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Writing Things Down Can Actually Help You Lose Weight
NewsRadio 95: Could a pen and pad be more useful in weight loss than a barbell? A recent study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, found that women that wrote about what they valued the most, such as relationships, religion, or music, lost more weight than woman who didn’t write down their values. Christine Logel of Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, co-author of the study along with Geoffrey L. Cohen of Stanford University, said “We have this need to feel self-integrity. We can buffer that self-integrity by reminding ourselves how much we love our children for example,” she explained.
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Workzone: I know what he said, but what did he mean?
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Civil society demands a certain amount of diplomacy -- even if those rude co-workers in the comic strip "Dilbert" are pretty funny. But planes have crashed and patients have misunderstood diagnoses as a result of people being too polite. Indeed, the higher the stakes, the more polite people often get -- exacerbating the static that disrupts effective communication, according to an article published recently in a journal of the Washington, D.C.-based Association for Psychological Science.
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Be It Resolved
The New York Times: IT’S still early in 2012, so let’s be optimistic. Let’s assume you have made a New Year’s resolution and have not yet broken it. Based on studies of past resolutions, here are some uplifting predictions: 1) Whatever you hope for this year — to lose weight, to exercise more, to spend less money — you’re much more likely to make improvements than someone who hasn’t made a formal resolution. 2) If you can make it through the rest of January, you have a good chance of lasting a lot longer. 3) With a few relatively painless strategies and new digital tools, you can significantly boost your odds of success.
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Keeping a diary can help you to lose weight
AOL UK: If losing weight is one of your New Year's resolutions, it might be a good idea to start keeping a diary. New research, published in Psychological Science, showed that women who write about what they think and feel are more likely to lose weight than those who don't. Researchers at Canada's University of Waterloo studied 45 overweight female undergraduates. Half of the group were asked to write down their thoughts on their most important value and the other half were asked to write about a less important issue. Those who had written about an important value lost an average of 3.14lb, while the other group gained an average of 2.76lb. Read the full story: AOL UK
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Meta-Analysis Helps Psychologists Build Knowledge
When scientists want to know the answer to a question that’s been studied a great deal, they conduct something called a meta-analysis, pooling data from multiple studies to arrive at one combined answer. Some people think this creates a chilling effect, shutting off further inquiry. But the authors of a new paper published in Perspectives in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, write that meta-analysis actually helps scientific fields develop. There are many meta-analyses in psychology and medicine, areas where studies find often conflicting results.
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Buff Your Brain
The Daily Beast: Brain training to sharpen memory. Aerobic exercise to preserve gray matter. Meditation to hone connections between reason and emotion. It all sounds great, but there’s something that has long bothered us about the growing number of studies pinpointing ways to buff your brain: they don’t go far enough. Sure, exercises to improve memory are better for your brain than, say, watching reality TV, but the most you’re going to gain is more reliable access to knowledge already scattered around your cerebral cortex.
