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Reports on the latest psychology research plus psych gossip and comment. Brought to you by the British Psychological Society.
BPS Research Digest
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- February 12, 2008
- 04:02 AM
- 1,338 views
Acceptance, not distraction, is the way to deal with pain
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
You've got a painful visit to the dentist lined up and what do people advise you to do once you're there? Try to think of something nice, they always say. Imagine yourself lying on a lovely sandy beach. Not only can such advice be annoying, new research suggests it's also ineffective. You're much better off accepting the pain when it comes along and dealing with it.That's according to Jenny McMullen and colleagues who tested the ability of student participants to cope with unpleasant electric shocks of increasing duration. The students were tested before and after receiving tuition... Read more »
J MCMULLEN, D BARNESHOLMES, Y BARNESHOLMES, I STEWART, C LUCIANO, & A COCHRANE. (2008) Acceptance versus distraction: Brief instructions, metaphors and exercises in increasing tolerance for self-delivered electric shocks. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46(1), 122-129. DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2007.09.002
- March 6, 2009
- 10:56 AM
- 1,330 views
Who's the Daddy? Fathers invest more in children who resemble them
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Dads who say their children resemble them also tend to report being emotionally closer to their children than do fathers who see their kids as looking less like them.Marianne Heijkoop and colleagues made these observations after surveying 90 Dutch parents with children aged between eight and nine years. They argue the findings provide tentative support for the evolutionary-based idea that men will be more motivated to invest in children who look like themselves than those who don't. The theory is that men, unlike women, can never been wholly certain that a child is theirs, thus leading them to depend on cues, such as physical similarity, when deciding whether to invest in a given child.The new findings support the idea that even today fathers are influenced by this innate tendency to invest more in children who resemble them. However, the cross-sectional methodology means that the case is far from closed. One alternative explanation for the results is that being emotionally closer to their children leads men to think their children resemble them more. Incidentally, physical resemblance had no association with the closeness of mothers to their children, but personality similarity did._________________________________Marianne Heijkoop, Judith Semon Dubas, Marcel van Aken (2009). Parent-child resemblance and kin investment: Physical resemblance or personality similarity? European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6 (1), 64-69 DOI: 10.1080/17405620802642306... Read more »
Marianne Heijkoop, Judith Semon Dubas, & Marcel van Aken. (2009) Parent-child resemblance and kin investment: Physical resemblance or personality similarity?. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6(1), 64-69. DOI: 10.1080/17405620802642306
- February 25, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 1,318 views
How quickly can we tell whether one person has the hots for another?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
People can recognise, from just ten seconds of video footage, whether one person has the hots for another.Skyler Place and colleagues made their finding using footage of couples on speed-dates. Fifty-four students observed dozens of 10-, 20- or 30-second clips of real speed dating interactions and attempted to say in each case whether each person was romantically interested in the other.The researchers had access to the daters' real decisions about whether they were interested in any of their speed dates, and were able to compare these with the students' judgements.The students performed more accurately than would be expected had they simply been guessing. They judged the interest of the male daters with 61 per cent accuracy and the female daters with 58 per cent accuracy. Their accuracy was unaffected by the length of each clip, but was higher when the clip was taken from the middle or the end of a dating interaction. Students currently in a romantic relationship outperformed those who weren't.Another key finding was that the students were less accurate when judging the romantic interest of females compared with males, just as the researchers had predicted. Place's team said it made sense for women to "behave more covertly and ambiguously" because there is more at stake for them in making a potential mating choice. By hiding their romantic interest, the researchers argued, women are able to give themselves more time to evaluate a potential partner before revealing their feelings.This is just the latest in a spate of recent studies to show how quickly and efficiently people are able to obtain information, or form judgements, about others. Last year, for example, Nick Rule and Nalini Ambady showed that observers were able to accurately judge men's sexual orientation within 50ms, and in 2006 Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov found that people judged the trustworthiness of others within 100ms._________________________________Skyler S. Place, Peter M. Todd, Lars Penke, Jens B. Asendorpf (2009). The Ability to Judge the Romantic Interest of Others. Psychological Science, 20 (1), 22-26 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02248.x... Read more »
