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Psychologists develop 2 potent new predictors of suicide risk
Science Centric: Two powerful new tests developed by psychologists at Harvard University show great promise in predicting patients' risk of attempting suicide. The work may help clinicians overcome their reliance on self-reporting by at-risk individuals, information that often proves misleading when suicidal patients wish to hide their intentions. Both new tests are easily administered within minutes on a computer, giving quick insight into how patients are thinking about suicide, as well as their propensity to attempt suicide in the near future. 'Experts have long sought a clear behavioural marker of suicide risk,' says Harvard Professor of Psychology Matthew K.
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To Make One Happy, Make One Busy
In Greek mythology, the gods punished Sisyphus by condemning him to roll a rock up a steep hill for eternity. But he was probably better off than if they'd condemned him to sit and stare into space until the end of time, conclude the authors of a new study on keeping busy. They found that people who have something to do, even something pointless, are happier than people who sit idly. "The general phenomenon I'm interested in is why people are so busy doing what they are doing in modern society," says Christopher K. Hsee, of the University of Chicago. He co-wrote the study with Adelle X. Yang, also of the University of Chicago, and Liangyan Wang, of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
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Why (some) people drown their sorrows
Imagine that you just lost your job. The bad news came without warning—a company downsizing. You’re one more casualty of the recession. So naturally you’re feeling lousy, and what’s more, you need to go home and tell the family. But maybe, before you do, you’ll stop by your favorite watering hole for a martini—or two or three. You’ve got the time, after all. That’s called drowning your sorrows—or, in psychological jargon, self-medication. It’s quite normal, really, to try to regulate intense negative emotions in whatever way possible, and liquor is a quick and effective strategy. But it’s not a healthy strategy—and the fact is, not everyone does it.
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People Confront Prejudice Only When They Believe Others’ Personalities Can Change
Confronting someone who makes a prejudiced remark can be a good thing—but not everyone does it. Researchers at Stanford University studied how and when targets of bias will speak up, and found that they're more likely to do so if they hold a particular belief: that people's personalities can change. In one experiment, students (who were all ethnic minorities and/or women) were told they were going to discuss college admissions with another Stanford student over instant message. (The other student was actually a researcher.) In the course of his messages, the student, a white sophomore named "Matt," suddenly made a statement that communicated bias.
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Few People Are Doing It, So Why Should I? Motivating Men to Seek Cancer Screening
In Germany, several national health campaigns promote cancer screening by announcing that only one in five German men gets screened. This is supposed to motivate men to have an examination. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this well-meaning message has the exact opposite effect: it makes men less likely to choose to get screened. In an earlier study, Monika Sieverding of the University of Heidelberg and her colleagues (Uwe Matterne and Liborio Ciccarello) had found that men who had never been screened for cancer thought that most other men weren't getting screened, either.
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Remembering to Forget: The Amnesic Effect of Daydreaming
When your mind drifts, it's hard to remember what was going on before you stopped paying attention. Now a new study has found that the effect is stronger when your mind drifts farther – to memories of an overseas vacation instead of a domestic trip, for example, or a memory in the more distant past. Psychologists have known for a while that context is important to remembering. If you leave the place where a memory was made – its context – it will be harder for you to recall the memory. Previous studies had also found that thinking about something else – daydreaming or mind-wandering – blocks access to memories of the recent past. Psychological scientists Peter F.
