Psychology News and Research

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

Parents of children with ASD turn to evidence-based behavioral treatment methods

One of the most common initial red flags reported by parents of children with autism is that they suspect their child may be deaf because he or she no longer responds to his or her name, and does not look at them when they speak. However, the lack of response or eye contact can point to an Autism Spectrum Disorder. In fact, many children on the autism spectrum do not demonstrate typical language skills and social behavior, or even lose language or social skills they once had.

27 Jul 2010

Parents can boost story-telling skills by engaging children in narratives: Study

Children with brain injuries have difficulty developing story-telling skills even though other language abilities, such as vocabulary, tend to catch up with other children as they mature, research at the University of Chicago shows. Our findings suggest that there may be limitations to the remarkable flexibility for language functions displayed by children with brain injuries.

27 Jul 2010

Obesity linked to early puberty in girls

A review of more than 100 studies found overweight girls tend to reach puberty earlier than their peers do.

26 Jul 2010

Repetition of DRD4 genotype may increase risk for extensive alcohol use

Your friend walks into a bar to meet you for happy hour. He sidles up to the bar and orders a drink - does that make you more likely to get a drink yourself? According to new findings reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, genetics may determine the extent to which you are influenced by social drinking cues - signals such as advertisements, drinks placed on a bar, and seeing other people around you drinking.

23 Jul 2010

Call for greater support in mental health services for children

As support for funds for mental ailments mounts, a coalition of mental health experts are lobbying for greater support for mental health services for children. The coalition comprises The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists; the Australian Psychological Society; NIFTeY (National Investment for the Early Years); the Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association; the Australian Association of Infant Mental Health, and the Australian Child and Adolescent Trauma, Loss and Grief Network.

22 Jul 2010

Correlates of HIV stigma in HIV-positive women: Study

For some women, planning a family can be the first step towards one of life's most rewarding experiences. But a study led by Ryerson University researchers has found strong evidence that some HIV-positive women feel that they are being judged negatively by their healthcare providers for wanting to become moms and feel stigmatized by their physicians due to their medical condition.

22 Jul 2010

Researchers block stress responses in cancer surgery patients

Cancer surgery wreaks havoc on a body's immune system and stress hormones exacerbate the problem. As a result, about half of those who undergo surgery for tumor removal experience a recurrence of cancer in the same region or other parts of the body.

22 Jul 2010

Physicians Practice, Wolfson Children's Hospital to help doctors manage patient care in Jacksonville area

Physicians Practice and Wolfson Children's Hospital have joined forces to help provide area physicians and their staff more time to devote to patient care. This new partnership is a unique program designed to help doctors in the Jacksonville area better handle the cumbersome and time-consuming issues of managing a busy practice.

22 Jul 2010

Active play is important for children’s physical activity

Active play makes a significant contribution to children’s physical activity and could play an important part in the health of future generations, a new study has found.

20 Jul 2010

New study links facial expressions with written language

Your facial expression may tell the world what you are thinking or feeling. But it also affects your ability to understand written language related to emotions, according to research published in the July issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

20 Jul 2010

Global study on working memory and influence of advertising on behaviour launched

Is your glass half full or half empty? Are you eternally optimistic or permanently pessimistic? What could this mean for your mental health? The British Science Association today launches a global study testing your working memory in relation to your mental health and then investigating the influence of advertising on your behaviour.

20 Jul 2010

Researchers monitor stress during a real-time war to refine PTSD therapy

Psychologists aren't usually called to the battlefield, but the 2008-09 Gaza War gave Tel Aviv University researchers a unique picture of how anxiety manifests during stressful situations.

20 Jul 2010

Study finds unhappy families unhappy in two distinct ways

Contrary to Leo Tolstoy's famous observation that "happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," a new psychology study confirms that unhappy families, in fact, are unhappy in two distinct ways. And these dual patterns of unhealthy family relationships lead to a host of specific difficulties for children during their early school years.

16 Jul 2010

Severe exposure to trauma, loss of family members, and domestic violence very stressful on Sri Lankan children

Two studies on children in Sri Lanka who survived the 2004 tsunami and ongoing civil war there found that it's not these stressful events alone that contributed to the youths' psychological health, but also daily stressors like domestic violence that are exacerbated by traumatic events and continue after the disasters.

16 Jul 2010

Research shows behavioral economic analysis may help understand role of craving in addictions

Just-published research led by a psychologist at the University of Georgia shows that behavioral economic analysis may lead to an improved understanding of craving for alcohol and other drugs. This method of studying how craving alters the way a person values a drug is fairly new, but according to the study, it may well help assess cravings more accurately and contribute to identifying more effective ways to defeat addictions.

15 Jul 2010

UC San Diego and CTRI receive $37.2M NCRR Clinical and Translational Science Award

The University of California, San Diego Health Sciences and its expanding Clinical and Translational Research Institute (CTRI) have received a five-year, $37.2 million Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), part of the National Institutes of Health.

15 Jul 2010

No valid, adequate criteria for certifying an illness as terminal: Study

Physicians that have to decide whether an illness is terminal think that "there are not valid and adequate criteria for certifying that an illness is terminal". This is the conclusion drawn from a pioneer study conducted at the University of Granada, and recently published in the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology (IJCHP).

14 Jul 2010

Russians show less distress compared to Americans: Research

Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy portrayed Russians as a brooding, complicated people, and ethnographers have confirmed that Russians tend to focus on dark feelings and memories more than Westerners do. But a new University of Michigan study finds that even though Russians tend to brood, they are less likely than Americans to feel as depressed as a result.

14 Jul 2010

Therapeutic workbook to facilitate healing process in Haitian children

"When children can tell their stories about a traumatic event in their own words or pictures and at their own speed, healing can begin," says Dr. Jodie Kliman, psychologist and professor at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP) in Boston. That is why Kliman led MSPP's collaboration with the Children's Psychological Health Center (CPHC) in San Francisco and Ekol Akasya (Acacia School) in Haiti to create a workbook to facilitate that healing process in Haitian children and to identify those at greatest risk for long-term emotional problems.

14 Jul 2010

Study shows cigarette cravings result from habit, not addiction

Nicotine patches and gum are common ― and often ineffective ― ways of fighting cigarette cravings, as most smokers have discovered. Now a new study from Tel Aviv University shows why they're ineffective, and may provide the basis for more successful psychologically-based smoking cessation programs.

14 Jul 2010