Skyler S. Place, Peter M. Todd, Lars Penke, & Jens B. Asendorpf. (2009) The Ability to Judge the Romantic Interest of Others. Psychological Science, 20(1), 22-26. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02248.x
- July 25, 2008
- 03:23 AM
- 1,314 views
Is a vivid imagination at the heart of OCD?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Considering that obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterised by a fear that "bad things" will happen if certain rituals are not performed, it's surprising that so little is known about the role of imagination in the condition.All the more so given classic work by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky that showed the easier we find it to imagine a given outcome, the more probable we think that outcome will be - a phenomenon they dubbed the simulation heuristic.Following this logic, perhaps part of the reason people with OCD fear bad things will occur, if they don't perform their rituals, is because they find it so easy to imagine bleak consequences.Nadine Keen and colleagues have made an initial attempt to plug this gap in the literature, by testing whether there is an association between the ability of people with OCD to imagine a given feared scenario and their subsequent worry and belief that that scenario will actually occur.Seventeen men and thirteen women with OCD were presented with the beginnings and endings of various feared scenarios. For example, they were to imagine being served a meal in a restaurant by a waitress who they knew had just visited the toilet. They were then to imagine waking up the next morning feeling ill. Their task was to fill in the middle part of the story. The participants were presented with stories that were more or less relevant to their particular variety of OCD (e.g. hoarding or contamination-based), as well as control stories that had positive endings.The key prediction was that the ease with which the participants were able to fill in the missing gaps (as gauged by independent judges) would be linked with how likely they subsequently rated that scenario as being in real life, and therefore how worried they would be about it. However, this wasn't found. Ease of imagination predicted subsequent worry, but not how likely the participants thought that scenario would be. Moreover, ease of imagination wasn't linked with any cognitive features of OCD such as perfectionism.However, not all the results were negative. Participants found it easier to imagine the scenarios that were more relevant to their particular form of OCD, and the participants with more vivid imaginations showed more OCD-related symptoms.Although the key result turned out negative, the researchers concluded that there is reason to pursue this line of enquiry further. "The present approach has the potential for tapping into the type of dynamic and cyclical thinking processes at the heart of disorders like OCD that questionnaire methods are inadequate for accessing," they said._________________________________Keen, N., Brown, G.P., Wheatley, J. (2008). Obsessive compulsive symptoms and the simulation of future negative events. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 47(3), 265-279. DOI: 10.1348/014466508X282833... Read more »
Nadine Keen, Gary Brown, & Jonathan Wheatley. (2008) Obsessive compulsive symptoms and the simulation of future negative events. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 47(3), 265-279. DOI: 10.1348/014466508X282833
- July 16, 2008
- 05:03 AM
- 1,305 views
Tattoos, body piercings and self-harm - is there a link?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Some people say cutting their skin brings them relief from emotional pain - an act usually referred to as self-harm. Others enjoy having their body pierced with metal and their skin inscribed with permanent ink. Is there a link between these acts? According to the German psychologists Aglaja Stirn and Andreas Hinz, in some cases there might well be.The researchers collaborated with the body modification magazine Taetowiermagazin, recruiting 432 of their readers to complete a comprehensive questionnaire about their tattooing and piercing practices and motives.One hundred... Read more »
Aglaja Stirn, & Andreas Hinz. (2008) Tattoos, body piercings, and self-injury: Is there a connection? Investigations on a core group of participants practicing body modification. Psychotherapy Research, 18(3), 326-333. DOI: 10.1080/10503300701506938
- April 9, 2008
- 10:11 AM
- 1,285 views
Lads' mags and feelings of physical inadequacy - single men most at risk
