Psychology News and Research

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

TCSPP, Los Angeles launches Forensic Training Institute

Since opening in 2008, the Los Angeles Campus of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP) has offered a host of free or low-cost services to the local community, including crisis intervention training; workshops on topics from post-traumatic stress disorder to substance abuse; mental health counseling; and research in partnership with local organizations and agencies.

27 Oct 2010

Behavioral economics and school nutrition

Don't ban it, move it. This is one conclusion of a new Cornell University study. In one set of schools, sales of fruit increased by 100% when it was moved to a colorful bowl. Salad bar sales tripled when the cart was placed in front of cash registers.

26 Oct 2010

Paramedics at risk of stress, anxiety and depression: Study

According to the latest research paramedics are at a high risk of stress and depression. The Victorian study showed that around ten per cent of paramedics were found to have severe or extremely severe depression, while 40 per cent reported feeling the effects of stress. Nearly 25% were also found to suffer an “above normal degree of anxiety”.

25 Oct 2010

ISTSS to honor Vietnam veteran with Lifetime Achievement Award

Joseph Boscarino, Ph.D, M.P.H.,will be recognized by the International Society of Traumatic Stress (ISTSS) with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the research of traumatic stress.

25 Oct 2010

New assessment tool to measure cognitive representation of chronic disease

What do we mean by "common sense" when we talk about a disease? What affects the ideas and beliefs that patients have of their disease. Researchers at the University of Granada have developed a test for measuring and assessing chronic patients' cognitive representation of their disease. This advance will enable the development of clinical psychological treatments much more efficient than those currently employed.

22 Oct 2010

Growing up with lots of sisters makes man less sexy: Research

Growing up with lots of sisters makes a man less sexy. For rats, anyway. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that the sex ratio of a male rat's family when he's growing up influences both his own sexual behavior and how female rats respond to him.

22 Oct 2010

Researcher develops workshop method to help children deal with PTSD

A child who grows up in the midst of political conflict, such as war or terrorism, can exhibit severe emotional scars. But certain qualities, which psychologists call "resilience factors," can help overcome this adversity.

22 Oct 2010

New research center to study effects of BPA, phthalates on children

A new research center based at the University of Illinois will investigate whether regular exposure to bisphenol A and phthalates - chemicals widely used in plastics and other consumer products - can alter infant and adolescent development, cognition or behavior.

22 Oct 2010

Study finds online activities does not effect long-term psychological health

After the campus shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois University in 2008, hundreds of affected students turned to social media websites to share their grief and search for solace. A new study of these students found that their online activities neither helped nor harmed their long-term psychological health.

21 Oct 2010

Tel Aviv University research links obsessive-compulsive disorder to common childhood illness

A common infection in children, strep throat can lead to problems with a child's heart, joints or brain if left untreated. And when the brain is involved, motor and mental functioning may be compromised, leading to syndromes such as attention deficit disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

21 Oct 2010

Motherhood may cause brain to grow

Motherhood may actually cause the brain to grow, not turn it into mush, as some have claimed. Exploratory research published by the American Psychological Association found that the brains of new mothers bulked up in areas linked to motivation and behavior, and that mothers who gushed the most about their babies showed the greatest growth in key parts of the mid-brain.

21 Oct 2010

Team effort involving providers and parents needed to address rise in pediatric obesity rates

Over the last few decades, the dramatic rise in pediatric obesity rates has emerged as a public health threat requiring urgent attention. The responsibility of identifying and treating eating and weight-related problems early in children and adolescents falls to health care providers and other professionals who work with the child, according to Professor Denise Wilfley and colleagues from the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in the US. Furthermore, the key to successful treatment is a team effort involving providers and parents.

21 Oct 2010

Automatic behaviors are stored in frontal cortex

Some people may excel at riding a bike, tying a tie, or playing the piano, but those same people may find it difficult to explain or teach those skills to someone else. These motor skills are learned in one part of the brain, whereas classroom instruction and information read in a book are acquired in another area of the brain, explained F. Gregory Ashby, professor and chair of UC Santa Barbara's Department of Psychology. This second area of learning is the frontal cortex the area immediately behind the forehead -- where executive function is located.

21 Oct 2010

Effects of breast cancer do not end after chemotherapy

For some women, the effects of breast cancer, the most common cancer affecting women, do not end when they leave the hospital. Now, researchers in the University of Missouri School of Health Professions have studied the lives of breast cancer patients following chemotherapy and found that their environments and available support systems help determine the quality of their lives.

21 Oct 2010

Study investigates efficacy of blood analysis with cognitive testing for early diagnosis of AD

One key problem with treating people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the fact that it is often very difficult to detect the disease when it is in the early stages of progression. A team of researchers from the University of the West of England are about to embark on a preliminary study to investigate the efficacy of combining biomarkers in blood with cognitive testing as a way of screening for AD early on so that appropriate treatments can be offered to patients sooner.

21 Oct 2010

Mothers who gush about babies grow bigger brains

21 Oct 2010

Dopamine vital for rhythmic expression in specific brain regions: Research

Daily sleeping and eating patterns are critical to human well-being and health. Now, a new study from Concordia University has demonstrated how the brain chemical dopamine regulates these cycles by altering the activity of the "clock-protein" PER2. Published in the Journal of Neuroscience, these findings may have implications for individuals with Parkinson's Disease with disrupted 24-hour rhythms of activity and sleep.

21 Oct 2010

Study finds different activity patterns of genes in brain of individuals with different genetic backgrounds

Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have found that the same genes have different activity patterns in the brain in individuals with different genetic backgrounds. These findings may help to explain individual differences in the effectiveness and side-effect profiles of therapeutic drugs and thus have implications for personalized medicine. The study is available in this week's online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (www.pnas.org).

20 Oct 2010

Research offers important insight into symptoms of Parkinson's disease

An international collaboration led by academics at the University of Sheffield, has shed new light into Parkinson's disease, which could help with the development of cures or treatments in the future.

20 Oct 2010

Study shows impaired insulin sensitivity may serve as mediator between obesity and cognitive decline

Because of impairments in their insulin sensitivity, obese individuals demonstrate different brain responses than their normal-weight peers while completing a challenging cognitive task, according to new research by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin.

20 Oct 2010