September 1, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
Are two heads better than one? Maybe. Perhaps this doesn’t come as a surprise, because we all know on some level that even one “head” can be better than others in terms of memory. New research into “group memory,” or “social memory” sheds some light on how remembering together can be more or less effective. In part, it depends on the group’s “executive functioning”.…
August 30, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
It probably comes as little surprise to anyone, but a small exploratory study done on 100 college students from a single university suggests that students who score higher on a test of narcissism also spent more time checking and updating their Facebook profile.
Facebook is currently the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. More than 50% of Facebook’s active users log…
August 26, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
Psychology, like most professions, holds many little secrets. They’re well known and usually accepted amongst the profession itself, but known to few “outsiders” or even journalists — whose job it is to not only report research findings, but put them into some sort of context.
One of those secrets is that most psychology research done in the U.S. is consistently done primarily on…
August 25, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
Good works are links that form a chain of love.
— Mother Teresa
My nickname is eleven-fifty-nine. That is the time I show up at the bank on Saturdays. They close at noon. I know the tellers. They laugh each week when I come in. I laugh too. I always promise I will try to get there earlier next week. I never do. Life…
August 23, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
A recent blog entry by Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, recently came across my desk that made the outrageous claim that one cannot chose one’s religion. If one’s family is a Muslim, you will be too, no matter what you actually practice — genetically speaking.
He relates this piece of news by suggesting that Obama cannot choose to be a Christian, because his family was a Muslim.…
August 20, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
I’m just back from the American Psychological Association’s 118th Convention in San Diego this year. It’s the annual gathering of the tribes, where the latest in psychological research, education, and practice is shared. As the saying goes, if it’s August, therapists cannot be found. But options for connecting to a source of support extend beyond the consultation room. There is a powerful role to be…
August 19, 2010 in Diabetes by diabetesmine
From the “Weird and Wonderful” File: Another booth I happened upon last month while visiting the Children with Diabetes conference in Orlando definitely stopped me in my tracks: dental stem cells for diabetes?! Could someone be seriously running a business on this concept when the science is far from mature? Turns out the Store-A-Tooth™ booth was run [...]August 18, 2010 in Diabetes, Mental Health by psychcentral
For all of the negative attention that technology sometimes gets — especially when it comes to teens — it was nice to come across this news article a few weeks ago.
A researcher running a small pilot study at the Columbus, Ohio Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that treatment adherence rates shot up amongst teen diabetic patients after they received personalized text message reminders on their cell phones. Which really…
August 15, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
The human mind is always searching for meaning in the world. It’s one of the reasons we love stories so much: they give meaning to what might otherwise be a random series of events.
From stories emerge characters, context, hopes and dreams, morals even. Using simple structures, stories can communicate complex ideas about the author’s view of the world and how it works, often…
August 13, 2010 in Mental Health by psychcentral
A report from the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting this week suggests that parents’ well-being is negatively impacted even when just one of their children experiences problems in their life.
The researchers defined “problems in their life” as health problems, drinking or drug abuse problems, divorce or other serious relationship issues or trouble with the law.
Having a successful child doesn’t counter-balance the impact of having a…