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
We hear a lot about how the Western cultural ideal of an unrealistically skinny female figure can harm women's self-esteem and leave them feeling dissatisfied with their bodies. Now David Giles and Jessica Close have drawn attention to the fact that, with the media's increasing objectification of the male form, men too can be prone to feelings of physical inadequacy.Specifically, Giles and Close have shown that greater exposure to lads' mags, like Zoo and FHM, which routinely feature muscular male models, is associated with men wishing to be more muscular, and with their tending to... Read more »
D GILES, & J CLOSE. (2008) Exposure to ‘lad magazines’ and drive for muscularity in dating and non-dating young men. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(7), 1610-1616. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2008.01.023
- February 6, 2008
- 06:01 AM
- 1,273 views
A company's profits are linked to the facial appearance of its chief executive
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
When it comes to big business, appearances it seems, matter a lot. Companies whose chief executives have faces rated by observers as being more competent, dominant and mature, tend to be more profitable.Similarly, companies with a chief executive judged to be a good leader, based purely on his facial appearance, also tend to be more profitable. These associations still hold even after controlling for the influence of age and attractiveness.As Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady, who conducted the research, point out: it isn't at all clear whether chief executives with a cer... Read more »
Nicholas Rule, & Nalini Ambady. (2008) The Face of Success: Inferences From Chief Executive Officers' Appearance Predict Company Profits. Psychological Science, 19(2), 109-111. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02054.x
- May 28, 2008
- 05:03 AM
- 1,263 views
Harsh discipline makes aggressive children worse
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Parents should avoid harsh, combative ways of disciplining their aggressive children. That's according to psychologists whose new research shows that harsh parenting makes children more aggressive in the long run.Michael Sheehan and Malcolm Watson followed 440 children and their mothers for five years. On four occasions during that time, the mothers answered questions about their own style of parenting and their children's behaviour. At the start of the study, the children's average age was 10 years and by the final assessment their average age was 15.The results reveal... Read more »
Michael Sheehan, & Malcolm W Watson. (2008) Reciprocal influences between maternal discipline techniques and aggression in children and adolescents. Aggressive Behavior, 34(3), 245-255. DOI: 10.1002/ab.20241
- December 11, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,260 views
Sudoku puzzles show we're all capable of deductive reasoning
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
So much contemporary research in psychology focuses on the flaws in our thinking and the errors in our decision making. There is something refreshing therefore in a new study by Louis Lee and colleagues who have used the digit-placement puzzle Sudoku to argue, contrary to many others, that untrained people are capable of pure deductive reasoning - this is the ability to arrive at a logical conclusion by following the implications of one or more premises. In an initial experiment, ten Chinese Hong Kong university students who'd never played Sudoku before were presented with an easy, difficult and fiendish version of the puzzle. They were told the rules, but weren't given any advice on strategies to follow. As the participants filled in the missing digits, they were asked to explain how they'd identified their solutions.The participants solved only two digits per puzzle, thus showing how hard the puzzle is for naive players. However, for the answers they did find, the students were able to explain their deductive reasoning. "...[T]he solution to the puzzle Sudoku yields an insight into human competence that is in stark contrast to many psychological theories," the researchers argued. "Reasoners readily acquire the ability to make deductions about abstract contents, which are far removed from the exigencies of daily life and from the environment of our evolutionary ancestors."Further experiments by the researchers showed that the initial deductive reasoning strategies that players deploy can only get them so far. To solve difficult and fiendish puzzles, players have to deduce several possible missing digits at once, and use those possible digits to deduce the answers to other parts of the puzzle. Some of us give up before making this transition. But for those of us who move onto this more advanced stage, Lee's team said "this shift in strategy is analogous to shifting from proofs in the first-order predicate calculus to proofs in the first-order modal predicate calculus" - in other words, it's a pretty impressive display of logical prowess and further evidence of our ability to "make deductions about abstract matters remote from our mundane life"._________________________________N.Y. Louis Lee, Geoffrey Goodwin, P. N. Johnson-Laird (2008). The psychological puzzle of Sudoku. Thinking & Reasoning, 14 (4), 342-364 DOI: 10.1080/13546780802236308... Read more »
