Psychology

Happy Being Unhappy: Why We Like Negative Feelings

A long-held belief in theories of human behavior is that people want to feel good and avoid feeling bad. Nothing in that principle explains why people enjoy horror movies or, additionally, why they pay for the privilege of being scared. Investigators gener ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 25 2007 - 5:45pm

Controversy Over Use Of Antipsychotic Drugs For Dementia

Antipsychotic drugs are approved mainly for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but they are also used for many other purposes. One of the most controversial is reducing disruptive behavior among elderly people with dementia. In the last few years ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 27 2007 - 11:36am

Peer Pressure And Adolescent Decision Making

The capacity to resist peer pressure in early adolescence may depend on the strength of connections between certain areas of the brain, according to a study carried out by University of Nottingham researchers. New findings suggest that enhanced connections ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 28 2007 - 5:17am

Human Experimental Psychology: Science With One Hand Behind Your Back

Human experimental psychologists (also called cognitive psychologists) are in a curious position. Their subject — the human brain — is obviously the most complicated thing studied by any science. Its components (neurons) are not only very numerous and den ...

Article - Seth Roberts - Jul 30 2007 - 3:19pm

Feminine Looking Men Perceived As More Likely To Be Faithful, Study Says

Women see ‘masculine’ men as unsuitable long-term partners, new research suggests. Conversely, the psychologists from Durham and St Andrews Universities found that men with feminine facial features are seen as more committed and less likely to cheat on the ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 6 2007 - 8:44pm

Quests For Improvement Cause Us To Lose Sight Of Good Things We Have

"The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence" is a popular old phrase. In a series of eight experiments, Tom Meyvis (New York University) and Alan Cooke (University of Florida) set out to demonstrate that scientifically. Th ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2007 - 10:04am

Why Guilty Feelings Don't Prevent Duplicate Actions

Many of us experience a tinge of guilt as we delight in feelings of pleasure from our favorite indulgences, like splurging on an expensive handbag or having another drink. Yet, in spite of documented ambivalence towards temptation and well-meaning vows not ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2007 - 10:11am

Internet Chat For Group Therapy

Modern communication technologies offer many new opportunities for reaching out to people. Can it also help patients with mental disorders? Maybe. A group of investigators of the University of Heidelberg has published a controlled study on a new method of ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 11 2007 - 4:20pm

Annals Of Self-Experimentation: Magnet Implant

Quinn Norton, a San Francisco journalist, had a tiny magnet implanted in her finger, which enabled her to detect electrical fields. Bits of my laptop became familiar as tingles and buzzes. Every so often I would pass near something and get an unexpected v ...

Article - Seth Roberts - Aug 12 2007 - 11:44pm

Why We Have Trouble Distinguishing Faces Of Other Races

"They all look the same" is a common expression regarding people of other races. The “cross-race effect” is one of the most well replicated findings in psychological research and is one reason for the disturbingly common occurrence of eye-witness ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2007 - 4:07pm