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Trauma Survivors Deserve Therapy That Actually Works
The Huffington Post: The mind-boggling events of the past month -- the Boston Marathon bombings, the fertilizer plant explosion near Waco, a deadly collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh -- will undoubtedly leave in their wake a host of survivors suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Many victims will get over the short-term trauma of those events, but others -- in the coming weeks and months --will begin experiencing the chronic bad dreams, flashbacks, sleep difficulties, and frightening thoughts that characterize PTSD. Those individuals will likely avoid places, events or objects that remind them of the experience.
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Psychologie: Druck kann leistungssteigernd wirken (pressure can help improve performance)
Der Spiegel: Der Druck, mehrere Aufgaben gleichzeitig erledigen zu müssen, kann unter bestimmten Bedingungen die Leistung steigern. Das haben Forscher der Universität Basel herausgefunden. Der Grund dafür ist, dass Berufstätige unter Druck ihre Arbeitsweise wechseln. Sie entscheiden eher mit Hilfe von Ähnlichkeitsstrategien als anhand von Regeln. Muss ein Arzt in einem Krankenhaus etwa anhand von Symptomen bei einem Patienten eine Diagnose stellen, greift er unter Druck eher auf seinen Erfahrungsschatz zurück und zieht Parallelen zu ähnlichen Fällen.
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Study: Men’s Biceps Predict Their Political Ideologies
The Atlantic: The pre-societal, animal model of conflict resolution is simple, brutal, and effective. Leaving aside political gambles, moral considerations, and the like, the strong are more willing to fight for their self-interest, while the weak find it more advantageous not to assert themselves. Extrapolated to a fairly simple conflict of interest -- wealth redistribution -- do modern humans operate under the same logic? Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark and UC Santa Barbara collected from several hundred men and women in Argentina, the U.S., and Denmark.
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Want to be happier and live longer? Protect green spaces
Scientific American: Central Park almost didn’t exist. When it was first proposed, no comparable urban green space could be found in the whole of the United States—and it seemed unlikely that one would arise on land that could be put to other, more profitable use – especially with New York real estate values on a steady rise. But on May 5, 1851, Mayor Ambrose Kingsland proposed that a large public park might be just the thing for the growing city. Not only could it have a salutary impact, but it would allow Europeans to see that Americans could, too, be cultured and refined. Their Hyde Parks and Tuileries Gardens had nothing on us. ...
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Psychology uses 'registered replication reports' to improve reliability
The Guardian: On Tuesday a group of scientists published a protocol, a set of instructions for running an experiment, which represents the culmination of a year's discussion on the problems inherent in academic publishing. The protocol is the first in the Registered Replication Reports project. The scheme, led by Alex Holcombe, Bobbie Spellman and Daniel Simons, is far reaching, and requires putting aside egos and working together across universities and research groups to raise the standard of research.
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Secrets of the Criminal Mind
Scientific American: What is science revealing about the nature of the criminal mind? Adrian Raine, a professor at the university of Pennsylvania, is an expert in the expanding field of “neurocriminology.” He has written The Anatomy of Violence, a sweeping account of crime’s biological roots, including genetics, neuro-anatomy and environmental toxins like lead. He spoke with Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook. ... What do you think of the argument put forward by Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature, suggesting that violence has dropped dramatically as our social structures have changed?