N.Y. Louis Lee, Geoffrey Goodwin, & P. N. Johnson-Laird. (2008) The psychological puzzle of Sudoku. Thinking , 14(4), 342-364. DOI: 10.1080/13546780802236308
- April 10, 2008
- 05:03 AM
- 1,253 views
Magic trick reveals gaze direction and attention are not always linked
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
When magicians trick people using sleight of hand, you'd think it was all about misdirecting where the audience - specifically their eyes - are looking, hence the aphorism: "the hand is quicker than the eye."But now psychologists in Durham and Dundee have shown that it's not so much where the audience's gaze is directed that is important, but rather where they are focusing their attention. That's right, the two things are not necessarily the same.Most of the time we pay attention to where we're looking, but we don't have to. For example, we can, if we want, stare straig... Read more »
Gustav Kuhn, Benjamin Tatler, John Findlay, & Geoff Cole. (2008) Misdirection in magic: Implications for the relationship between eye gaze and attention. Visual Cognition, 16(2), 391-405. DOI: 10.1080/13506280701479750
- September 19, 2008
- 01:00 AM
- 1,244 views
Exposing some holes in Libet's classic free will study
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Benjamin Libet's classic 1983 experiment purported to show that preparatory brain activity precedes our conscious decision to move - a controversial finding interpreted by some as evidence that free will is illusory.In Libet's study, participants reported the time on a clock at the instant they had decided to move a finger. This is less straightforward than it sounds. Visual processing is sluggish whereas participants were presumably instantly aware of when they'd made a conscious decision to move. This would have led them to report a decision time that was too early (i.e. at the instant of their decision, the participants' brains would only just have been getting round to processing an earlier time on the clock).Libet's team realised this, so in a separate control condition they also asked participants to report the timing of an electrical stimulus applied to their hand - the error in this time estimation was then used to apply a correction to participants' estimates of when they'd made a movement decision.But in a new study, Adam Danquah and colleagues point out that our different sensory modalities operate at different speeds. They copied the control condition of Libet's experimental set-up, but they asked participants to report not just the timing of a mild electric shock, but also of a flash in the centre of the clock, and the sound of a click (delivered through headphones).The researchers found that the participants' estimates were less accurate (i.e. even earlier) for the visual flash and auditory click than for the electric shock. In other words, Libet would have arrived at a different estimate of when participants had made a decision to move if he'd used a visual or auditory control task to make his adjustment."The degree of variability in bias across modalities and studies means that it is very difficult to know what correctional standard, if any, can be applied to awareness times of endogenous events [e.g. decisions]," the researchers wrote.However, defenders of free-will shouldn't take comfort in these new results. Danquah and his colleagues added an important note about the implications of their work: "the magnitude of the biases reported here suggests that they [Libet's team] underestimated the degree to which... [preparatory brain activity] preceded the intention to move!"In a second experiment, Danquah and his colleagues also identified another problem with the Libet paradigm. The clock used by Libet featured a dot that circled the clock-face, rather like a second-hand. Danquah's team showed that the speed at which the dot circled the clock face also affected participants' time estimations - the faster the dot, the more accurate participants' estimates became."The results reported here have implications for the whole tradition of having participants locate temporally subjective events using the clock paradigm," the researchers concluded._________________________________A DANQUAH, M FARRELL, D OBOYLE (2008). Biases in the subjective timing of perceptual events: Libet et al. (1983) revisited Consciousness and Cognition, 17 (3), 616-627 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2007.09.005Disclaimer: I was a participant in this study several years ago, during my student days in Manchester.... Read more »
A DANQUAH, M FARRELL, & D OBOYLE. (2008) Biases in the subjective timing of perceptual events: Libet et al. (1983) revisited. Consciousness and Cognition, 17(3), 616-627. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2007.09.005
- October 31, 2008
- 01:00 AM
- 1,243 views
