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Baltimore scientists search for cause, treatment for hoarding
Los Angeles Times: The table in Jack Samuels' Fells Point office is piled two feet high with books, papers, scientific journals and grant applications. Samuels' wife likes to tease him that he has a hoarding problem, just like the people he studies. In reality, those stacks of paper might hold a remedy. Samuels, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine, is the go-to guy nationwide for researchers seeking to understand the biological basis of hoarding — an intense, irrational drive to collect items in vast quantities, coupled with an inability to discard even objects that are worthless or broken. Read more: Los Angeles Times
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This Is Your Brain. And this Is Your Brain on Gossip.
Boston Magazine: Late last month, smack in the middle of the DiMasi trial and right around the time we learned of Arnold's infidelity, a Science study out of Northeastern University popped into the world and promptly landed itself in headlines across the blogosphere. The title, "The Visual Impact of Gossip,” pretty much explains its popularity off the bat.
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Study: Key To Better Sex Revealed
CBS News: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Women's fake screams of ecstasy in bed may have less to do with trying to protect the sensitive egos of their partners, and more to do with a gal's own personal insecurities and fear of intimacy, new research suggests. Approximately 60 percent of women have faked an orgasm during intercourse or oral sex, according to Erin Cooper of Temple University, who has been studying these women to figure out why. "This is something that we talk about happening in popular culture, in the movies and magazines," Cooper told LiveScience. "We know that this is pretty prevalent in our culture, but we don't know much about it from a scientific standpoint.
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Will Psych Majors Make the Big Bucks?
A new crop of college graduates have just landed on the job market. Right now they’re probably just hoping to get any job, if at all. However, for psychology majors, the salary outlook in both the short and long term is particularly poor, according to a new study which will be published in an upcoming issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. It’s generally known that psychology majors don’t make a ton of money when they’re starting out; they’re not like engineering students, many of whom go straight into a job that pays well for their technical skills.
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Conflict Between the Mind and Body Helps People Think Outside the Box
Yahoo Finance: Think of the old saying, "grin and bear it." Can forcing a smile really have a positive impact on how people see the world, even to the point of becoming more open-minded? According to new research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the answer is yes. The study shows that when bodily expressions are in conflict with one's actual feelings – such as recalling a happy memory while frowning or listening to sad music while smiling – people become more likely to accept and embrace atypical ideas.
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Depressed People Find It Hard to Stop Reliving Bad Times
MSN Health: June 7 (HealthDay News) -- A new study suggests that depressed people suffer from an inability to rid themselves of negative thoughts because they can't turn their attention to other things. "They basically get stuck in a mindset where they relive what happened to them over and over again," said study co-author Jutta Joormann of the University of Miami in an Association for Psychological Science news release. "Even though they think, 'Oh, it's not helpful, I should stop thinking about this, I should get on with my life,' they can't stop doing it." The study authors gave tests designed to gauge mental flexibility to 26 depressed people and 27 people who had never been depressed.
