Psychology

It's well known that young girls are very self-conscious about their bodies, but it may not be because of the unrealistically thin Disney characters they see on TV, as is often assumed. A new study featured in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology suggests that while the media's portrayal of beauty does influence how young girls see themselves, they aren't likely to suffer short-term consequences from watching Cinderella, a conclusion in sharp contrast to earlier studies which suggest that the self-esteem of older girls and women suffers after short-term exposure to thin, beautiful…

   The mind is a powerful thing. Not only does it allow us to control our entire body, but it allows us to also reason and solve problems facing the world today. It is said that we, as humans, use 10% of our brain power! If we are able to do the things we have done in the history of the world with only 10% imagine what we could accomplish with the other 90%. It is amazing to even think about all the possibilities that could happen if we had that ability.  What amazes me more is how much of the brain can control our bodies without us even realizing it. Let me share with a…

Considering the people and things most often googled these days, it maybe surprising to learn that search engines play a much bigger role in our lives than just helping us find pictures of Megan Fox and mildly entertaining videos of would-be wrestlers in their backyards. Specifically, search engines are becoming a major part of how we learn, according to research published in the November issue of Information Processing and Management.  Information scientists from Penn State sought to discover the cognitive processes underlying searching. They examined the search habits of 72…

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ focuses on this definition to measure well-being -- or happiness -- in surveys of 1,000 Americans every day. FEMA concerns Where is your state of happiness? What is your state of happiness? because of recent disasters like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike.   The Well-Being of 50 U.S. States presents a list based on…

Psychologists earlier this month confirmed what most parents likely already know about their  teenage children. The more they're involved in their kids' lives (Specifically, by knowing where their children are, who they're with and what they're doing), the less likely it is they will engage in illicit behavior--like smoking marijuana. In a review appearing in the current issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science,  Claremont Graduate University researchers Andrew Lac and William Crano examined the connection between parental monitoring and adolescent marijuana use and found…

If you don't think there's anything to learn by observing a bunch of drunk college students while they watch football and yell at the TV, you're missing out on a valuable cultural lesson. By studying the emotional reactions of college football fans to their favorite teams' on-field performances, communication experts say they have gained important insights into the relationship between entertainment and human emotion. Ohio State University researchers studied fans of two college football teams as they watched the teams' annual rivalry game on television. They found that fans of the winning…

Love and Being in Love: Love is in our mind and is fueled by chemicals and chemistry.New love produces the chemistry in love we all seek. Throughout history, mankind has deemed the heart the center of love. But scientists tell us love is all in our mind or brain. And fueled by chemicals and chemistry. Infatuation When two people are attracted to each other, a virtual explosion of adrenaline-like nuerochemicals gush forth. Fireworks explode and we see stars. PEA or phenylethylamine is a chemical that speeds up the flow of information between nerve cells. Also, involved in chemistry are…

Everybody understands that good parents have to lay down rules for their children as they grow up. However, too many rules can be a bad thing, says a new report in Current Directions in Psychological Science. According to the authors, numerous studies have found that in Western countries, when parents are too strict with their children, they can impede their psychological development. It has also been suggested that this effect may not be as strong in East Asian countries — researchers have posited that certain aspects of East Asian culture may make children more accepting of their parents'…

With the publication of a paper in the upcoming issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, science has finally confirmed what most people have long thought. According to the study, physical appearance says a lot when seeing someone for the first time. What most people likely don't know, however, is that first impressions based solely on appearance are actually fairly accurate. In the study, conducted by psychologists at Sonoma State University and the University of Texas at Austin, observers viewed full-body photographs of 123 people they had never met before. The targets were…

According to a new report published in the November issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, individuals who experience both adversity as children and traumatic events as adults are morelikely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than those individuals who experienceonly one of these kinds of incidents. The report also found that the risk was greater for individuals with a particular genetic mutation that may influence the way the brain processes the neurotransmitter serotonin, affecting an individual's anxiety levels and changing the way neurons react to fearful stimuli.…