Older people are less optimistic, but more realistic
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
They say we tend to view the past through rose-tinted spectacles but it seems that is far from a universal rule. According to psychologists in America our views on our past and future happiness change as a function of where we are in our lives.From a survey of over 3000 American adults conducted at two time points spaced nine years apart, Margie Lachman and colleagues found that younger and middle-aged people tended to underestimate their past happiness and to overestimate their future happiness - probably because to do so helps motivate them to strive for a better life.By contrast, older people (aged over 65) were more accurate in recalling their prior and future life satisfaction - in this case, to do so probably reflected their need to accept their life as it had been lived, combined with their greater understanding of our capacity to adjust emotionally to whatever life throws our way. Indeed, in line with the predictions of the older participants, most people's life satisfaction, in this study and others, actually changes very little through the years (in Western democracies, at least).Lachman's team also looked out how adaptive it was for people to have either rose-tinted or darkly clouded views of their past and future. The results showed that at whatever age, it is beneficial to have a more realistic view of the past and future. Those participants who more accurately perceived their past and future happiness tended to suffer less depression and enjoy better health."The young have an illusion of continued improvement, seeing the past as worse than it really was and the future as better than it turns out to be," the researchers said. "This illusion is consistent with their motivational orientation toward continued growth and gains."_________________________________Margie E. Lachman, Christina Röcke, Christopher Rosnick, Carol D. Ryff (2008). Realism and Illusion in Americans' Temporal Views of Their Life Satisfaction: Age Differences in Reconstructing the Past and Anticipating the Future Psychological Science, 19 (9), 889-897 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02173.x... Read more »
Margie E. Lachman, Christina Röcke, Christopher Rosnick, & Carol D. Ryff. (2008) Realism and Illusion in Americans' Temporal Views of Their Life Satisfaction: Age Differences in Reconstructing the Past and Anticipating the Future. Psychological Science, 19(9), 889-897. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02173.x
- February 8, 2008
- 07:02 AM
- 1,231 views
We're useless at choosing between time-saving options
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
From a host preparing for a dinner party to a country constructing a new national stadium, we all tend to underestimate how long things are going to take - an error that's been dubbed the 'planning fallacy'. According to Ola Svenson, contributing to this proclivity for tardiness is our inability to accurately decide between time-saving options.Consider these increases in speed for a 100km car journey. Don't work out the detailed mathematics. Rather, for both pairs, just make an intuitive judgement about which jump in speed will make the largest difference to your time of arrival (i... Read more »
O SVENSON. (2008) Decisions among time saving options: When intuition is strong and wrong. Acta Psychologica, 127(2), 501-509. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.09.003
- September 1, 2008
- 03:36 AM
- 1,230 views
Mirrors suppress people's prejudice
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
People exhibit less prejudice when they're in the presence of a mirror, Dutch researchers have shown. Carina Wiekens and Diederik Stapel said this effect occurs because mirrors make us more aware of our public appearance, and therefore remind us of the need to fall in line with social norms.An initial study with 164 students tested the effect of two manipulations: either being in the presence of a mirror, or scanning a passage of text for first-person pronouns like "I", "me" and "mine".The pronoun task activated the students' private self-awareness, increasing their agreement with statements like "I am trying to figure myself out". The presence of a mirror similarly increased private self-awareness, but also increased public self-awareness, leading students to agree more with statements like "I am aware of my appearance".Another experiment then tested the effect of these two manipulations on the prejudice of students towards Surinamese people (a significant ethnic minority in Holland). One hundred and twenty-seven students read an ambiguous story about a Dutch man or a Surinamese man that could either be interpreted positively (the man was sociable) or negatively (he was irresponsible).Students who'd revealed their prejudice in an earlier questionnaire were more likely to rate the Surinamese man in a negative way after they'd completed the pronoun task than were control students who didn't perform that task. By contrast, students sat in the presence of a mirror were less likely to rate the Surinamese man in a negative way, compared with control students who didn't have a mirror near them.The researchers concluded: "Our results suggest that when both private and public selves are activated [by the mirror] they do not cancel each other out when it concerns their input for normative behaviour. Rather, public concerns "win" and people show more appropriate, norm-driven behaviour."_________________________________WIEKENS, C., STAPEL, D. (2008). The Mirror and I: When private opinions are in conflict with public norms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1160-1166. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.02.005... Read more »
