-
How Moms Change Brains
Pacific Standard: For little kids, seeing mom or dad nearby is a calming influence, maybe the difference between between perfect calm and a full-bore freakout. It’s as if having a trusted caregiver nearby transforms children from scared toddlers into confident adolescents. And in a way, a new report suggests, that’s what having mom around does to a kid’s brain. When they’re first born and for years after, infants and young children can’t do a whole lot by themselves. They can’t eat on their own, they aren’t very good at managing their emotions, and it takes a while for them to learn how to dress themselves.
-
Separating legitimate Ebola concerns from unnecessary fear
PBS: Late today, the Centers for Disease Control reported that it is expanding its Ebola investigation to include passengers on a second flight flown by one of the nurses since diagnosed with the disease. And the airline is notifying passengers who may have flown elsewhere on the same jet. As new details emerge, and as today’s congressional hearing showed, domestic concerns over Ebola are skyrocketing. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds 41 percent are very concerned about the outbreak, 36 percent are somewhat concerned. And 45 percent say they are avoiding international travel.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Social-Network Complexity in Humans Is Associated With the Neural Response to Social Information Sarah L. Dziura and James C. Thompson Research has suggested that with an increase in the complexity of humans' social groups comes a corresponding enhancement of the brain areas involved in social processing. Participants viewed point-light arrays displaying biological or scrambled motion while they were being scanned in an fMRI machine. Participants also completed a social network index that assessed the complexity of their social network.
-
Depressed Employees May Benefit From Coming in to Work
Depression can have a dramatic impact on a person’s ability to work. According to statistics from the CDC, approximately 27% of people with depression reported serious difficulties in work and home life and 80% of people reported some level of functional impairment because of their depression. Workers suffering from depression will miss an estimated 200 million workdays each year at a cost to employers of $17 to $44 billion.
-
Alkohol ist sozialer Schmierstoff für Männer (Alcohol is a social lubricant for men)
Der Spiegel: Der Mensch ist ein soziales Wesen. Er trifft sich gern mit Freunden, freut sich mit anderen und leidet mit ihnen. Mitunter lockert ein Bier oder auch ein Glas Wein die Zunge und bringt Menschen schneller einander näher. Psychologen der University of Pittsburgh haben die Wirkung von Drinks auf die soziale Interaktion nun in einer Studie mit 720 Probanden untersucht. Ihre Beobachtungen klingen zunächst wenig überraschend: Wer Alkohol trinkt, auf den wirkt das Lächeln anderer Menschen ansteckender. Allerdings gab es diesen Effekt kurioserweise nur in Männergruppen, berichten Catharine Fairbairn und ihre Kollegen im Fachblatt "Clinical Psychological Science".
-
Savor Extraordinary Experiences, Feel Worse Afterward
Pacific Standard: Feeling out of sorts this morning? Maybe it was that recent trip you took to Machu Picchu. Sure, it was fun at the time—amazing, really. But it’s not like you could truly share the experience of high-altitude awe with your friends and colleagues. As they compared amusing stories about bad camping trips, you began feeling not so much special and privileged as … left out. If that story describes you, congratulations: You’ve just discovered the surprising downside of engaging in a rare and wonderful adventure.
