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Pig Out In The Winter Or When Money’s Tight? Blame Evolution
NPR: Has the recession made you fat? To the long and growing list of risk factors known to increase the risk of obesity, scientists recently added a new one: scarcity. People given subtle cues that they may have to confront harsh conditions in the near future choose to eat higher-calorie food than they might do otherwise, a response that researchers believe is shaped by the long hand of evolution.
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The psychology of the to-do list
BBC: If your daily schedule and email inbox are anything like mine, you’re often left a state of paralysis by the sheer bulk of outstanding tasks weighing on your mind. In this respect, David Allen's book Getting Things Done is a phenomenon. An international best-seller and a personal productivity system known merely as GTD, it’s been hailed as being a “new cult for the info age”. ... So what’s the psychology that backs this up? Roy Baumeister and EJ Masicampo at Florida State University were interested in an old phenomenon called the Zeigarnik Effect, which is what psychologists call our mind's tendency to get fixated on unfinished tasks and forget those we’ve completed.
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Marriage Research: Happy Teenage Years Lead To Happier Marriages
The Huffington Post: A new study suggests that teens who get along well with their families are more likely to have successful future marriages. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science found that 7th graders who experienced more positive engagement with their families also showed more positive engagement in their marriages 17 years later. Their spouses also demonstrated more positive behavior, and both partners experienced more relationship satisfaction than those who experienced a more negative family environment as teens. The study did not specify whether or not the teenagers were raised with married or divorced parents. Read the whole story: The Huffington Post
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Happiness Increases with Age, Across Generations
Longitudinal research reveals that self-reported feelings of well-being tend to increase with age, but that a person’s overall level of well-being depends on when he or she was born.
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Budgets and Biases: Summing Up American Values
Our lawmakers may have averted the fiscal cliff on the first of the year, but the threat of sequestration still looms over the nation. If the Congress and the White House cannot agree on the particulars of deficit reduction by March, draconian across-the-board cuts will slash both national security spending and core domestic programs, ranging from education to public health to environmental protection. Every federal budget is, underneath those numbers, a set of values—many related to protecting Americans from harm. But the mandate to cut spending means choosing among those values and safeguards.
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Happy Home in Adolescence Tied to Good Marriages Later
LiveScience: Having a warm and supportive home during one's teenage years may make for more satisfying marriages later on, new research suggests. Those who come from a family where people can talk positively through conflicts tend to bring the same supportive communication style to their marriages. And they tend to be more satisfied with their marriages, according to the research. "The overall family climate seems to matter," said study author Robert Ackerman, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Dallas. "A positive family climate is related to individuals being more positively engaged with their spouses." Read the whole story: LiveScience
