Psychology posts
- March 30, 2010
- 11:20 AM
- 395 views
Up in the Air, Stressing Out
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Jet lag is the perennial unwelcome companion of the air traveler, an experience that can make one’s mind feel like it was left back at the airport. That powerful disorientation has made jet lag a topic of interest for scientists, who have looked at changes to a person’s brain chemistry and physiology after lengthy, intercontinental [...]... Read more »
Doane, L., Kremen, W., Eaves, L., Eisen, S., Hauger, R., Hellhammer, D., Levine, S., Lupien, S., Lyons, M., Mendoza, S.... (2010) Associations between jet lag and cortisol diurnal rhythms after domestic travel. Health Psychology, 29(2), 117-123. DOI: 10.1037/a0017865
- March 30, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 375 views
The danger of goals and power
by David Winter in Careers - in Theory
Two of the frequent aims of career coaching or counselling are to empower clients and to help them develop amibtious personal goals. Nothing could possibly be wrong with that, you might think.
However, according to studies performed by Mario Weick, from the University of Kent, and Ana Guinote, from University College London, people who experience feelings [...]... Read more »
Weick, M., & Guinote, A. (2010) How Long Will It Take? Power Biases Time Predictions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.03.005
- March 29, 2010
- 11:39 PM
- 997 views
Climate change and philosophy of science: Does climate science aim at truth?
by Michael Slezak in Good, Bad, and Bogus
A couple of weeks ago there was an interesting exchange in The Guardian between George Monbiot and Nicholas Maxwell, a philosopher of science from University College London. In his piece, Monbiot presents an excellent, if overly pessimistic, analysis of the psychology behind climate change denial. In his response, Maxwell draws on some interesting results from the philosophy [...]... Read more »
Cartwright, Nancy. (2004) Do the laws of physics state the facts?. Readings on the Laws of Nature. info:/
Kitcher, P. (1981) Explanatory Unification. Philosophy of Science, 48(4), 507. DOI: 10.1086/289019
- March 29, 2010
- 02:35 PM
- 3,884 views
“You’re just being a hypochondriac” – health anxiety & chronic pain
by Adiemusfree in Healthskills: Skills for Healthy Living
I think that label has to be one of the most feared amongst the people I see with chronic pain. To be judged as being obsessed about nonexistant illnesses when actually having pain every day must be incredibly difficult to cope with. At the same time, being anxious about health and having mistaken beliefs about [...]... Read more »
Abramowitz, J., Deacon, B., & Valentiner, D. (2007) The Short Health Anxiety Inventory: Psychometric Properties and Construct Validity in a Non-clinical Sample. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 31(6), 871-883. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-006-9058-1
- March 29, 2010
- 05:48 AM
- 533 views
Scary health messages can backfire
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
A short while ago there was a shocking advert on British TV that used slow motion to illustrate the bloody, crunching effects of a car crash. The driver had been drinking. Using these kind of scare tactics for anti drink-driving and other health issues makes intuitive sense. The campaigners want to grab your attention and demonstrate the seriousness of the consequences if their message is not heeded. However, a new study makes the surprising finding that for a portion of the population, scare ta........ Read more »
Nestler, S., & Egloff, B. (2010) When scary messages backfire: Influence of dispositional cognitive avoidance on the effectiveness of threat communications. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(1), 137-141. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2009.10.007
- March 29, 2010
- 03:30 AM
- 533 views
Monday Pets: Dumb Guinea Pigs?
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
Domestic animals and their wild counterparts can be different in big ways; there can be differences in morphology (physical characteristics), physiology, and behavior. These changes may depend on spontaneous adaptations to captivity or to artificial selection pressures arising from the motivation for domesticating the animal in the first place. For example, some of the morphological [...]... Read more »
Lewejohann L, Pickel T, Sachser N, & Kaiser S. (2010) Wild genius - domestic fool? Spatial learning abilities of wild and domestic guinea pigs. Frontiers in zoology, 7(1), 9. PMID: 20334697
- March 29, 2010
- 02:39 AM
- 1,766 views
Specialty Choice Medical Students: “Get A Life”
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
Lifestyle is the most important factor for medical students in their specialty choice. With specialty choice in this research is meant the distinction between person oriented and technique oriented specialty.
person-oriented specialties are considered to be family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and psychiatry, whereas technique-oriented specialties are anesthesiology, dermatology, [...]
