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Happiness, Philosophy and Science
The New York Times: Philosophy was the origin of most scientific disciplines. Aristotle was in some sense an astronomer, a physicist, a biologist, a psychologist and a political scientist. As various philosophical subdiscplines found ways of treating their topics with full empirical rigor, they gradually separated themselves from philosophy, which increasingly became a purely armchair enterprise, working not from controlled experiments but from common-sense experiences and conceptual analysis.
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Changing One Word to Get Health-Care Workers to Wash Their Hands.
The Wall Street Journal: Ah, the simple act of hand-washing. It’s a simple, cheap way to prevent spreading infection in hospitals. And yet, research suggests compliance with so-called “hand hygiene” guidelines is less than 50% in many hospitals. Proposed solutions have included penalizing doctors and nurses who don’t follow the rules, sending in undergrad volunteers to look over the shoulders of staff, using video surveillance to identify offenders and employing high-tech sensors to gauge whether a health-care worker has recently used alcohol gel.
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The mama grizzlies: Why mothers who breast-feed are more aggressive at protecting their young than those that use the bottle
Daily Mail: Women who breast-feed are far more likely to aggressively protect their infants and themselves than women who bottle-feed their babies, claim researchers. Female grizzly bears are known for their especially aggressive behaviour when protecting their young. Now a study has found that when breast-feeding women behave aggressively, they register a lower blood pressure than other women. Researchers say the results suggest that breast-feeding can help dampen the body's typical stress response to fear, giving women the extra courage they need to defend themselves. Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, a postdoctoral fellow in the UCLA Department of Psychology in the U.S.
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Campaign Aimed At Patient Health Ups Doc Handwashing
Scientific American: Handwashing is the best way to avoid spreading infection, according to the CDC. But doctors, nurses and hospital staff wash up less than half as often as they should. Some hospitals encourage handwashing by posting signs that tell docs a simple scrub will prevent them from getting sick. But a study finds a more effective reminder: clean hands helps patients. The research is in the journal Psychological Science. Investigators posted one of three signs at 66 soap and sanitizer dispensers in a US hospital.
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The Obedience Experiments at 50
This year is the 50th anniversary of the start of Stanley Milgram’s groundbreaking experiments on obedience to destructive orders — the most famous, controversial and, arguably, most important psychological research of our times. To commemorate this milestone, in this article I present the key elements comprising the legacy of those experiments. Milgram was a 28-year-old junior faculty member at Yale University when he began his program of research on obedience, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which lasted from August 7, 1961 through May 27, 1962.
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Like Mama Bears, Nursing Mothers Defend Babies With A Vengeance
Women who breast-feed are far more likely to demonstrate a "mama bear" effect — aggressively protecting their infants and themselves — than women who bottle-feed their babies or non-mothers, according to a new study in the September issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. And when breast-feeding women behave aggressively, they register a lower blood pressure than other women, the study found. The results, the researchers say, suggest that breast-feeding can help dampen the body's typical stress response to fear, giving women the extra courage they need to defend themselves.
