Psychology

The nature of social science is that you will frequently find papers arguing contradictory positions, and nothing shows that like video games. On Science 2.0 alone, you can find dozens of studies arguing both sides. Mirjana Bajovic of Brock University quizzed a group of eighth-graders (aged 13–14) about their playing habits and patterns and determined their stage of moral reasoning using an established scale of one to four. The goal was to determine if there was a link between the types of video games teens played, how long they played them, and the teens’ levels of moral reasoning: their…

Do you prize your self on individual initiative or do you feel like the events in your life are outside your control and you just have to react? Do you think there needs to be more rules and regulations to manage things for you, or would you rather make it on your own? An article in Health Psychology finds that how you view your life can affect your risk of mortality; people who believe they can achieve goals despite hardships are more likely to live longer and healthier lives, especially among those with less education. People with a high school diploma or less tend to die younger than…

It's counterintuitive but psychologists say we tend to remember unattractive faces more likely than attractive ones - attractive faces leave much less distinctive impressions on our memory unless they have particularly remarkable features. Dr. Holger Wiese of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena  can remember what actress Angelina Jolie looks like, for example. He lauds her great eyes, full lips and harmonious features. She is, to him, memorable, while many Americans can't name a movie she was in, but that is in contrast to his research, which finds unattractive is usually more…

Increased awareness and a much broader range of conditions being part of the autism 'spectrum' has been good for therapists but is placing huge demands on health care systems and health care professionals. A review published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) seeks to help physicians provide appropriate medical support to families of children who may have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), everything from detection to treatment. ASD includes a wide variety of traits that range from mild to severe and is estimated to affect about 1% of the population. The review, by…

A derided 1990s hypothesis of consciousness may have gotten new life, according to a review in Physics of Life Reviews, which claims that consciousness derives from deeper level, finer scale activities inside brain neurons. Nothing controversial about that, right? Indeed there isn't, but the problem with these is always the same; if Leonardo da Vinci wrote something hundreds of years ago that might be construed to be about the Internet, he didn't invent the Internet, and finding consciousness physically someday does not mean a particular claim is validated, but the authors of a new review,…

If you have ever visited a doctor's office, there is a 50 percent chance you left feeling ashamed or guilty, according to psychologists from the University of California, San Diego. And what happened next? Perhaps you were motivated to make changes in an unhealthy behavior. Or, did you just lie to that doctor on subsequent visits? Avoid him or her? Maybe even terminate treatment entirely? Shame and guilt as a direct result of interacting with a doctor are quite common, says Christine Harris, professor of psychology in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences, as are both positive and…

If you are stressed about giving a public speech or a presentation to your boss, it helps to talk about it - if the person you are talking to is also stressed out. People benefit by spending time and conversing with someone whose emotional response is in line with theirs. Such an alignment may be helpful in the workplace. "For instance, when you're putting together an important presentation or working on a high-stakes project, these are situations that can be threatening and you may experience heightened stress," says Sarah Townsend, assistant professor of management and organization at the…

Can last meals reveal something the innocence of guilt of individuals on death row? Some have argued there is significance embedded in death row last meal decisions. Famously/weirdly, cop-killer Ricky Ray Rector asked to save his untouched pecan pie for after his execution, which sparked significant discussion about Rector's competency; on the basis of his food request. In a documentary film about such last suppers, artists Bigert and Bergstrom claimed a connection between whether or not an individual choses to have a last meal and his or her guilt. In each case, there is an assertion that…

If you can't get by without caffeine and won't give it up even if you have a condition that may be impacted by it, such as pregnancy, a heart condition, or a bleeding disorder, you may have "Caffeine Use Disorder."  Caffeine is the most commonly used drug in the world, according to the authors of a new paper, and is found in everything from coffee and soda, to OTC pain relievers and a bunch of stuff with some form of the word "energy" on the label, but they say health professionals have been slow to characterize problematic caffeine use and acknowledge that some cases may call…

There are efforts to label obesity as a mental illness and a physical addiction. While that's good for psychologists who want get eating therapy paid by insurance claims, it may undermine healthy behaviors, according to a paper in Psychological Science. Calling obesity an illness or a disease or a genetic issue makes it exculpatory, they note. Obese people already have poor impulse control and the new findings show that obese individuals exposed to 'it's a disease' messages placed less importance on health-focused dieting and reported less concern about weight. These beliefs, in…