Category: Psychology

It was Dr. Martha McClintock who first published the study that showed that women’s menstrual cycles tend to fall into step over time. Recently she discovered that the pheromones given off by lactating mothers increases the sexual desire in other women. The evolutionary explanation is that it is better for women to have babies when surrounded by other mothers.

Now she is investigating the different ways that black and white women are affected by cancer. All of her research is informed by connecting the social world with the genetic. In other words she is showing the huge effect psychology has on biology – with fascinating results.
> From The New York Times

Organisations like the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents have long been campaigning for the complete ban of mobile phone use while driving. Research carried out as early 1991 by The Foundation for Traffic Safety pointed to the deleterious effects of mobile phone use while driving.

So called ‘driver’s organisations’ like the RAC and the AA have opposed complete bans in the past because phone use while driving is ‘like applying make-up, drinking or shaving’. These are statements for which they have no scientific evidence. They are simply guesses as to what they hope might be true. The mounting scientific evidence present a different picture.

New research published this month into hands-free phones makes it clear exactly what effect their use has on drivers. Their study has found that driver’s cognitive function is significantly impaired, especially in older participants. Drivers were found to be significantly less aware of developing situations on the road, a major contributor to accidents.

The continuing reluctance of the government to act decisively seems to come down to how much people love their cars. The current half-way house in the UK of just banning hand-held mobiles will simply result in more people losing their lives.

> From The Univesity of Illinois

The BBC Magazine has a thought provoking article about suicides on the railway system. This comes in the wake of a rail accident in the UK possibly caused by a suicide.

It seems a number of efforts have been made to try and alleviate the problems of suicide on the railways. These preventative measures include training staff in suspicious behaviour, use of CCTV and placing more adverts for The Samaritans in stations.

While all of these things are laudable it seems to me that if someone is determined to kill themselves then they will succeed. Unintentionally, they may well do it in such a way as to endanger other people.

In that case it is important that we take whatever precautions we can.

Ultimately though we need to recognise that sometimes there are tragedies that no amount of forward planning can avoid.

From BBC News

Optimists may live longer but with Bush looking like he’ll get a second term, they’re obviously sadly deluded.

> Go to Harvard Medical School

> Go to anywhere else you care to mention to get the latest on the presidential election.

“A criminal psychology lecturer used techniques she teaches in class to talk a intruder she found in her bedroom out of her house.”

Now that’s what I call applied psychology.

> From BBC News

“Professor Theodore W. Berger, director of the Center for Neural Engineering at the University of Southern California, is creating a silicon chip implant that mimics the hippocampus, an area of the brain known for creating memories. If successful, the artificial brain prosthesis could replace its biological counterpart, enabling people who suffer from memory disorders to regain the ability to store new memories.”

> From Wired News

Keeping my ear to the Internet ground as I do sometimes turns up a story that gives me renewed hope for the human race. A genius called Mitch Altman has invented a universal remote that turns off almost any television. And it is small enough to fit onto a key ring.

If we are lucky this will create thousands, maybe millions, of anti-TV vigilantes. Each one fighting for our collective right not to have our minds filled with inane crap. Perhaps in desperation some people will be tempted to pick up a book.

> From Wired News

The beauty of research like this is that you can go around pulling people’s fingers all day. Simply tell them that a longer index compared to ring finger is a sign of higher oestrogen levels in the womb. Follow this this up by explaining that higher oestrogen levels in men are associated with better right-brain or analytical development.

One word of caution though: hope that people don’t ask you why women, who have higher oestrogen levels, aren’t well represented in the hard sciences (Maths and Physics). There’s no explanation for that yet. That may undermine your aura of wisdom.

> From The Guardian, BBC News

And it’s not a machine, it’s human and there are in fact thirty of them! Whittled down from a cast of thousands, Professor Maureen O’Sullivan from the University of San Francisco, went searching for the people who could spot lies better than a polygraph (60-70% acccuracy). The ‘wizards’ as she calls them have developed their skills by themselves over the years and were able to spot the liars in virtually all the cases presented to them.

They claim to look for clues in flickering facial expressions as well as general body language and voice tone. The plan is try to break down what these people are doing and teach it to those who need to be able to detect lies, such as police officers. But as Aldert Vrij, professor of social psychology at the University of Portsmouth, points out – will they be able to explain exactly what they are doing?

It seems likely to me that accurately detecting people’s lies is the kind of skill picked up implicitly through years of experience. It may be difficult to teach others the fundamentals in a short amount of time.

> From BBC News

The first survey of asexuality has just been published drawing on work done ten years ago investigating sexuality. It was found that 1% of participants claimed never to have felt sexually attracted to anyone, while 2% had never had sex. Asexuals are now making a claim for recognition in society as a genuine alternative orientation.

Both The Independent and The Guardian report this with a moderate level of credulity. Still, both hint at ’causes’ of asexuality including: a reaction to a highly sexed society and the effect of social stress on sexual desire.

> From The Independent and The Guardian