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How Psychology Solved A WWII Shipwreck Mystery
NPR: In November 1941, two ships crossed paths off the coast of Australia. One was the German raider HSK Kormoran. The other: an Australian warship called the HMAS Sydney. Guns were fired, the ships were damaged and both sank to the bottom of the ocean. The loss of the Sydney in World War II was a national tragedy for the Australians, particularly because none of the 645 men on board survived. In the years that followed, there was intense interest in finding the wrecks, particularly the wreck of the Sydney. The idea was that doing this might give the families of the lost sailors some measure of peace, a sense of closure and certainty.
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New UCSC residence hall teaches nonviolent communication
Santa Cruz Sentinel: College kids just don’t feel the pain of others like they used to. At least that is what a University of Michigan study presented to the Association for Psychological Science in 2010 revealed. The study, which followed 14,000 people for 30 years, found that college students today are much less empathetic than those from two and three decades ago, and the largest drop in empathy came after the year 2000.
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As Minds Get Quicker, Teenagers Get Smarter
Adolescents become smarter because they become mentally quicker. That is the conclusion of a new study by a group of psychologists at University of Texas at San Antonio. “Our findings make intuitive sense,” says lead author Thomas Coyle, who conducted the study with David Pillow, Anissa Snyder, and Peter Kochunov. But this is the first time psychologists have been able to confirm this important connection. The study appears in the forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. “Our research was based on two well-known findings, Coyle continues. “The first is that performance on intelligence tests increases during adolescence.
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‘Self-Compassion’ Can Help Divorced People Heal
U.S. News & World Report: Self-compassion can help the newly divorced get through one of the most difficult periods of their lives, researchers suggest. They explained that self-compassion -- a combination of kindness toward oneself, recognition of common humanity, and the ability to let painful emotions pass -- "can promote resilience and positive outcomes in the face of divorce." The University of Arizona researchers studied 38 men and 67 women with an average age of 40 who were married for more than 13 years and were divorced for an average of three to four months. Those with higher levels of self-compassion were able to recover faster from the emotional impact of divorce.
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Kids’ Sugar Cravings Might Be Biological
NPR: Ask a child if they like sweets and the answer is almost universally a resounding "Yes!" It's no surprise to most parents that kids love candy, cookies, sweetened drinks, and some kids have even been known to add sugar to a bowl of Frosted Flakes. But don't blame the kids, say researchers: It's biology. Scientific evidence shows that children not only have a stronger preference for sugar than adults – but that sweet-tooth is hardwired from Day One. "We know that the newborn can detect sweet and will actually prefer sweeter solutions to less sweet ones. The basic biology of the child is that they don't have to learn to like sweet or salt.
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Good Moms Seem to Help Poor Kids Become Healthy Adults
Yahoo Health: Poor children are more likely to become unhealthy adults -- vulnerable to infection and disease -- than kids from higher-income families, according to a new study. However, the study findings revealed, some disadvantaged children grow up into healthy adults. Their secret: a nurturing and attentive mother. Upward mobility also has been cited as a reason that children from low-income families become healthy adults, the study pointed out. Yet the researchers found that income in adulthood didn't offset childhood poverty.
