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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: psychology

psychology stories: 107 news summaries

1 - 20 of 107 Stories | 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next >>

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 Why Women Have Sex 

Psychologist discusses female sexuality, and what men can do to get ahead

Oct 6, 09 4:50 PM CDT
(Newser) - Psychologists Cindy Meston and David Buss, authors of the 2007 study “Why Humans Have Sex,” have completed a second go-round, this time focused on women only. They come up with 237 reasons, and though they're not enumerated in the article, Time asks Buss for some highlights:
  • Besides
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
sex • psychology • sexuality • revenge • dating • female sexuality

Couples Therapist's Solution to Marital Fight? Knife Hubby

NYC psychologist must have forgotten own advice

Oct 6, 09 12:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - A Manhattan couples therapist—who once told the New York Times the biggest problem between men and women is communication—is accused of knifing her husband in an argument. Joyce Poster-Lederman—or, as the Post calls her, “the frustrated female Freudian”—allegedly blew up during a... More »

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New York • marriage • psychology • assault • therapist • knife

 How Thin People 
 Make Other People Fat 

New study shows we mimic habits of those whose bodies we aspire to

Sep 29, 09 11:55 AM CDT
(Newser) - Existing research suggests those trying to control their food intake should avoid dining with hefty companions with heaping plates. Not quite, says a new study. While the "I'll have what she's having" effect was confirmed in this experiment with college-age women, it was much more pronounced if the person... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • psychology • eating • portions • scientific study • thin • fashion model • aspirational

 TV Noise Hurts Parent-Kid Bond 

Having TV on reduces quantity and quality of parent-child interactions

Sep 16, 09 8:35 AM CDT
(Newser) - Having a television on reduces parent-child interaction and may hold back the development of young children—even if nobody's watching it, according to a new study. Researchers studied children ages 1 to 3 playing with their parents with and without an adult's show like Jeopardy playing in the background and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • parenting • children • psychology • child development

Study: Talking to Pretty Women Makes Men Stupid

Trying to impress women can take up all the male brain's power, experiment finds

Sep 4, 09 8:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Men literally lose their minds when talking to women they find attractive, a new study finds. A group of Dutch psychologists—inspired to carry out the experiment after one of them forgot his address while talking to a pretty woman—tested the memory skills of 40 heterosexual volunteers before and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
women • men • beauty • psychology • psychologist • short-term memory

Love Boosts Creativity,
Lust Improves Logic: Study

Tests find that logic puzzles stump the romantic, while the lustful lack creative thinking

Sep 1, 09 9:29 AM CDT
(Newser) - The lovestruck enjoy a surge in creative powers while those who are merely randy are sharper logicians, a new study finds. Dutch researchers asked students to imagine either a romantic walk with a loved one or a one-night stand with a casual acquaintance before giving them a set of problems... More »

MORE ABOUT:
love • psychology • creativity

First US Internet Addiction Rehab Center Opens

For $14,500, reStart offers therapy, socialization

Aug 27, 09 5:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - The first US Internet addiction clinic has opened in Fall City, Wash. The Heavensfield Retreat Center offers “reStart,” a 45-day in-patient rehab program for Internet, video game, and texting addictions, LiveScience reports. Clients undergo talk therapy and social skills training, as well as feeding goats, raising chickens, and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • rehab • depression • Washington • addiction • psychology • Tufts University • therapy • Internet addiction • psychologist • Internet Addiction Disorder • clinic

(Newser) - If so many people are fat in this country, why is there so much venom against the overweight? Part of it can be chalked up to "self-loathing," write Kate Dailey and Abby Ellin in Newsweek. We're conditioned to consider extra pounds unattractive, and we get ticked off when... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • genetics • psychology • anger • overweight • World War I • thin • women's issues • hatred

interview

 Ya-Ya Sisterhoods 
 Stab You in the Back 

Author discusses the trials of adult female friendship

Aug 26, 09 2:09 PM CDT
(Newser) - According to today’s “Sex and the City ethos,” friends are there when romance falters. But in truth, female friendships “are just as complicated as marriages,” author Lucinda Rosenfeld tells Salon. That’s particularly true when it comes to envy, a theme of Rosenfeld’s new... More »

MORE ABOUT:
women • psychology • novel • friendship • women's issues • Lucinda Rosenfeld

Need to Think Hard? Hold
a Big Clipboard

Holding heavy objects makes us bear down, study suggests

Aug 26, 09 12:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Holding heavier objects could affect your thoughts and how you deal with problems. A University of Amsterdam researcher broke subjects into two groups, giving half a 1.5-pound clipboard and the rest a 2.3-pound clipboard. He then asked them several questions and discovered that the mere 0.8-pound difference... More »

MORE ABOUT:
weight • research • psychology

OPINION

 Common Psychology Myths 

Armchair therapists need to shut up

Aug 25, 09 9:35 PM CDT
(Newser) - Everyone likes to pretend they know things about psychology. Unfortunately, most of what you hear is total crap, a psychology student writes for Cracked. Some top offenders:
  • Let Your Anger Out, You’ll Feel Better: Actually, you’ll just want to be more angry. “Lashing out
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
homophobia • psychology • misconception • anger management • Cracked

 Forget Comfort Food: 
 We Shun It in Turmoil 

Studies suggest we don't seek solace in the familiar

Aug 25, 09 1:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - Conventional wisdom has it that when we face big changes, we look to the familiar to get us through—whether it’s comfort food or music we’ve loved for years. But new studies suggest the opposite is true, that “change begets change,” in the words of one... More »

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food • study • research • psychology • human behavior • change • women's issues

(AP) - Recently discovered records show the Virginia Tech gunman denied homicidal thoughts to a school counselor nearly a year and half before the worst mass shootings in modern US history. Seung-Hui Cho denied the thoughts in a session with counselor Sherry Lynch Conrad on Dec. 14, 2005. On April 16, 2007,... More »

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Seung-Hui Cho • homicide • school shooting • Virgina Tech • psychology • counseling • counselor

 Nature Makes You Nicer 

People more focused on others when primed with natural imagery, research shows

Aug 18, 09 4:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - Being around the natural world or representations of it makes you a better person, Miller-McCune reports. A study finds that people shown slides of natural landscapes rated community-oriented goals—such as “to work for the betterment of society”—as more important to them than self-oriented goals—for example,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
social responsibility • psychology • nature • generosity • community • social behavior

Video Games: The New Prozac

Classic time-wasters seem to ease the symptoms of depression in studies

Aug 18, 09 10:26 AM CDT
(Newser) - If depression's got you down, it might be time to turn to your Wii over your wee blue pills, reports the Washington Post in a look at how video games might ease the disease. For one depression sufferer, Bejeweled was "a big help in getting through to the next... More »

MORE ABOUT:
depression • mental health • psychology • video games • Jay-ZTV

Optimistic Women Face Lower Heart Disease Risk

Subjects less likely to die of any cause over set period

Aug 11, 09 10:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - Women 50 and up who see the glass as half full have a lower risk of getting heart disease—or dying of any cause—than their half-empty peers, a study suggests. Researchers found that over 8 years, the most optimistic subjects in their 97,000-woman-strong study faced a 9% lower... More »

MORE ABOUT:
health • women • heart disease • psychology • optimism • health research • health study • postmenopausal women • attitudes • women's issues

Soldier KIA,
But Adopted Puppy Comes
to America

He took in stray
in Iraqi war zone

Aug 8, 09 4:15 PM CDT
(Newser) - An Army major killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq has left a canine legacy—Laia, a stray puppy who made it back to America, the Los Angeles Times reports. Working on a transition team, Steven Hutchison found the dog loafing around his vehicle after a meeting. “Maj.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
US military • psychology • puppy • dog • Iraq war • Afghanistan war • war dead • Steven Hutchison

 Studies Agree: Happiness Comes With Age 

Mental health keeps improving even into one's '90s

Aug 8, 09 8:52 AM CDT
(Newser) - Greater happiness and better mental health may be the big payoff for aging. Exceptions abound, of course, but people generally get happier as they get older because they've learned how to tune out all the negative stuff, say researchers. A spate of new studies suggests that older people have better... More »

MORE ABOUT:
dementia • aging • psychology • American Psychological Association • emotion • happiness

(Newser) - Claims that sexual orientation can be changed through therapy have no scientific credibility, finds a new report by the American Psychological Association. The group reviewed 83 journal articles published over several decades and found that many studies purporting to show successful changed sexuality "contain serious design flaws." The... More »

MORE ABOUT:
mental health • psychology • homosexuality • sexual orientation • American Psychological Association • Ted Haggard

(Newser) - Gaydar is real, according to a new study, but only if you don’t think about it too hard. Participants were shown the faces of 98 straight women and 94 lesbians taken from a dating website, reports Miler-McCune, and were able to guess sexual orientation rapidly, at a rate better... More »

MORE ABOUT:
lesbians • psychology • gaydar • gay

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