Psychology News and Research

RSS

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

Transcendental meditation helps students with college stress

Transcendental meditation may be an effective non-medicinal tool for students to buffer themselves against the intense stresses of college life, according to a new study to be published in the February 24 issue of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Psychophysiology.

24 Feb 2009

Physical fitness improves spatial memory, increases size of hippocampi

When it comes to the hippocampus, a brain structure vital to certain types of memory, size matters.

24 Feb 2009

Internet addiction linked to aggression in teenagers

Armed with the findings of a new study, Taiwanese researchers suggest parents and educators pay more attention to children's online habits because Internet-addicted teens seem more prone to aggression.

23 Feb 2009

Get personal to improve heart health

Scare tactics may not be necessary when trying to get patients at risk of heart disease to change their diet or behaviour, a new study has found.

23 Feb 2009

Spending time with grandparents linked with better social skills

Spending time with a grandparent is linked with better social skills and fewer behavior problems among adolescents, especially those living in single-parent or stepfamily households, according to a new study.

23 Feb 2009

Decoding short-term memory with functional magnetic resonance imaging

People voluntarily pick what information they store in short-term memory.

22 Feb 2009

Echoes discovered in early visual brain areas play role in working memory

Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered that early visual areas, long believed to play no role in higher cognitive functions such as memory, retain information previously hidden from brain studies.

20 Feb 2009

Collective religious rituals, not religious devotion, spur support for suicide attacks

In a new study in Psychological Science , a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Jeremy Ginges and Ian Hansen from the New School for Social Research along with psychologist Ara Norenzayan from the University of British Columbia conducted a series of experiments investigating the relationship between religion and support for acts of parochial altruism, including suicide attacks.

20 Feb 2009

Dreams affect people's judgment, behavior

While science tries to understand the stuff dreams are made of, humans, from cultures all over the world, continue to believe that dreams contain important hidden truths, according to newly published research.

18 Feb 2009

Psychosocial and biological markers of daily lives of midlife parents of children with disabilities

Raising a child with a disability can cause more daily stress and long-range health problems than parenting a child without disabilities, according to a new study that looked at a clinical measure of stress along with parents' survey responses.

18 Feb 2009

Anti-social behavior in girls predicts adolescent depression seven years later

Past behavior is generally considered to be a good predictor of future behavior, but new research indicates that may not be the case in the development of depression, particularly among adolescent girls.

18 Feb 2009

Teens with cancer present unique psychological issues

A diagnosis of cancer is devastating at any age, but for teens it occurs at a time of critical physical, individual and interpersonal development and other often anxiety-provoking changes.

16 Feb 2009

Study shows males are more tolerant of same-sex peers

Women have traditionally been viewed as being more social and cooperative than men. However, there is recent evidence that this may not be the case.

15 Feb 2009

Bristol Neuroscientists host brain workshops

Around 100 local pupils will have the chance to take part in some really ‘brainy' activities this week at a series of interactive workshops, hosted by Bristol University neuroscientists, to help them discover more about the science of the brain.

11 Feb 2009

2 genes influence social behavior, visual-spatial performance in people with Williams syndrome

Unraveling the genetics of social behavior and cognitive abilities, researchers at the University of Utah and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have traced the role of two genes,GTF2I and GTF2IRD, in a rare genetic disorder known as Williams Syndrome.

11 Feb 2009

Genetic risk for substance use can be neutralized by good parenting

A genetic risk factor that increases the likelihood that youth will engage in substance use can be neutralized by high levels of involved and supportive parenting, according to a new University of Georgia study.

10 Feb 2009

Adolescents should participate in decisions about end-of-life care

Conversations between adolescents suffering from chronic illnesses and their families about end-of-life wishes well before a serious event occurs won't discourage hope for recovery or cause additional emotional or mental harm to young patients, according to new research from Children's National Medical Center and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital published in the journal Pediatrics.

9 Feb 2009

Sheer scale of bushfire devastation revealed as death toll rises

As Australians come to terms with the sheer scale of the destruction from the fires in Victoria, on an almost hourly basis the grisly search for survivors uncovers more victims.

9 Feb 2009

That gut feeling may actually reflect a reliable memory

You know the feeling. You make a decision you're certain is merely a "lucky guess."

8 Feb 2009

Can money make us happy if we spend it on the right purchases?

A new psychology study suggests that buying life experiences rather than material possessions leads to greater happiness for both the consumer and those around them. The findings were presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting on Feb. 7.

8 Feb 2009