PsychCentral relays a study about the Long-term Benefits from Musical Training. New research may help parents when they write the monthly check for music lessons…The research strongly suggests that the neural connections made during musical training also prime the brain for other aspects of human communication.
From TED2004–an oldie–Positive Psychology founder, Martin Seligman, talking his talk.
Positive Psychology TED Read More »
A study looks at the different brain waves associated with three different types of meditation. Focused attention, characterized by beta/gamma activity, included meditations from Tibetan Buddhist (loving kindness and compassion), Buddhist (Zen and Diamond Way), and Chinese (Qigong) traditions. Open monitoring, characterized by theta activity, included meditations from Buddhist (Mindfulness, and ZaZen), Chinese (Qigong), and
A study to put no one at ease: Relationship Insecurity Ups Health Risk. Anxious attachment was positively associated with a wider range of health conditions, including some defined primarily by pain and several involving the cardiovascular system (e.g., stroke, heart attack or high blood pressure).
Relationship Stress and Health Read More »
A trio of consumer psychology posts at PsychCentral: In-store displays: How do consumers perceive pricing? A study of house prices: Do the benefits of disclosure outweigh the risks? Consumers love underdogs
What happens in therapy? Good question. Couch Fiction, a book-length comic by British psychotherapist, Philippa Perry, offers some answers. Based on a case study of Pat (our sandal-wearing, cat-loving psychotherapist) and her new client, James (an ambitious barrister with a potentially harmful habit he can’t stop), this graphic novel follows the anxieties, frustrations, mind-wanderings and
What Happens in Therapy? Read More »
ScienceDaily: Why does everything look gray when you feel blue? Regardless of culture, language, era, or individual artist, the arts consistently depict depression using darkness. Scientific findings now lend empirical support to this representation of depression that everything looks gray when you feel blue.
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ScienceDaily: Brain training reverses age-related cognitive decline. In rats. But still… “The neurons looked young again. They were full and robust. It’s like a hose without water going through it appears collapsed. Run the water and it expands to its original size. Recovery happens.”
Worry a lot? To consider: The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts. You may know Alan Watts from oft-broadcast lectures–eager audience hanging on every wryly wise, British-accented utterance. (Lectures can be sampled via this podcast or downloads around the net.) In this short book, Watts takes on worry and anxiety–a.k.a. insecurity. He argues that to live is
The Wisdom of Insecurity Read More »
A study finds delayed reaction times to unpleasant emotion in people who’ve had Botox treatment, supporting something called the “facial feedback hypothesis.” [A]fter Botox treatment, the subjects took more time to read…angry and sad sentences…“Normally, the brain would be sending signals to the periphery to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent