Psychology

Schizophrenia may affect up to 1 percent of the population, it is diagnosed primarily in the teenage or early adult years, and is associated with problems in mental ability and memory. People who have a greater familial genetic link to schizophrenia are more likely to see a fall in IQ as they age, even if they do not develop the condition, according to psychologists in a new paper.  Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have not found genetic causes for schizophrenia but familial instances are considered a risk factor. The psychologists used genetic analysis matched with IQ test results…

Howard Blume over at “looseendsdotme” in Assisted Suicide for Jumpers provides us with a strange article on my Suicidal Philosophy (which is as yet largely unpublished for reasons that should be obvious).  I am not sure what Howard Blume’s aim is nor why the article is often so centered around me personally.  It seems that he believes that I am mostly correct but address the wrong crowd in ways that are either merely useless or even bad.  He seems to complain that Suicidal Philosophy is not helping those confused on the edge, those who threaten to jump, but Suicidal Philosophy…

Males and females differ in a lot of traits (besides the obvious ones) and some evolutionary psychologists have proposed hypotheses to explain some baffling ones. As an example, the slight, but significant, superiority in spatial navigation among males of many species is probably 'adaptive', they believe - meaning that over the course of evolutionary history that trait gave males an advantage that led them to have more offspring than their peers. A new analysis published in The Quarterly Review of Biology found no support for this hypothesis. The researchers looked at 35 studies that included…

Some controversial modern psychologists claim that conservatives and liberals don't just differ in political ideology, correlation and causation is inferred in actual personality templates and even genetics - yes, that would mean Americans are evolving into two distinct species separate from the rest of the planet. So in that odd framework they have decided American liberals are conscientious, conservatives are reactionary, conservatives are afraid of uncertainty, liberals are open to new experiences, etc.  You can guess the political skew of psychologists by knowing which fuzzy-wuzzy…

Which is more important, feeling close to your romantic partner or whether you are as close as you want to be, even if that's really not close at all?  Outside the social sciences, the answer is obvious. But in social psychology, it is a paper in time for Valentine's Day. Let's go to the surveys. A sample of 732 men and women, living across the U.S. and Canada, completed three yearly surveys online. They answered questions about relationship closeness, relationship satisfaction, commitment, break-up thoughts, and symptoms of depression. Current and ideal closeness were assessed by…

When is it time for parents to help and when it is time to back away? Since kids were having children of their own at age 18 a century ago it seems obvious that hovering over college-age students is not needed.  And a new paper in Journal of Child and Family Studies  says that college students with over-controlling parents are more likely to be depressed and less satisfied with their lives. This so-called helicopter parenting style negatively affects students' well-being by violating their need to feel both autonomous and competent. Parental over-involvement may lead to negative…

You might be a crackpot if you won't drink coffee because it is bad for your health, yet you are shoving it in your rectum multiple times per day.  "My Strange Addiction" on TLC this week has a story about a Florida couple who each have at least 100 coffee enemas per month, and totaling 6,000 in the last two years. How can they pull it off?  Vacations are clearly out of the question, since it involves a 32-ounce container full of coffee each time. Sorry, New York City residents, Mayor Bloomberg says you can't buy anything that big to put beverages in, you have to be protected from…

With greater wealth comes lesser need to worry about costs like diapers, it seems. Or Western parents don't know how to whistle. In the western world, babies now need diapers until an average of three years of age, nearly twice as long as 40 years ago. The situation in Vietnam is just the opposite. A study by scholars at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, followed 47 infants and their mothers in Vietnam, where potty training starts at birth and the need for diapers is usually eliminated by nine months of age.  The secret? Learning to be sensitive to when the baby…

While the cultural debate of nationalized health care is whether or not to let obese people and smokers die(1), a new paper in Spain says males are pressuring women to be thin and it is making females less happy. The psychologists also contend that women who are not comfortable with their body perceive women with a normal body as a threat. Specifically, when these women see a "normal" body they experience feelings of displeasure and lack of control, since they feel they have not any control on their own body and cannot make it be as they want. The undergraduate surveys were conducted by…

Some people believe in magic. In Science Left Behind, in the process of debunking claims that one American political party is overwhelmingly pro-science and one is anti-science,  we put a handy chart on page 213 itemizing the various anti-science positions of registered voters.  Sure, evolution and climate change was higher on one side but the list of anti-science beliefs by the other side was as long as your arm - astrology, psychics, ghosts, UFOs, homeopathy, you name it and that global-warming-accepting party is more anti-science - they just have better public relations.  …