of cognitive neuropsychology approaches to selective developmental disorders, with an introduction by Bradley Duchaine at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London. (Cognitive Neuropsychology). How can research in applied developmental psychology best inform policies that will [ Read More ]
Depressed Children May Response to Omega-3 Fatty Acids Treatment with omega-3 fatty acids appears to have therapeutic benefit for prepubescent children with major depression, according to the findings of a pilot study conducted by researchers in Israel. [Reuters Health Information 2006]
When it comes to predicting short-term share price fluctuations, it appears a simple psychological explanation has succeeded where countless complex economic theories have failed. The human tendency to respond positively to easily processed information means buyers are drawn to shares in companies with simple names, thus driving their value up over the short term. Using real stock market records, Adam Alter and Daniel Oppenheimer at Princeton University have shown that, [ Read More ]
We all know about the hallucinations and delusions, but it’s actually schizophrenia’s so-called ‘negative symptoms’ – the emotional withdrawal, slowing of movement, and lack of responsiveness – that are the most difficult to treat. Now a new study suggests ‘body psychotherapy’ could succeed where so many drug treatments fail. Over a course of body psychotherapy, patients describe how their bodies feel; perform ‘travelling movements’ – walking in different directions at [ Read More ]
The effect of portion size on how much people eat is something of a mystery – why don’t they simply leave what they don’t want, or alternatively, where possible, why not help themselves to more? Andrew Geier and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania think it has to do with ‘Unit bias’ – “…the sense that a single entity (within a reasonable range of sizes) is the appropriate amount to [ Read More ]
When people are deciding the appropriate punishment for a crime, they’re most interested in ensuring that the perpetrator gets the payback they deserve. They’re less interested in practical issues relating to whether the perpetrator needs to be locked up to protect the public, or in how much of a deterrent to other potential criminals the punishment will be. Kevin Carlsmith at Colgate University asked 42 students to imagine they were [ Read More ]
When an addict craves another shot of their chosen drug, how similar is this urge to the basic human drives for sex, food and water? One way scientists have approached this question is to look at the neurocircuitry underlying craving for drugs and compare it with the neurocircuitry underlying these other drives. A previous study suggested there might be a great deal of overlap – 10 out of the 13 [ Read More ]
In much the same way that an animal freezes or slows at the sight of a predator, humans are automatically slowed down when they see or read something unpleasant. That’s according to Benjamin Wilkowski and Michael Robinson at North Dakota State University. They presented 38 students with a series of pictures that were either positive (e.g. a passionate couple), negative (e.g. a gun placed to someone’s head) or neutral (e.g. [ Read More ]
Studies that didn’t make the final cut this fortnight: Questions are more often misremembered as statements, than vice versa. Do anti-depressants cure or create abnormal brain states? What lies beneath homophobia – defensive loathing or a secret attraction? The pros and cons of labelling chronic fatigue syndrome. The mental health of husbands and wives becomes more similar across the first five years of their relationship.