Related posts:Emotional Intellig........ Read more »
Borges, N., Manuel, R., Duffy, R., Fedyna, D., & Jones, B. (2009) Influences on specialty choice for students entering person-oriented and technique-oriented specialties. Medical Teacher, 31(12), 1086-1088. DOI: 10.3109/01421590903183787
Manuel, R. (2009) Person-Oriented Versus Technique-Oriented Specialties: Early Preferences and Eventual Choice. Medical Education Online. DOI: 10.3885/meo.2009.Res00284
- March 28, 2010
- 02:26 PM
- 896 views
Inattentional blindness for sword swallowing
by Daniel Simons in The Invisible Gorilla
A possible example of inattentional blindness... Tourists fail to notice when Ig Nobel winner Dan Meyer swallows a sword in front of the famous Liverpool Cavern Club (where the Beatles played).... Read more »
Simons DJ, & Chabris CF. (1999) Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception, 28(9), 1059-74. PMID: 10694957
Witcombe B, & Meyer D. (2006) Sword swallowing and its side effects. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 333(7582), 1285-7. PMID: 17185708
- March 28, 2010
- 10:49 AM
- 567 views
universal human mate preference: four dimensions or eight factors?
by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap
Image via Wikipedia
In my last post I had mentioned how Seligman and Peterson have tried to correlate their structure of human virtues/character strengths with work of other researchers like the universal dimensions of human mate preferences discovered by Buss et al. Today I wish to discuss in detail the universal dimensions of human mate preferences More >Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
Related posts:Alien Vs Predator : would eugenics and mate selction divide us in two? An inter........ Read more »
SHACKELFORD, T., SCHMITT, D., & BUSS, D. (2005) Universal dimensions of human mate preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(2), 447-458. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2005.01.023
Haslam, N., Bain, P., & Neal, D. (2004) The Implicit Structure of Positive Characteristics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(4), 529-541. DOI: 10.1177/0146167203261893
- March 28, 2010
- 12:39 AM
- 645 views
Paranormal Seizure Activity
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Scene from Paranormal ActivityAfter a young, middle class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban “starter” tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night.Especially when they sleep. Or try to.A new case study in Cortex by neurologist Dr. Fabienne Picard (2010) reports on a patient who experienced unusual phenomena during epileptic seizures. She had the convincing sense that sev........ Read more »
Picard, F. (2010) Epileptic feeling of multiple presences in the frontal space. Cortex. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2010.02.002
- March 27, 2010
- 10:02 PM
- 665 views
Relationship Breakdown Aggravates Male Suicide
by Ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
Ide et al. (2010) think that we have much to learn about the psychosocial context in which relationships wither, and suicidal behaviours become a prominent concern.... Read more »
Ide, N., Wyder, M., Kolves, K., & De Leo, D. (2010) Separation as an Important Risk Factor for Suicide: A Systematic Review. Journal of Family Issues. DOI: 10.1177/0192513X10365317
- March 27, 2010
- 02:11 AM
- 678 views
The factor structure of virtues and perosnality: a continuing mess
by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap
Image via Wikipedia
Continuing my theme of focusing on human character strengths and virtues and relating them to personality, I have been doing more reading of the literature and want to discuss three papers today.
First up is Shyrack et al’s recent paper that again explores the factor structure of VIA-IS and finds support for a 3 More >Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
Related posts:Character strengths and virtues: a 5/8 factor structure? Image via Wikipedia Positive psychol........ Read more »
Shryack, J., Steger, M., Krueger, R., & Kallie, C. (2010) The structure of virtue: An empirical investigation of the dimensionality of the virtues in action inventory of strengths. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(6), 714-719. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.007
MACDONALD, C., BORE, M., & MUNRO, D. (2008) Values in action scale and the Big 5: An empirical indication of structure. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(4), 787-799. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2007.10.003
CAWLEY, M., MARTIN, J., & JOHNSON, J. (2000) A virtues approach to personality1. Personality and Individual Differences, 28(5), 997-1013. DOI: 10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00207-X
- March 26, 2010
- 04:14 PM
- 790 views
Character strengths and virtues: a 5/8 factor structure?
by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap
Image via Wikipedia
Positive psychology is based on the premise that it is equally important to study what is good in life as it is to study what goes wrong. Positive psychology thus focuses on building and capitalizing on existing strengths of people while not focusing too much on their weaknesses, which has been focus More >Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
Related posts:The factor structure of Religiosity and its neural substrates A new article in PNAS by Grafman et al, argues...
