Psychology

The idea that dogs tend to look like their owners is big news to no-one. Even before the days of Paris Hilton dressing her Chihuahua, ‘Tinkerbell’ in mini-me outfits, it has long been observed that dogs and their owners often share a striking resemblance. Undoubtedly, the tall, willowy blonde can be seen walking her Afghan hound in the local park, while the Staffordshire bull terrier will be accompanied by an equally tough-looking bloke. Amusing as the idea might be, is there any real evidence to support this, or is it just chance? Believe it or not, scientists in America have been funded to…

Music decreases children's perceived sense of pain, say the authors of an article in JAMA Pediatrics.   The team conducted a clinical research trial of 42 children between the ages of 3 and 11 who came to the pediatric emergency department at the Stollery Children's Hospital and needed IVs. Some of the children listened to music while getting an IV, while others did not. Researchers measured the children's distress, perceived pain levels and heart rates, as well as satisfaction levels of parents, and satisfaction levels of health-care providers who administered the IVs. The analysis took…

Sociology might actually have an explanation for the odd popularity of Tori Amos songs - depressing music might evoke positive emotions, according to a new paper. Obviously depending on your age you can just insert Joy Division or The Smiths where it says Tori Amos and get the idea. Some music can be a real downer. But some music always has been. There is a reason why funeral music uses minor keys - and movies have used it for similar emotional effect since their inception. But soundtracks are interspersed with lots of other music, they are not all dirges. Most people would assume that sad…

Yoga improves the mood and mental wellbeing of prisoners, say psychologists who report that after a ten-week yoga course, the convicts reported improved mood, reduced stress and were better at a task related to behavior control than those who continued in their normal prison routine.  The work was inspired by the Prison Phoenix Trust, an Oxford-based charity that offers yoga classes in prisons. They approached Oxford University psychologists about conducting the study to assess the benefits. The study was designed, analyzed and published independently of the Trust Oxford psychologists,…

According to a survey, fewer Americans overall feeling the blues, with rates of depression in people over 50 on the decline. The only catch: the survey analysis was from the years 1998-2008, before the economy lost $17 trillion dollars, American unemployment skyrocketed and taxes and the cost of living rose. But if you want to think about the salad days of 2008, rates of severe depression fell among the majority of older adults from 1998 levels, especially the elderly, who have historically been a higher risk group for depression - except late middle agers between ages 55-59, who appeared to…

The uncanny valley has a new hill to climb - our ability to consider it human-like depends on its role in our lives, say a group of scholars.  And roles are also important in positive feelings. Designers and engineers assign robots specific roles, such as servant, caregiver, assistant or playmate and the scholars analyzing  60 interactions between college students and Nao, a social robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French company specializing in humanoid robots, found that people expressed more positive feelings toward a robot that would take care of them than toward a robot…

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are psychological disorders characterized by extreme eating behavior and distorted body image – both have few proven effective treatments. A new paper suggests that the altered function of neural circuitry contributes to restricted eating in anorexia and overeating in bulimia. The study used functional MRI to test this neurocircuitry by measuring the brain response to sweet tastes in 28 women who had recovered from either anorexia or bulimia.Relative to a cohort of 14 women who had never suffered from either disorder, those recovered from anorexia had…

If you apply for a job and the company is interested, they will look at your social media presence to find risky behavior that they're not allowed to come right out and ask about. A new paper, by people who are not actually in the business of hiring anyone, finds that companies may have a fundamental misunderstanding of online behavior and, as a result, may be eliminating desirable job candidates. The psychologists tested 175 study participants to measure the personality traits that companies look for in job candidates, including conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion. The…

As narratives of modern “hook-up” culture in young people take center stage in popular media, behavioral researchers are starting to ask what psychological consequences, if any, may be in store for young adults who engage in casual sex. A new survey found higher levels of general anxiety, social anxiety, and depression among students who recently had casual sex. The authors surveyed over 3,900 heterosexual college students from across the United States about their casual sex behaviors and mental well-being. “Casual sex” was defined as having intercourse with a partner one has known for less…

Adults may not understand what an infant is feeling but it's child's play to another baby. A paper in Infancy contends that infants can recognize each other's emotions by five months of age.  "Newborns can't verbalize to their mom or dad that they are hungry or tired, so the first way they communicate is through affect or emotion," says  psychology professor Ross Flom  of Brigham Young University . "Thus it is not surprising that in early development, infants learn to discriminate changes in affect." The author has also written that infants' can understand the moods of dogs,…