Psychology
Writing in Alcoholism: Clinical&Experimental Research, scientists say that older adults who have more money, engage in more social activities, and whose friends approve more of drinking are more likely to engage in excessive or high-risk drinking.
Researchers examined 719 (399 men, 320 women) 55 to 65-year-old adults at baseline (between 1986-1988), and then again 10 and 20 years later. At each contact point, participants provided information regarding their drinking, as well as their social and financial resources.
"Our findings show that, one, certain social factors may enhance the…
For many recovering alcoholics, AA is the primary reason they're able to kick their addiction and stay sober. According to a new study in the Journal Addiction, one of many reasons that the program is so successful appears to be alleviation of depression. Researchers have found that study participants who attended AA meetings more frequently had fewer symptoms of depression – along with less drinking – than did those with less AA participation.
The researchers analyzed data from Project MATCH, a federally funded trial comparing three treatment approaches for alcohol use disorder in more than…
Married couples who refer to themselves as 'we' may annoy everyone around them, but probably have healthier marriages than people who emphasize individuality in their relationships, according to a recent study published in Psychology and Aging.
UC Berkeley Researchers analyzed conversations between 154 middle-aged and older couples about points of disagreement in their marriages and found that those who used pronouns such as "we," "our" and "us" behaved more positively toward one another and showed less physiological stress.
In contrast, couples who emphasized their "separateness" by using…
As someone who occasionally (or sometimes more than occasionally) says the wrong thing in an attempt to be helpful or comforting of "fix" the situation, I was particularly terrified by a recent article in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Beehr, Bowling, and Bennett's article titled "Occupational stress and failures of social support: When helping hurts" appears in this month's JOHP. In the interest of full disclosure (my personal motto), I'll admit that my university does not yet have full access to the article and my own personal hard copy has not arrived in the mail yet (one…
Whether prayer is supernatural or not, the common religious practice may generally benefit the Nine out of 10 Americans who say they pray. In a recent study appearing in Psychological Science, researchers found that when people's prayers are directed at those who have wronged them they're more likely to forgive and move on.
The conclusion is based on two experiments. In the first, researchers had a group of men and women pray one single prayer for their romantic partner's well being. Others—the experimental controls—simply described their partner, speaking into a tape recorder.
The team then…
Research has documented that most men become much more jealous about sexual infidelity than they do about emotional infidelity. Women are the opposite. The prevailing theory is that the difference has evolutionary origins: Men learned over eons to be hyper-vigilant about sex because they can never be absolutely certain they are the father of a child, while women are much more concerned about having a partner who is committed to raising a family.
New research conducted by Pennsylvania State University psychologists now suggests an alternative explanation. The study argues that the difference…
Research conducted at the University of Chicago shows that female elementary school teachers who are anxious about math often pass the phobia on to female students. Published in a recent edition of PNAS, the findings are the product of a year-long study on 17 first- and second-grade teachers and 52 boys and 65 girls who were their students. The researchers found that boys' math performance was not related to their teacher's math anxiety while girls' math achievement was affected.
To determine the impact of teachers' mathematics anxiety on students, the team assessed teachers' anxiety about…
A new study conducted by University of Virginia psychologists suggests that well-adapted youth with positive friendships will use social networking sites like facebook and myspace to enhance the positive relationships they already have. The study also indicates, however, that teens who have behavioral problems and difficulty making friends, or who are depressed, may be more inclined to use social media in negative and sometimes aggressive ways, or not to use such sites at all.
The study appears in the January issue of Developmental Psychology.
Researchers assessed the friendship quality and…
A new study published in the Spanish Journal of Psychology indicates that in the West women experience much more guilt than men, and the primary reason is not that women feel too much guilt, but rather that many males feel too little. The authors say more needs to be done to "reduce the trend towards anxious-aggressive guilt among women and to strengthen interpersonal sensitivity among men."
The research was carried out using a sample from three age groups (156 teenagers, 96 young people and 108 adults) equally divided between males and females. The team of psychologists asked them what…
It's strange how quickly the image conjured up of a place can change so quickly for so many. If I'd used "Haiti" in the subject line two weeks ago, I'd guess most of you wouldn't quickly think of how it's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Maybe you'd remember that they speak French or that it's on an island. But now... the very name of the country is synonymous with damage, destruction, and heartbreak for many Americans who have caught glimpses of stories on CNN, the radio, Twitter badges and ribbons, facebook statuses and even text messaging donation campaigns. But more than…