C........ Read more »
Dahlsgaard, K., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2005) Shared Virtue: The Convergence of Valued Human Strengths Across Culture and History. Review of General Psychology, 9(3), 203-213. DOI: 10.1037/1089-2680.9.3.203
Brdar, I., & Kashdan, T. (2010) Character strengths and well-being in Croatia: An empirical investigation of structure and correlates. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(1), 151-154. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2009.12.001
- March 26, 2010
- 11:09 AM
- 516 views
Does Contact Cure Mental Illness Stigma?
by Ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
A brief overview by West et al. (2010) on mental illness stigma, in which the authors call for more focused research to improve understanding of this most unpalatable social problem.... Read more »
West, K., Hewstone, M., & Holmes, E. (2010) Rethinking 'Mental Health Stigma'. The European Journal of Public Health, 20(2), 131-132. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckq015
- March 26, 2010
- 06:51 AM
- 871 views
Decision makers want information…or do they?
by David Winter in Careers - in Theory
A new research paper claims that decision makers value information more than advice. Is that really true?... Read more »
Dalal, R., & Bonaccio, S. (2010) What types of advice do decision-makers prefer?. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.11.007
- March 26, 2010
- 04:29 AM
- 700 views
Large, longitudinal study finds tentative links between internet use and loneliness
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Internet use is growing at a phenomenal rate and much ink has been spilled by commentators forecasting the psychological consequences of all this extra web-time. A lot of that comment is mere conjecture whilst many of the studies in the area are cross-sectional, with small samples, producing conflicting results. The latest research contribution comes from Irena Stepanikova and her colleagues and involves a massive sample, some of whom were followed over time. The results suggest that more time o........ Read more »
Stepanikova, I., Nie, N., & He, X. (2010) Time on the Internet at home, loneliness, and life satisfaction: Evidence from panel time-diary data. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(3), 329-338. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2009.11.002
- March 26, 2010
- 03:11 AM
- 491 views
Remembering Arbitrary Rules After Ten Years
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
Meet Rio.
Figure 1: Rio.
Rio is a California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus). She was born in captivity at Marine World in Northern California, and due to insufficient maternal care from her biological mother, she was transferred to the Long Marine Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz when she was just a few days old. There, she was [...]... Read more »
Reichmuth Kastak C, & Schusterman RJ. (2002) Long-term memory for concepts in a California sea lion ( Zalophus californianus). Animal cognition, 5(4), 225-32. PMID: 12461600
- March 25, 2010
- 03:40 PM
- 1,257 views
Fear of pain, not always fear of harm
by Adiemusfree in Healthskills: Skills for Healthy Living
I know it’s actually Friday Funnies day, but before I go there I want to explore something I’ve been observing for a while. Over the past four or five years, the TSK (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia) has been a really popular instrument for identifying and monitoring pain-related anxiety and avoidance. It has been found to [...]... Read more »
CARLETON, R., & ASMUNDSON, G. (2009) The Multidimensionality of Fear of Pain: Construct Independence for the Fear of Pain Questionnaire-Short Form and the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20. The Journal of Pain, 10(1), 29-37. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2008.06.007
Ostelo RW, Swinkels-Meewisse IJ, Knol DL, Vlaeyen JW, & de Vet HC. (2007) Assessing pain and pain-related fear in acute low back pain: what is the smallest detectable change?. International journal of behavioral medicine, 14(4), 242-8. PMID: 18001240
- March 25, 2010
- 11:36 AM
- 1,299 views
Cultural Transmission in Chimpanzees
by Eric Michael Johnson in The Primate Diaries
Culture defines who we are but few can explain where it comes from or why we adopt one tradition over another. In the classic musical The Fiddler on the Roof the main character, Tevye, muses on this basic fact of human existence:
Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything... how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl... This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradit........ Read more »
Lind, J., & Lindenfors, P. (2010) The Number of Cultural Traits Is Correlated with Female Group Size but Not with Male Group Size in Chimpanzee Communities. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009241
- March 25, 2010
- 11:05 AM
- 784 views
Poverty of Stimulus and Ecological Laws
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
The first critique of Gibson's perceptual psychology came from noted cognitive scientists Fodor & Pylyshyn (1981). The critique was simply that Gibsonian information is an empty concept; however, this critique is ably addressed by Turvey, Shaw, Reed & Mace in the 'ecological laws' paper.... Read more »
Fodor, J., . (1981) How direct is visual perception?: Some reflections on Gibson's “ecological approach”. Cognition, 9(2), 139-196. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(81)90009-3
Turvey, M. T., Shaw, R. E., Reed, E. S., . (1981) Ecological laws of perceiving and acting: In reply to Fodor and Pylyshyn (1981). Cognition, 9(3), 237-304. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(81)90002-0
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