Psychology & Psychiatry news

Quantum Theory May Explain Wishful Thinking

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Apr 14, 2009 | 4.1 / 5 (47) | 14

(PhysOrg.com) -- Humans don’t always make the most rational decisions. As studies have shown, even when logic and reasoning point in one direction, sometimes we chose the opposite route, motivated by personal ...

Babble Of Baby Reveals Language Skills

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Nov 03, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (7) | 1

Children have a remarkable ability to learn new languages. As little as five hours of exposure to a second language is enough to help infants incorporate characteristics of that language into their babbling ...

No pain, no gain: Mastering a skill makes us stressed in the moment, happy long term

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Oct 29, 2009 | 5 / 5 (6) | 1

No pain, no gain applies to happiness, too, according to new research published online this week in the Journal of Happiness Studies. People who work hard at improving a skill or ability, such as mastering a math problem or lea ...

Recent 'momentum' influences choices of baby names, psychology professors find

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Oct 13, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- How do people choose a name for their child? Researchers have long noted that the overall popularity of a name exerts a strong influence on people's preferences -- more popular names, such ...

Nature Makes Us More Caring, Study Says (w/ Video)

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 30, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Want to be a better person? Commune with nature. Paying attention to the natural world not only makes you feel better, it makes you behave better, finds a new study to be published October ...

Key to subliminal messaging is to keep it negative, study shows

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 28, 2009 | 4 / 5 (5) | 1

Subliminal messaging is most effective when the message being conveyed is negative, according to new research.

A new take on why social cues confuse babies and dogs in a classic hiding game

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 24, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 3

A study by developmental scientists at the University of Iowa and Indiana University challenges the conclusions of two recent studies on how babies and dogs respond to certain social cues. The new findings, published in this ...

Our Emotions Can Lead Us Astray When Assessing Risks

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 23, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (4) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- If you find yourself more concerned about highly publicized dangers that grab your immediate attention such as terrorist attacks, while forgetting about the more mundane threats such as global warming, you're ...

Lies my parents told me: New study shows parents use deception to influence their children

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 22, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (6) | 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- Parents say that honesty is the best policy, but they regularly lie to their children as a way of influencing their behaviour and emotions, finds new research from the University of Toronto and the University ...

The Handwriting of Liars

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 21, 2009 | 3.1 / 5 (37) | 17

(PhysOrg.com) -- Forget about unreliable polygraph lie detectors for identifying liars. A new study claims the best way to find out if someone is a liar is to look at their handwriting, rather than analyzing ...

The Role of Sleep in Learning New Words

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 11, 2009 | 5 / 5 (9) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study has demonstrated for the first time the importance of sleep in learning new words, and has shown the process has fast and slow components. The slow component is associated with ...

Study: Men Losing Their Minds Over Women

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 07, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (24) | 20

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research reported in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology has shown that men go ga-ga over pretty women. They simply lose their minds (while women keep theirs).

Carrots are better than sticks for building human cooperation

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Sep 03, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 2

Rewards go further than punishment in building human cooperation and benefiting the common good, according to research published this week in the journal Science by researchers at Harvard University and the Stockholm School ...

Acute impact on brain function in earthquake survivors

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Aug 31, 2009 | 3.3 / 5 (4) | 1

New research has found that the Wenchuan, China earthquake that occurred on 12 May 2008 had an acute impact on the brain function of physically healthy survivors and poses a risk to the mental health of these survivors. The ...

The Link Between Weight and Importance

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Aug 27, 2009 | 2.3 / 5 (3) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study has demonstrated what we must have known all along at some level: that there is a link between the physical act of carrying heavy objects and the abstract concept of importance.