Psychology News and Research

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Psychology is the study of human mental functions, behavior and processes.

UC Berkeley study sheds new light on connection between poor sleep and obesity

A sleepless night makes us more likely to reach for doughnuts or pizza than for whole grains and leafy green vegetables, suggests a new study from UC Berkeley that examines the brain regions that control food choices. The findings shed new light on the link between poor sleep and obesity.

7 Aug 2013

Virginia Tech addiction expert receives $3.2 million grant to help smokers quit cigarettes

Warren Bickel, an internationally recognized addiction expert at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, recently received a $3.2-million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for research on improving self-control in smokers seeking to quit cigarettes. The grant will provide Bickel's team with $573,000 to $716,000 a year over five years to develop innovative new ways to enhance the smokers' ability to abstain from acting on their nicotine cravings.

6 Aug 2013

Chinese meditation can reduce smoking

By using a type of meditation developed in China, smokers can reduce their tobacco use even when they don't intend to do so, according to new research done by Texas Tech University and the University of Oregon.

6 Aug 2013

Researchers identify new type of cell in brain that helps people to keep track of their relative location

Using direct human brain recordings, a research team from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA and Thomas Jefferson University has identified a new type of cell in the brain that helps people to keep track of their relative location while navigating an unfamiliar environment.

6 Aug 2013

New study explores pathways that lead to jail time for women

How do pathways to jail vary for females who are victims of specific types of trauma? New research published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, a SAGE journal, pinpoints the types of trauma such as caregiver violence, witnessing violence, and intimate partner violence, that lead to specific types of offending later in life and offers explanations based on real experiences.

3 Aug 2013

Video games boost player's visual skills but reduce ability to inhibit impulsive behavior

A person playing a first-person shooter video game like Halo or Unreal Tournament must make decisions quickly. That fast-paced decision-making, it turns out, boosts the player's visual skills but comes at a cost, according to new research: reducing the person's ability to inhibit impulsive behavior.

3 Aug 2013

Researchers identify specific behaviors that lead to compulsive buying

Why do shopping addicts keep spending even in the face of harmful financial, emotional and social consequences? A new study suggests poor credit management and a belief that new purchases will create a happier life fuel compulsive buying.

2 Aug 2013

Exercise may improve mood of pregnant women and help reduce levels of fatigue

Exercise may improve the mood of pregnant women and help to reduce levels of fatigue reports new research published in Psychology & Health The study, by Anca Gaston and Harry Prapavessis at the University of Western Ontario, examined whether a four week exercise intervention programme would result in improvements in the psychological well-being of previously inactive pregnant women.

2 Aug 2013

Study: Consumers do not understand health insurance, cast doubt on best decisions under ACA

This fall, as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), Americans will have a greater range of health care insurance options to choose from, including, for many, state-based plans. But will they make the right decisions? That's doubtful, according to a new study led by Carnegie Mellon University's George Loewenstein.

2 Aug 2013

Oxytocin hormone affects men and women differently, research finds

"The Love Hormone", Oxytocin affects men and women differently in social contexts- in men it improves the ability to identify competitive relationships whereas in women it facilitates the ability to identify kinship. "These findings are in agreement with previous studies on the social differences between the sexes: women tend to be more communal and familial in their behavior, whereas men are more inclined to be competitive and striving to improve their social status", said Prof. Simone Shamay-Tsoory from the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Haifa who led the research.

1 Aug 2013

Researcher receives grant to study how exposure to social stress impacts the brain and behavior

Dr. Kim Huhman, a researcher in the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University, has received a federal five-year, $1.8 million grant for research that may lead to improved strategies for treating and preventing mental health problems associated with exposure to social stress.

1 Aug 2013

Severe arthritis pain treatments: an interview with Professor Walsh, University of Nottingham and Professor Wood, UCL

Pain is defined by the sufferer’s experience. Pain may be severe because it is intense, frequent or sustained, and because it is distressing. The severity of pain is not simply due to what is going on in the joint, but is also affected by how the body processes the pain signals, and the context in which it is experienced.

31 Jul 2013

Medical noncompliance estimated to increase healthcare costs by $100 billion per year in US

Medical noncompliance -- or failure to follow the doctor's orders -- is estimated to increase healthcare costs in the US by $100 billion per year. Patients sometimes opt not to take medicines, for instance, because the side effects are unbearable or the dosing regimens are too complicated. But medical noncompliance may also stem from sheer inertia -- the tendency to stay in the current state, even when that state is undesirable.

31 Jul 2013

Exercise can improve overall health but does not reduce hot flashes in midlife women

Exercise has proven health benefits, but easing hot flashes isn't one of them. After participating in a 12-week aerobic exercise program, sedentary women with frequent hot flashes had no fewer or less bothersome hot flashes than a control group.

31 Jul 2013

Keele University School to host 5th Annual Meeting of Alcohol Hangover Research Group

Keele University School of Psychology in the UK will host the 5th Annual Meeting of the Alcohol Hangover Research Group, Thu 1st - Fri 2nd August 2013.

30 Jul 2013

Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to smoke cigarettes

Children who grow up in poverty are more likely than wealthier children to smoke cigarettes, but they are less likely to binge drink and are no more prone to use marijuana, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

30 Jul 2013

Different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on human genome

A good state of mind - that is, your happiness - affects your genes, scientists say. In the first study of its kind, researchers from UCLA's Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and the University of North Carolina examined how positive psychology impacts human gene expression.

30 Jul 2013

Genistein derived from soybeans shows promise in inhibiting HIV infection

A compound found in soybeans may become an effective HIV treatment without the drug resistance issues faced by current therapies, according to new research by George Mason University researchers.

30 Jul 2013

Study provides information on neural pathways involved in human word learning

Language is a uniquely human ability. The average vocabulary of a person consists of about thirty thousand words, although people show individual differences in their ability to learn a new language.

26 Jul 2013

Study: Bipolar disorder evolves differently in patients who binge eat

Bipolar disorder evolves differently in patients who also binge eat, a study by Mayo Clinic, the Lindner Center of HOPE and the University of Minnesota found. Binge eating and obesity often are present among bipolar patients, but the mood disorder appears to take a different path in those who binge eat than it does in obese bipolar patients who do not, the researchers discovered.

26 Jul 2013

Psychology News and Research

Further Reading

UC Berkeley study sheds new light on connection between poor sleep and obesity

Virginia Tech addiction expert receives $3.2 million grant to help smokers quit cigarettes

Chinese meditation can reduce smoking

Researchers identify new type of cell in brain that helps people to keep track of their relative location

New study explores pathways that lead to jail time for women

Video games boost player's visual skills but reduce ability to inhibit impulsive behavior

Researchers identify specific behaviors that lead to compulsive buying

Exercise may improve mood of pregnant women and help reduce levels of fatigue

Study: Consumers do not understand health insurance, cast doubt on best decisions under ACA

Oxytocin hormone affects men and women differently, research finds

Researcher receives grant to study how exposure to social stress impacts the brain and behavior

Severe arthritis pain treatments: an interview with Professor Walsh, University of Nottingham and Professor Wood, UCL

Medical noncompliance estimated to increase healthcare costs by $100 billion per year in US

Exercise can improve overall health but does not reduce hot flashes in midlife women

Keele University School to host 5th Annual Meeting of Alcohol Hangover Research Group

Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to smoke cigarettes

Different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on human genome

Genistein derived from soybeans shows promise in inhibiting HIV infection

Study provides information on neural pathways involved in human word learning

Study: Bipolar disorder evolves differently in patients who binge eat

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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