Psychology news

• Traumatic brain injury induces mental impairments using mechanisms linked with Alzheimer's

  12-01-2016 22:09
  A new study fills an important gap in understanding the link between traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. A TBI can happen after a sudden blow or jolt to the head or body and each year there are about 1.5 million new cases in the United States.
  
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• Whether to pick sides in psychology today | Letters

  12-01-2016 20:07
  
  Oliver Burkeman’s article (Therapy Wars, The long read, 7 January) provides an excellent overview of the history and current debates within the psychological therapy world. Thankfully “the war” is ending and it is increasingly recognised that it is not a binary debate between cognitive behavioural therapy and psychoanalysis.CBT is an effective intervention for some people at certain times in their lives, and proponents such as Richard Layard (Tony Blair’s “happiness
  
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• Where the power lies in the therapist-client relationship | Letters

  12-01-2016 20:05
  
  Oliver Burkeman (Therapy Wars, The long read, 7 January) falls into the trap of polarising the wrong point about contemporary psychotherapy. Like any pioneer, Freud made many assumptions that have since turned out to be self-interested, culture-specific or just wrong. But to write him off as a charlatan is facile. What he revealed on behalf of clients then and now is the immense transformative value of being listened to: of having our emotional histories taken seriously, empathically inquired ab
  
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• New University of Alberta study challenges 'mid-life crisis' theory

  12-01-2016 18:00
  
  For half a century, the accepted research on happiness has shown our lives on a U-shaped curve, punctuated by a low point that we've come to know as the "mid-life crisis".
  
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• Vitally important news: over-65s don't get sarcasm

  12-01-2016 17:47
  
  A new study concludes that older people can’t tell when others are being a bit sarky. However will they cope?People over 65 are less able to detect and understand sarcasm, according to an immensely valuable study just published in Developmental Psychology. You might think it is obvious when somebody is saying the opposite of what they mean for comic effect. Indeed, you probably find the device so funny that you never tire of it. However, quite a lot of research now suggests that ageing ten
  
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• Mining for Mindfulness: Education Startup Brings the Power of Minecraft to Social Emotional Learning

  12-01-2016 16:24 via pr.com
  Grokcraft, an education startup, uses Minecraft to help kids engage in playful social-emotional learning (SEL)."We believe that in free play, children & adults can learn mindfulness, empathy & other social skills.” SEL has core competencies children need to master. Staff members will not be doing therapy but partner with schools & agencies if requested to provide children with extracurricular activities to foster SEL. [PR.com]
  
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• Cocaine addiction: Scientists discover 'back door' into the brain

  12-01-2016 16:20
  Individuals addicted to cocaine may have difficulty in controlling their addiction because of a previously-unknown 'back door' into the brain, circumventing their self-control, suggests a new study.
  
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• The way you sound affects your mood

  12-01-2016 12:00
  
  Researchers from France and Sweden have created a digital audio platform that can modify the emotional tone of people's voices while they are talking, to make them sound happier, sadder or more...
  
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• People who experience rage attacks have smaller "emotional brains"

  12-01-2016 12:00
  
  Neuroimaging studies suggest that frontolimbic regions of the brain, structures that regulate emotions, play an important role in the biology of aggressive behavior.
  
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