Psychology News and Research

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

Young toddlers think in terms of the whole object, not just parts

Seeing through a child's eyes can help parents better introduce new words to young toddlers, according to research from Purdue University.

18 Oct 2007

Severely mentally ill at high risk for cardiovascular disease

A psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that although mortality from cardiovascular disease has declined in the United States over the past several decades, patients with severe psychiatric illness are not enjoying the benefits of that progress.

17 Oct 2007

Carnegie Mellon, Pitt team use wrist-mounted instrument to measure psychosocial stress

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, led by Pitt Psychology Professor Thomas Kamarck, are studying the effectiveness of a wrist-mounted instrument for measuring psychosocial stress exposure during the course of daily life.

17 Oct 2007

Brain cell growth diminishes long before old age strikes, animal study shows

Even early in adulthood, aging begins to slow the mind's growth -- but it does not have to stop it altogether, suggests a Princeton University study on the brains of adult monkeys.

17 Oct 2007

Aggressive tots agressive adults!

New research suggests that three and four-year-olds are more physically aggressive than most adults; anyone subjected to the wrath of an indignant pre-schooler will not argue with that.

16 Oct 2007

Hormone oxytocin predicts level of bonding between mother and child

Humans are hard-wired to form enduring bonds with others. One of the primary bonds across the mammalian species is the mother-infant bond. Evolutionarily speaking, it is in a mother's best interest to foster the well-being of her child; however, some mothers just seem a bit more maternal than others do.

16 Oct 2007

Fearful eyes and happy faces - how we perceive certain cues

You may not be fully dressed without a smile, but a look of horror will make a faster first impression.

15 Oct 2007

Dopamine levels and appetite

Science has found one likely contributor to the way that some folks eat to live and others live to eat.

15 Oct 2007

What's wrong with being shy?

What's wrong with being shy, and just when and how did bashfulness and other ordinary human behaviors in children and adults become psychiatric disorders treatable with powerful, potentially dangerous drugs?, asks a Northwestern University scholar in a new book that already is creating waves in the mental health community

12 Oct 2007

Adaptive technology for visually impaired engineers

By adding features to commonly used chemical-engineering software packages, researchers at the University of Arkansas, the University of Akron and Chemstations Inc. have developed adaptive technology that allows blind or visually impaired students and working professionals to perform the essential functions of chemical-engineering process design.

12 Oct 2007

Poor self-esteem can trigger the primal fight-or-flight response

Few can tolerate such romantic or professional rebuffs as "It's not you, it's me" and "we regret to inform you that your application was not successful." But while a healthy dose of self-esteem can absorb the shock of rejection, poor self-esteem can trigger the primal fight-or-flight response, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley.

12 Oct 2007

Through the labyrinth: the truth about how women become leaders

The glass ceiling -- the once ubiquitous metaphor referring to a subtle barrier built upon biases that block women from the highest positions of leadership -- doesn't apply today, according to a new book co-written by Alice Eagly, professor and chair of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.

12 Oct 2007

Behavior of drug-dependent offenders

Researchers at the University of Leicester have worked with Northamptonshire Police's Scientific Support Unit to research whether or not drug-dependent offenders were more likely to be apprehended through forensic science techniques than those who were not.

10 Oct 2007

Stress is a contributing factor in human disease

In a review of the scientific literature on the relationship between stress and disease, Carnegie Mellon University psychologist Sheldon Cohen has found that stress is a contributing factor in human disease, and in particular depression, cardiovascular disease and HIV/AIDS.

10 Oct 2007

Stress and disease likely linked

A new commentary in the Oct. 10 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association explores whether psychological stress leads to disease and concludes that the link is likely.

10 Oct 2007

Nationwide Children's Hospital receives grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Nationwide Children's Hospital received a $299,779 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation made under its Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative to identify the linkages between the quality of nursing care processes and the quality of outcomes.

10 Oct 2007