For people who took and didn’t hate Philosophy 101, here’s a podcast you also may not hate: Philosophy Bites. A pair of British philosophers bring in an outside philosopher and chew on a topic for 10 – 20 minutes. Shows often touch on topics that are cousins to psychology: What is Consciousness?, Sense of Self, […]
Research gathered for an NYT article, Weighing the Evidence on Exercise. The newest science suggests that exercise alone will not make you thin, but it may determine whether you stay thin, if you can achieve that state.
Too many choices, at the grocery store or in dating, can lead to hasty decision-making–or so says a study reported at PsychCentral: In this environment, researchers found that people respond by paying attention to different types of characteristics – discarding attributes such as education, smoking status, and occupation in favor of physical characteristics such as
Speed Dating Overwhelm Read More »
Also from the NYT, Embracing a Life of Solitude, a look at extreme, off-the-grid, away-from-everything loner living. His infrequent visitors would ask things like “What are you going to do if a coconut falls on your head?” — given that the nearest doctor was hundreds of miles away. “I said, ‘Oh my, if I think
Is Solitude Good for You? Read More »
A big NYT Magazine piece by Tara Parker-Pope surveys the research about marriage, health, and happiness, and finds mixed messages. [W]hile it’s clear that marriage is profoundly connected to health and well-being, new research is increasingly presenting a more nuanced view of the so-called marriage advantage. Several new studies, for instance, show that the marriage advantage
Is Marriage Good for Your Health? Read More »
A doctoral thesis out of Stockholm gives a boost to the growing practice of online therapy.
Online CBT for Panic and Depression Read More »
Reported in the Los Angeles Times, a study showing 43% of smokers over twenty are depressed. A chicken-egg study–which came first? Depressed people were more likely to smoke within five minutes of awakening and to smoke more than one pack of cigarettes a day. Twenty-eight percent of adult smokers with depression smoked more than a pack
John Grohol sums up the positive psychology basics in 5 Reliable Findings from Happiness Research. Here they are, minus the explanations, which await you at PsychCentral: 1. You control about half your happiness level. 2. Money doesn’t buy happiness. 3. Lottery winnings create only temporary, short-term happiness. 4. Relationships are a key factor in long-term
Happiness Research Read More »
A study looks at the difference between depression and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD): “We found the greatest weight of evidence that PMDD and major depression are really two distinct entities in terms of biological response to stress and with respect to pain sensitivity and pain mechanisms.” More, including a description of PMDD’s intensity, in the
Depression and PMDD Read More »
PsyBlog profiles a study about increasing self-control by thinking abstractly–thinking about the why of a goal, instead of the how. [I]t seems you can bolster resistance to temptation by thinking abstractly about the goal you want to obtain because it causes your mind to automatically associate temptations with negativity. Hey presto, more self-control and thank
Abstraction and Self-Control Read More »