mind over matter

Hello, nice fun psychology-conscious readers! I wanted to let you know that I’m putting the blog on a quarter-long hiatus so I can focus on the capstone of my master’s program - the Magazine Publishing Project (with capital letters…and slight reverb). In the mean time, knock yourself out with the archives page and remember to […]

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We all know sexual harassment’s not so kind on the ol’ mental health, but a meta-analysis of 110 studies found that workplace bullying is actually more damaging. It seems that people know where to draw the line on sexual harassment because the line’s a whole lot more visible:
Workers know what actions constitute sexual harassment, in […]

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OK, this won’t come as a shock to anyone’s who’s heard a little kid shout something to the effect of, “Mommy, why is that man so fat?” New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis finds that the contemplative brain network, an introspective mental system involved in tasks like self-recognition and understanding […]

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I know I spend a lot of time blogging about spanked children and depressed teenagers and acne-ridden would-be athletes, but the latest research hits closer to home. A new study from the Swinburne University of Technology found that blogging makes people feel less isolated, more satisfied with their social lives and more connected to a […]

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New research from the University of Washington shows that the combination of mother-daughter conflict and low serotonin levels accounts for 64 percent of the difference among adolescent girls who harm themselves and those who do not.
“Most people think in terms of biology or environment rather than biology and environment working together,” said [Theodore Beauchaine, a […]

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First there were rent-a-cops, then there were drop-in health clinics (doc-in-a-boxes), and now there’s MindMentor.com, your robot psychologist friend. I stumbled upon this friendly-looking health professional in a press release here. His website makes a lot of promises:

He’s an electronic psychologist.
He’s always available.
He’s very discreet.
He’s fast.
You can afford him.

Um, wow. “His average solution percentage is […]

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In eighth grade, I was all about the demonstrative speeches. Once I wowed the whole class with four minutes on handwriting analysis, and another time I taught my classmates how to iron a shirt. However, when our professor announced we’d need to create relevant how-to videos for our blogs, I was stumped. Psychology research has […]

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New meta-analysis research suggests that spanking leads to sexual problems later in life. Getting spankings as a kid raises one’s risk for “delinquent and anti-social behavior in childhood along with aggression, criminal and anti-social behavior and spousal or child abuse as an adult.” Furthermore, children whose parents physically punished them are later more likely to […]

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Just read a really interesting Q&A with Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University and the head of a political and corporate consulting firm, Westen Strategies. He’s also the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation,” and it seems he feels Barack Obama’s […]

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So, I’m finally caught up on Season Ten of America’s Next (Tenth-) Top Model, and I’m actually feeling a little guilt as to how much I am enjoying it.
Not just because it’s saccharine-sweet and all about Tyra and a celebration of superficiality and excess. What got to me this time was the exploitation of young […]

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