C WIEKENS, & D STAPEL. (2008) The Mirror and I: When private opinions are in conflict with public norms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1160-1166. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.02.005
- February 15, 2008
- 05:02 AM
- 1,228 views
Is it time to ditch the Hawthorne Effect?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
While use of the term 'Hawthorne Effect' is thriving in journals and textbooks, its meaning is so vague as to be unhelpful. That's according to Mecca Chiesa and Sandy Hobbs, who begin their argument by identifying the first use of the term. This was by John French in 1953, as he described experiments on the productivity of factory workers at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company, Chicago, between 1927-1933."From a methodological point of view," French wrote, "the most interesting finding was what we might call the 'Hawthorne Effect'....it was the 'artificial' social a... Read more »
Mecca Chiesa, & Sandy Hobbs. (2008) Making sense of social research: how useful is the Hawthorne Effect?. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(1), 67-74. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.401
- July 14, 2008
- 07:03 AM
- 1,223 views
Today's youth have inflated egos
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The youth of today - they seem so fearless, so pleased with themselves, don't they? If that's the perception, there are at least two possible explanations. Perhaps today's youngsters really are more egotistical. Alternatively, maybe levels of youthful narcissism haven't changed, it's just that, for any given era, the older folk will always think young people are full of themselves.In what they describe as "the most comprehensive examination to date" of this issue, American researchers, led by Jean Twenge at San Diego State University, have testing these two possible explanations by... Read more »
Jean Twenge, Sara Konrath, Joshua D Foster, W Keith Campbell, & Brad J Bushman. (2008) Egos Inflating Over Time: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality, 76(4), 875-902. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00507.x
- July 21, 2008
- 06:06 AM
- 1,219 views
Athletes benefit from being perfectionist
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Sports psychologists can't agree on whether or not perfectionism is a good or bad thing. The advantages are obvious and evoke images of the athlete practising a given shot, kick or putt over and over, until rare mastery is achieved. But the proposed downside is that perfectionism breeds anxiety and self-criticism, ultimately undermining performance.Oliver Stoll and colleagues believe part of the reason for the disagreement is that there are actually two aspects to perfectionism: one is striving for perfection, the other is having negative reactions to a less than perfect performanc... Read more »
O STOLL, A LAU, & J STOEBER. (2008) Perfectionism and performance in a new basketball training task: Does striving for perfection enhance or undermine performance?. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 9(5), 620-629. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2007.10.001
- August 27, 2008
- 04:34 AM
- 1,219 views
Neighbourhoods with too much or too little social cohesion may increase risk of schizophrenia
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The idea that social breakdown in a neighbourhood can increase the risk that some residents will develop schizophrenia may not come as too much of a surprise, but the notion that too much social cohesion might also be a risk factor, probably will.James Kirkbride and colleagues sent questionnaires to over 16,000 people in South London to obtain their views on the social cohesion of their neighbourhoods. For example, participants answered questions about how much graffiti was in their area, how many thefts there were and whether someone was likely to help their neighbours. Just over 4000 people replied.The data on neighbourhood social cohesion was then compared with new diagnoses of schizophrenia made in those areas over a period of twenty-four months, as recorded several years earlier by a separate study.The researchers found that neighbourhoods with either below or above average social cohesion, tended to have had more new incidences of schizophrenia, even after taking into account differences between neighbourhoods in the age, gender and ethnicity of the local