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Hearing That Things Can Change Helps Teens Dodge Depression
NPR: Depression is common in teenagers, with 11 percent being diagnosed by age 18, and many more having depressive symptoms. Social and academic stress can trigger depression, and rates of depression tend to peak in adolescence around the age of 16. It doesn't help that stressed-out teens often fall into hopelessness, says David Yeager, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. "When kids have hard things happen to them, they think it'll be like that way into the future." Researchers started noticing back in the 1980s that many teens felt that social and personality traits were immutable — that someone who is once a loser is always a loser.
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Shared Pain Can Act As A Social Glue: Study
Gizmodo: What can make for a strong sense of group loyalty? - Pride in the identity and achievements of your group? Commitment to the work? or the mutual attraction existing among group members? A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that the answer could be the experience of 'shared pain'. According to the research, a shared painful experience, which is not fatal or permanently debilitating, could actually add to the strength of a group. Also, while there is certainly some degree of difficulty associated with the painful experience, its aftermath could be much more pleasant for the social cohesiveness of the group.
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Guilty Conscience? Brain Wave Breakthrough May Reveal Crooks
NBC News: A brain wave linked to memory may be a telltale marker for criminal investigators, divulging when a person under scrutiny knows a damning morsel of knowledge — such as the weapon used to commit a murder, according to a new study from Northwestern University. The findings, posted Tuesday at the Association for Psychological Science website, center on a unique, brain-emitted electrical signal called the P300.
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Lonely People Are More Likely to See Doll Faces as Human
The Atlantic: For social animals like humans, the health cost of loner-dom can be high—depression, high blood pressure, and an increase in stress hormones have all been linked to a lack of social connection. Previous research has also shown that when people are feeling lonely, they are better at cooperating and are more sensitive to emotions and social cues. But a new, small, weird study published in Psychological Science suggests that the isolated may cast about too wildly for companionship, leaving them with a lowered ability to tell if a face is alive or not. Researchers at Dartmouth College and Harvard University showed a group of 30 students a series of 90 faces.
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Children can learn to control their powerful sweets cravings: study
CTV News: For children, the lure of cookies and fast food is distinctly more powerful than for adolescents and adults, although children's cognitive wiring is well suited to train such cravings, according to researchers hailing principally from Columbia University. "These findings are important because they suggest that we may have another tool in our toolbox to combat childhood obesity," says psychological scientist and lead researcher Jennifer A. Silvers, a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University in the laboratory of Professor Kevin Ochsner.
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In Praise Of Play
The Huffington Post: Robin Williams once said, "The world is open for play." But how often, in the midst of the daily grind, does it really feel that way? When we measure our lives in to-do lists and devote every moment to being productive, play, of course, falls by the wayside. Living in a culture of busyness, productivity and overwork, we condition our brains to do things in order to get them done; to always achieve, accomplish, finish, check off. Even when we do pursue fun, adventurous experiences, it's often for the purpose of ticking them off of a bucket list. Our disdain for play, silliness and pure nonsense is even reflected in our vocabulary.
