Tag: research
How a Focus on Rich Educated People Skews Brain Studies
From The Atlantic: Neuroimaging studies have traditionally scanned the brains of unrepresentative samples, focusing on Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic populations. Although the results...
More Lavish the Gifts to Doctors Means Costlier Drugs Prescribed
From The New York Times: A new study found that when drug companies give gifts to doctors, the doctors prescribe higher quantities of — and more expensive —...
The Placebo Effect is Amplified When Doctors Appear Likeable
From The British Psychological Society: A new study found that the placebo effect is enhanced by the impression of warmth and competence.
"Howe and her team...
Depressed Patients on Antidepressants Do Worse in the Long Run
From Medical Xpress: A new analysis of the long-term effects of antidepressants found that symptoms of depression were more sharply elevated nine years following treatment...
Humans Had to Evolve to Acknowledge Octopus Consciousness
In this piece for Quartz, Ephrat Livni explores our evolving attitudes toward octopuses, from initial fear and revulsion to contemporary respect and inquiry. Now, scientists are...
Teaching Psychology Students to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
From The Conversation: An undergraduate course in behavioral psychology at Bangor University now includes a fully gamified module that immerses students in a zombie apocalypse...
Mortality of People Using Mental Health Services and Medications
153,451 deaths were registered in Australia in the period 10 August 2011 to 27 September 2012. 75,858 of these deaths were registered for persons who had accessed mental health-related treatments. These deaths accounted for 49.4% of all deaths in this period.
When the Revolution Came for Amy Cuddy
From The New York Times Magazine: The work of Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist best known for her research and viral TED talk on "power...
How Many Ways Can We Measure Well-Being?
In this piece for Psychology Today, Dr. Todd Kashdan critiques a new model of assessing well-being designed by positive psychologist Martin Seligman. Although the new...
Wellbeing Enhanced More by Places Than Objects, Study Finds
From The Guardian: New research suggests that people are more likely to experience feelings of wellbeing, contentment, and belonging from places that evoke positive memories...
“Evidence-Based Medicine”: Corporate Medicine’s Instrument
From Medium: The notion of "evidence-based medicine" is that a particular treatment is considered effective if research finds it safe and efficacious in the majority...
Does Modern Neuroscience Really Help us Understand Behavior?
From Massive: According to neuroscience experts Danbee Kim and Gonçalo Lopes, the field of neuroscience focuses far too much on the anatomy of the brain and...
Inside a Case of Repressed Memory
From The Guardian: At age 17, Nicole Kluemper came to be one of the most controversial cases in modern psychology when she recovered memories of...
Whistleblowers at Research Institutions Fear Retaliation
From The Washington Post: A new investigative report on deterrents in reporting problems with human research found evidence of fear of retaliation among whistleblowers in...
New Thinking Questions Gold Standard Status for CBT
From Forbes: According to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, cognitive behavioral therapy should no longer be the routine first choice...
Consciousness Goes Deeper Than You Think
From Scientific American: Many articles and papers equate the experience of consciousness with awareness. However, the reality is that it is possible to experience consciousness without...
Irving Kirsch: The Placebo Effect and What It Tells Us About...
Dr Irving Kirsch is Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies and lecturer in medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He joins us this week to discuss his research into the placebo effect and what it tells us about the efficacy of antidepressant drugs.
What Happens When You Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications
From Pacific Standard: A new study surveyed people who have come off psychiatric medications to come up with information doctors can use to help support their...
Marijuana Research: Overcoming the Barriers
From APA Science Advocacy: As an increasing number of states are beginning to legalize the medicinal and/or recreational use of marijuana, it is clear that...
New Tool to Assess Usefulness of Clinical Guidelines
From Medical Xpress: A new tool, G-TRUST (the Guideline Trustworthiness, Relevance, and Utility Scoring Tool) has been developed to help clinicians assess the usefulness of...
New Nutrition Study Changes Nothing
From The Atlantic: The science of nutrition and healthy eating is not complicated and has remained relatively consistent for the past several years. However, the...
Feel Bad About Feeling Bad? Embrace Negative Emotions Instead
From Big Think: According to new research, habitually accepting negative emotions rather than criticizing or suppressing them positively impacts our long-term psychological health.
"There is a lot more...
Time on a Therapist’s Couch Yields Personality Changes
From Ars Technica: A recent meta-analysis found that a variety of different therapeutic techniques result in positive personality changes. The two personality traits most impacted...
Openness to Experience: The Gates of the Mind
From Scientific American: Experiments in personality psychology show that people scoring high on openness to experience may literally see the world differently from the average...
Psychologists Surveyed Hundreds of Alt-Right Supporters
From Vox: Recently, psychologists Patrick Forscher and Nour Kteily surveyed members of the alt-right to build the first psychological profile of their movement. Compared to the...
