Psychology

A new study has found that  a therapeutic music process that includes writing song lyrics and producing videos helps adolescents and young adults undergoing cancer treatment gain coping skills and resilience-related outcomes. The authors suggest that such music therapy interventions can provide essential psychosocial support to help young patients positively adjust to cancer. Few interventions target the  psychosocial needs of adolescents and young adults with cancer. Joan E. Haase, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Sheri L. Robb, PhD, MT-BC, led the team that tested a music therapy…

With the cost of American health care set to increase substantially, the search is on to start forcing people to curb preventable diseases, like those related to obesity. But it may not be a choice, according to some psychologists. The same way that people can be addicted to drugs and alcohol, they can have an unhealthy relationship with food.  More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, putting them at greater risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. The estimated annual medical cost of…

Obesity has risen and everyone wants to assign blame. New York City blamed trans fats before they blamed sodas, San Francisco blamed McDonald's marketing. But outside government policy makers, most people consider obesity a choice. And the data is on their side. Every study throughout history has found that people who burn more calories than they consume lose weight, and that goes for weight gain also. A new survey by two food economists confirmed that even obese people don't blame restaurants, grocery stores, farmers, or government policies for obesity, which means that creating and…

If you think wilding was much more civilized when you were young, well, you're old. Older people are more likely to regard the behavior of younger people as anti-social, even if it doesn't bother young people at all. One example is swearing. 80% of adults in a recent survey thought swearing in a public place was anti-social behavior compared while less than 43% of young people did. When it comes to skateboarding on the street, over 60% of adults were against it while less than 8% of young people were. Mysteriously, even douchebikery behavior by cyclists had a generation gap regarding how…

Comments on anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs) in online forums like YouTube degrade the persuasiveness of the videos - even if the comments are positive. PSAs lose their effectiveness when the public being protected is allowed to discuss. Comments are controversial, and even science media is not immune. The problem is not spam, organizations can get rid of that by requiring a login. Contradictory comments are also a concern and so some popular websites that prefer to talk at the audience have banned comments by the public entirely. They may be onto something, according to…

Someone who wants to commit suicide, or a homicide, is not prevented by a lack of guns, but access makes it easier.  A meta-analysis, a statistical look at various studies that shows patterns, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, pooled results from 15 investigations, slightly more than half of which were done after a 1996 federal law prohibited the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from funding research that promotes gun control. The authors determined that someone with access to firearms is three times more likely to commit suicide and nearly twice as likely to be the…

Are you obsessed with checking email? You could be damaging your mental health and that of their colleagues too, according to Kingston University occupational psychologist Dr. Emma Russell. Russell says she has identified 7 deadly email sins that can lead to 'negative repercussions' if not handled correctly. Some of the worst habits include 'ping pong' messages back and forth and 'read receipts', which accompany every missive sent, the study, looking into which email practices stress employees out, found. Russell analyzed 28 email users across different companies to see which…

One of the less positive aspects of race-baiting culture left over from the 1960s is the charge that you are 'not black enough' if you don't dress, act or speak in a stereotypical way. CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien had civil rights leader Jesse Jackson tell her she "didn't count" as a black anchor on the network, as an example, because he needed to assert that CNN didn't have enough black people. It isn't just old black men. Old white man Bill Maher was chastised by black comedian Wayne Brady for the claim that both he and President Obama were not "black enough" - in the President's case…

Children believe the world is far more segregated by gender than it actually is, according to a psychology paper which analyzed classroom friendships in five U.S. elementary schools.   While the boys and girls had no problems being friends together, they had a perception that only boys played with boys and girls played with girls. The biological differences were a clear differentiating point. If so, does that mean the cause is evolutionary psychology, social psychology or sociology? Jennifer Watling Neal and colleagues examined classroom friendships in five U.S. elementary schools.…

In a future where the public will be paying for health care, the patience for preventable diseases, like those related to smoking and overeating, is dwindling. But current weight loss messages and the stereotyping in the media -  that characterize overweight individuals as lazy, weak-willed, self-indulgent and contributing to rising health care costs — may be tipping the scales in the wrong direction. Designed to encourage weight loss, they may actually have the opposite effect, according to U.C. Santa Barbara psychology professor Brenda Major. It works in some circumstances. Shortly…