populations.The harmful effect of low social cohesion is easier to explain: in socially fragmented neighbourhoods, people at risk of schizophrenia are less likely to receive the support they need to prevent them from developing psychosis. But what about the harmful effect of too much social cohesion? The researchers speculated that it's likely "some residents in neighbourhoods measured as having 'high' social capital were excluded from access to that social capital, conversely increasing their risk of schizophrenia." Another possibility is that schizophrenia is more likely to be detected in more socially cohesive neighbourhoods.Incidentally, although this study design can't prove that neighbourhood social cohesion directly causes changes in rates of schizophrenia, the researchers said it's unlikely that the causal relationship runs in the opposite direction, simply because absolute rates of schizophrenia are so low._________________________________Kirkbride, J., Boydell, J., Ploubidis, G., Morgan, C., Dazzan, P., McKenzie, K., Murray, R., Jones, P. (2008). Testing the association between the incidence of schizophrenia and social capital in an urban area. Psychological Medicine, 38(08) DOI: 10.1017/S0033291707002085... Read more »
J B Kirkbride, J Boydell, G B Ploubidis, C Morgan, P Dazzan, K McKenzie, R M Murray, & P B Jones. (2008) Testing the association between the incidence of schizophrenia and social capital in an urban area. Psychological Medicine, 38(08). DOI: 10.1017/S0033291707002085
- July 18, 2008
- 05:02 AM
- 1,216 views
Why psychologists are asking children to touch their toes
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Psychologists in America say they have found a simple and quick way to test young children's ability to concentrate and follow instructions in class - what they call "self-regulation".Self-regulation is said to reflect a combination of attention, inhibition and memory skills. It's a useful attribute to measure because it strongly predicts how well young children will do when they start school.The new "Head-to-Toes" Task requires that children listen to ten instructions, delivered in random order, telling them to either touch their head or their toes. Points are scored f... Read more »
C CAMERONPONITZ, M MCCLELLAND, A JEWKES, C CONNOR, C FARRIS, & F MORRISON. (2008) Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23(2), 141-158. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.01.004
- April 7, 2009
- 05:13 AM
- 1,216 views
How to improve group decision making
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
When it operates efficiently, a group's decision making will nearly always outperform the ability of any one of its members working on their own. This is especially the case if the group is formed of diverse members. One problem: groups rarely work efficiently.A new meta-analysis (pdf) of 72 studies, involving 4,795 groups and over 17,000 individuals has shown that groups tend to spend most of their time discussing the information shared by members, which is therefore redundant, rather than discussing information known only to one or a minority of members. This is important because those groups that do share unique information tend to make better decisions.Another important factor is how much group members talk to each other. Ironically, Jessica Mesmer-Magnus and Leslie DeChurch found that groups that talked more tended to share less unique information."What this suggests is that teams who talk more amongst themselves aren’t necessarily sharing useful information. Therefore, they’re not actually coming to a better result. Rather, it’s more important what the teams are talking about, than how much they are talking," said Mesmer-Magnus.Groups were also found to perform better when they engaged in so-called "intellective tasks" - that is, when they attempted to solve a problem where a correct answer exists, rather than seeking a consensus opinion or judgment.Another important factor was discussion structure. Groups particularly benefited from sharing unique information when they employed a highly structured, more focused method of discussion."Teams typically possess an informational advantage over individuals, enabling diverse personal experiences, cultural viewpoints, areas of specialization, and educational backgrounds to bring forth a rich pool of information on which to base decision alternatives and relevant criteria," the researchers concluded. "However, the current findings confirm that although sharing information is important to team outcomes, teams fail to share information when they most need to do so."Link to related Digest items, such as "forget brainstorming, try brainwriting"._________________________________Mesmer-Magnus, J., & DeChurch, L. (2009). Information sharing and team performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94 (2), 535-546 DOI: 10.1037/a0013773... Read more »
Mesmer-Magnus, J., & DeChurch, L. (2009) Information sharing and team performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(2), 535-546. DOI: 10.1037/a0013773
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