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Research Explores Markers of Depression From Childhood to Adulthood
A unique longitudinal investigation of Major Depressive Disorder tracks the illness across four critical periods in life, providing new insights into how depression emerges and develops over time.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Mirta Galesic, Henrik Olsson, and Jörg Rieskamp How accurately do people assess characteristics of the general population? Participants answered questions about 10 characteristics related to their love life, financial situation, friendships, health, work stress, and education. They also estimated the distribution of these qualities in their own social group and in the larger population. Although participants were fairly accurate in judging their social group, their estimates of the population were less accurate. In addition, participants showed specific trait-dependent enhancements or deficits in the reporting of their own characteristics.
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Post-Divorce Journaling May Hinder Healing for Some
Following a divorce or separation, many people are encouraged by loved ones or health-care professionals to keep journals about their feelings. But for some, writing in-depth about those feelings immediately after a split may do more harm than good, according to new research. In a study of 90 recently divorced or separated individuals, psychological scientist David Sbarra of the University of Arizona and colleagues found that writing about one’s feelings can actually leave some people feeling more emotionally distraught months down the line, particularly those individuals who are prone to seeking a deeper meaning for their failed marriage.
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Order of Psychiatric Diagnoses May Influence How Clinicians Identify Symptoms
The diagnostic system used by many mental health practitioners in the United States -- known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- assumes that symptoms of two disorders that occur at the same time are additive and that the order in which the disorders are presented doesn’t matter. But new research suggests that order actually plays a significant role in determining how clinicians think about psychiatric disorders.
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Tight Times May Change Our Perceptions of Who ‘Belongs’
From the playground to the office, a key aspect of our social lives involves figuring out who “belongs” and who doesn’t. Our biases lead us -- whether we're aware of it or not -- to favor people who belong to our own social group. Scientists theorize that these prevalent in-group biases may give us a competitive advantage against others, especially when important resources are limited. Psychological scientist Christopher Rodeheffer and his colleagues at Texas Christian University wanted to examine whether resource scarcity might actually lead us to change our definition of who belongs to our social group.
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Bothered by Negative, Unwanted Thoughts? Just Throw Them Away
If you want to get rid of unwanted, negative thoughts, try just ripping them up and tossing them in the trash. In a new study, researchers found that when people wrote down their thoughts on a piece of paper and then threw the paper away, they mentally discarded the thoughts as well. The results are published online in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. On the other hand, people were more likely to use their thoughts when making judgments if they first wrote them down on a piece of paper and tucked the paper in a pocket to protect it.
