Psychology News and Research

RSS

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

Parents' talk about numbers improves young children's math skills

The amount of time parents spend talking about numbers has a much bigger impact on how young children learn mathematics than was previously known, researchers at the University of Chicago have found.

10 Nov 2010

Stressed out Americans

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) have released the results of the 2010 Stress in America survey that shows up the long-term impact that chronic stress could have on physical and emotional health and the health of the families. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive in August 2010. It showed some worrying trends of stress among parents as well as children.

9 Nov 2010

Hypernetworking and hypertexting bad for kids in more ways than one: Study

According to a new study adolescents who text excessively or who are hooked on social networking sites are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors like smoking and binge drinking than their peers who are not similar users. Scientists at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine surveyed 4,257 high school students from an urban county in the Midwest to look at the health effects of communications technology usage.

9 Nov 2010

Psychologists discover that social interaction influences individual's sensitivity to physical pain

Psychologists at the University of Toronto have shown that the nature of a social interaction has the ability to influence an individual's sensitivity to physical pain. The discovery could have significant clinical implications for doctor-patient relationships and the general well-being of an individual on a daily basis.

9 Nov 2010

Positive adult interactions during childhood guard against personality disorders later in life

Learning a hobby or other complex task in childhood with assistance from a trusted adult may help guard against the emergence of a personality disorder (PD) later on in life, reports a study in the current issue of the journal, Development and Psychopathology.

9 Nov 2010

Children of deployed parents more likely to suffer mental health problems

The New York Times: "Young children in military families are about 10 percent more likely to see a doctor for a mental difficulty when a parent is deployed than when the parent is home, researchers are reporting Monday in the most comprehensive study to date of such families' use of health insurance during wartime."

9 Nov 2010

Laparoscopic surgery safe and effective for removing bowel tumours

Laparoscopic or 'keyhole' surgery is a safe, effective way of removing bowel tumours and should be offered to all patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer, according to researchers from the University of Leeds.

8 Nov 2010

Prolonged separation from mother increases risk of breast cancer in young mice

Young mice that experienced the psychosocial stress of prolonged separation from their mothers had a higher incidence and faster onset of breast tumors compared with young mice who did not experience this stressful life event. Specifically, neonatal mice separated from their mothers for a prolonged period of time developed mammary tumors twice as fast as mice that experienced short or no maternal separation.

8 Nov 2010

Adolescent drinking: Laws tighten

Latest study findings show that adolescents offered alcohol by someone other than their parents are six times more likely to drink to excess. The research comes from Deakin University and has made the Australian Drug Foundation tighten laws across Australia, making it illegal to give children alcohol without their parents' permission.

7 Nov 2010

'Phantom' images brain keeps for visual comparisons stored in brain's neural network

Brain research over the past 30 years has shown that if a part of the brain controlling movement or sensation or language is lost because of a stroke or injury, other parts of the brain can take over the lost function - often as well as the region that was lost.

4 Nov 2010

Volunteering benefits older adults with functional limitations

Volunteering is known to provide health benefits to the person doing the volunteering. Now, a new study finds that older adults with functional limitations (trouble conducting daily tasks like cooking meals) in particular appear to reap the benefits from helping others.

4 Nov 2010

Study links positive well-being to higher telomerase activity

Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. The study is the first to link positive well-being to higher telomerase, an enzyme important for the long-term health of cells in the body.

4 Nov 2010

Effort exerted on cognitive task influenced by masked action or inaction cues

People may have a better memory for birthdays that are closer to their own: Volunteers recalling their friends' birthdays tended to remember birthdays that were closer to their own than birthdays that were farther away from their own birthday.

3 Nov 2010

Visual attention diminishes with age

A University of Toronto study shows that visual attention -- the brain's ability to selectively filter unattended or unwanted information from reaching awareness -- diminishes with age, leaving older adults less capable of filtering out distracting or irrelevant information.

3 Nov 2010

American Psychological Association blocking therapists from learning effective treatments for PTSD

In the wake of enormous controversy about its role in the participation of psychologists in the use of torture to extract information from prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and in other parts of the world, an interview just carried by Truthout reveals a new round of criticism that has been directed toward the American Psychological Association (APA).

1 Nov 2010

Study examines effects of social stimulation and personality on humans' sleep functions

A study in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP found that vulnerability to sleep deprivation is influenced by the interaction between waking social activity and individual personality traits.

1 Nov 2010

Neuroscientists investigate mechanism of neural activity on complex psychological phenomena

People love to speculate about differences between the sexes, and neuroscience has brought a new technology to this pastime. Brain imaging studies are published at a great rate, and some report sex differences in brain structure or patterns of neural activity.

30 Oct 2010

Special issue of Ecopsychology outlines woman's self-perception and behavior

Women experience and interact with their natural surroundings in ways that differ from men. The way in which those differences affect a woman's sense of self, body image, and drive to protect and preserve the environment are explored in a thought-provoking special issue of Ecopsychology, a peer-reviewed, online journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

30 Oct 2010

Scientists study infant-mother interactions to unveil mysteries about human cognitive development

To help unravel the mysteries of human cognitive development and reach new the frontiers in robotics, University of Miami (UM) developmental psychologists and computer scientists from the University of California in San Diego (UC San Diego) are studying infant-mother interactions and working to implement their findings in a baby robot capable of learning social skills.

29 Oct 2010

Research shows a neural overlap between social-cognitive and executive brain functions

Talking with other people in a friendly way can make it easier to solve common problems, a new University of Michigan study shows. But conversations that are competitive in tone, rather than cooperative, have no cognitive benefits.

29 Oct 2010

Psychology News and Research

Further Reading

Parents' talk about numbers improves young children's math skills

Stressed out Americans

Hypernetworking and hypertexting bad for kids in more ways than one: Study

Psychologists discover that social interaction influences individual's sensitivity to physical pain

Positive adult interactions during childhood guard against personality disorders later in life

Children of deployed parents more likely to suffer mental health problems

Laparoscopic surgery safe and effective for removing bowel tumours

Prolonged separation from mother increases risk of breast cancer in young mice

Adolescent drinking: Laws tighten

'Phantom' images brain keeps for visual comparisons stored in brain's neural network

Volunteering benefits older adults with functional limitations

Study links positive well-being to higher telomerase activity

Effort exerted on cognitive task influenced by masked action or inaction cues

Visual attention diminishes with age

American Psychological Association blocking therapists from learning effective treatments for PTSD

Study examines effects of social stimulation and personality on humans' sleep functions

Neuroscientists investigate mechanism of neural activity on complex psychological phenomena

Special issue of Ecopsychology outlines woman's self-perception and behavior

Scientists study infant-mother interactions to unveil mysteries about human cognitive development

Research shows a neural overlap between social-cognitive and executive brain functions

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Latest News