Psychology

HUMAN INSTINCTS   "The difference between men and women is that a woman wants one man to satisfy her every need, and a man wants every woman to satisfy his one need." Playboy’s Party Jokes, November 2009. Most will see the humor intended by this joke, even if they don’t like it being quoted from a chauvinist magazine like Playboy. The human female evolved to nurture the most genetically robust offspring possible. Contrasted with this, the human male is programmed to spread his genes as broadly as he can get away with. Early social mores developed to protect the female in her…

PREDESTINATION   Is it human free will that will bring threatening technologies to life? Our social systems are designed to maintain the status quo. Those in power fight to maintain their authority. Societies that maintain cohesion under external threat are more likely to withstand disasters. Our leaders guide us against threats by invoking powerful human emotions like faith, self-protection, pride, and loyalty. Leaders don’t try to invoke our higher logical reasoning powers. As a species we fall back on our instincts when stressed. This is a survival technique that has protected us…

If scientists could develop modelling system to predict the yield of a crop in particular area and time by calculating parameters of soil moisture, soil pH, rainfall, temperature range etc there should be some psychological method to gauze the mind of a voter or how to win heart of a voter in a democratic system by permissible means ? Perhaps its too early to suggest this but sooner or later this is going to happen that science will be able to read mind of person opposite to you. Science magazine some time ago put an entire issue on future of science or something like that where wild ideas of…

Part guidebook, part workbook, Ariel's book for neurotypical partners is sure to be considered a boon for spouses who know almost nothing about Asperger's Syndrome. Written by  Cindy Ariel, a licensed psychologist who provides therapy for a variety of issues, including relationships, it is an easy-to-read guide to understanding Asperger's Syndrome and why partners on the spectrum behave in ways that may be hard for those unfamiliar with the syndrome to understand. Much of this book is valuable for any couple struggling with issues dealing with miscommunication and unmet…

If you want to irritate a lot of people at once, write an article about evolutionary psychology. Publishing such an article will invariably provoke a firestorm of denunciations and criticisms. Given the vehemence of these attacks, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that the scientific basis for evolutionary psychology (or “evpsy” as it is sometimes abbreviated) was akin to tarot cards or bloodletting. Yet the basic premise of evpsy—that some aspects of the human brain and behavior were subject to evolutionary pressures—seems to be scientifically sound. So what is it about this subject that…

A recent study by University of Alberta researchers Elena Nicoladis and Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology wanted to see whether speaking French (being bilingual) influenced how children assigned gender to objects. It yielded some interesting observations, like that in the unilingual crowd, more cows are boys and cats are girls. The researchers showed objects or images to the children participating in the study and asked them whether the objects seemed to be masculine or feminine in nature.   Unilingual children identified most objects as…

There's a joke that goes when a man gets married, his wife changes everything about him and then complains he's not the man she married. While it isn't entirely true, the sentiment goes both ways. So if your significant other makes a romantic effort this Valentine's Day, give them some credit for trying instead of remembering all the ways they have let you down.  A new Northwestern University survey/study says that the more you believe your partner is capable of change and perceive that he or she is trying to improve, the more secure and happy you will feel in your relationship. That is…

The gap between atheists and the religious seems at times to be an impossible divide, almost as if believers and non-believers come from different species. What separates the secular from the sacred? An "Ask the Brains" question on the Scientific American site recently inquired as to any differences between the brain of an atheist and the brain of a religious person. Andrew Newberg, the director of research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital in Philadelphia, responded that, yes, in fact, there are some small but perceptible…

Conventional wisdom holds you're born with perfect pitch or you're not. The conventional wisdom is wrong. Here's how to train perfect pitch. For my book Brain Trust, I interviewed Diana Deutsch, University of California San Diego professor and president of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, and she said the trick is pairing pitch with meaning -- early! First, if you had perfect pitch, you’d know it, if for no other reason than people whistling in the airport would sound physically, painfully, out of tune. (This, according to my friend Ariel, who was an orchestral recorder…

Taking notes during class? Topic-focused study? A consistent learning environment? All are exactly opposite the best strategies for learning. Really, I recently had the good fortune to interview Robert Bjork, director of the UCLA Learning and Forgetting Lab, distinguished professor of psychology, and massively renowned expert on packing things in your brain in a way that keeps them from leaking out. And it turns out that everything I thought I knew about learning is wrong. Here's what he said. First, think about how you attack a pile of study material. “People tend to try to learn in blocks…