http://medicalxpress.com/psychology-news/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on psychology, psychological disorders, psychological condition, psychological diseases and psychological science. Skydivers show the same level of physical stress before every jump whether a first-timer or experienced jumper, say Northumbria researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-skydiving-plane.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:07 EST news288015808 Children of depressed parents pick up on their parents' sadness—whether mom or dad realizes their mood or not. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-kids-boys-sadness-depressed-parents.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 17 May 2013 10:00:01 EST news287997819 (HealthDay)—As many as one in five American children under the age of 17 has a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, according to a new federal report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-kids-mental-health-disorder-cdc.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:01 EST news287939547 (Medical Xpress)—Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley. For instance, Mozart's jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his dour Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-bach-blues-emotions-music.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 16 May 2013 15:02:21 EST news287935254 The relationship between the heritable risk for schizophrenia and low intelligence (IQ) has not been clear. Schizophrenia is commonly associated with cognitive impairments that may cause functional disability. There are clues that reduced IQ may be linked to the risk for developing schizophrenia. For example, reduced cognitive ability may precede the onset of schizophrenia symptoms. Also, these deficits may be present in healthy relatives of people diagnosed with schizophrenia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-genetic-schizophrenia-iq.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 16 May 2013 11:26:36 EST news287922390 Why do so many sports players and athletes choose to wear the color red when they compete? A new study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that it may have to do with their testosterone levels. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-high-testosterone-competitors-red.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 16 May 2013 11:25:37 EST news287922292 People in the military who suffer more than one mild traumatic brain injury face a significantly higher risk of suicide, according to research by the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-brain-injury-soldiers-suicide.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 15 May 2013 16:41:19 EST news287854800 (Medical Xpress)—New research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol shows that girls whose fathers were absent during the first five years of life were more likely to develop depressive symptoms in adolescence than girls whose fathers left when they were aged five to ten years or than boys in both age groups (0-5 and 5-10), even after a range of factors was taken into account. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-father-absence-early-childhood-linked.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 15 May 2013 08:40:02 EST news287823001 Men's upper-body strength predicts their political opinions on economic redistribution, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-political-evolutionary-links-physical-strength.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 15 May 2013 06:46:21 EST news287819174 Pregnant mothers' exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly fourfold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood, in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings add to mounting evidence of possible shared underlying causes and illness processes with schizophrenia, which some studies have also linked to prenatal exposure to influenza. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-flu-pregnancy-quadruple-child-bipolar.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 14 May 2013 09:16:32 EST news287741770 People are worse at predicting whether a sports team will win, lose, or tie when they bet on the final score than when they bet on the overall outcome, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-when-deciding-how-to-bet.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 13 May 2013 12:34:16 EST news287667236 When trouble approaches, what do you do? Run for the hills? Hide? Pretend it isn't there? Or do you focus on the promise of rain in those looming dark clouds? New research suggests that the way you regulate your emotions, in bad times and in good, can influence whether – or how much – you suffer from anxiety. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-suppress-explore-emotional-strategy-anxiety.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 13 May 2013 00:10:01 EST news287590065 Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have successfully tested their novel anti-cocaine vaccine in primates, bringing them closer to launching human clinical trials. Their study, published online by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, used a radiological technique to demonstrate that the anti-cocaine vaccine prevented the drug from reaching the brain and producing a dopamine-induced high. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cocaine-vaccine-key-hurdle.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 10 May 2013 14:08:40 EST news287413696 Different brain areas are activated when we choose to suppress an emotion, compared to when we are instructed to inhibit an emotion, according a new study from the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Ghent University. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-brain-emotional-self-control.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 09 May 2013 09:19:20 EST news287309860 (HealthDay)—Women who come down with the flu during pregnancy may be at increased risk of having a child who develops bipolar disorder, a new study suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-link-mom-flu-bipolar-children.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 08 May 2013 19:30:01 EST news287256289 Math and reading ability at age 7 may be linked with socioeconomic status several decades later, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The childhood abilities predict socioeconomic status in adulthood over and above associations with intelligence, education, and socioeconomic status in childhood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-early-math-ability-linked-job.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 08 May 2013 12:42:28 EST news287235741 (Medical Xpress)—Adding captivating visuals to a textbook lesson to attract children's interest may sometimes make it harder for them to learn, a new study suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-shiny-textbook-visuals.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 08 May 2013 10:45:25 EST news287228699 (Medical Xpress)—Two independent studies have found that women find men more attractive if they are holding a guitar. The first one, conducted by researchers in France was based on a young man asking strangers for a date—their results are outlined in an article they've had published in Psychology of Music. In the second study researchers used Facebook Friend requests to gauge guitar holding attractiveness. Their results have been detailed in an article they've had published in Letters on Evolutionary Behavioral Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-women-men-guitar.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 08 May 2013 10:00:02 EST news287223242 (Medical Xpress)—The capacity for optimism is often thought to be a defining characteristic of the human species. As a result, the potential benefits of optimism have been a popular research topic in psychology, and there is now extensive research demonstrating that optimism is adaptive—i.e., it provides benefits—including improved well-being and physical health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-optimism-universal-benefits.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 08 May 2013 09:30:01 EST news287221007 For nearly a decade, doctors have used an implanted electronic stimulator to treat severe depression in people who don't respond to standard antidepressant therapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-nerve-severe-depression-brain-function.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 07 May 2013 12:36:45 EST news287148997 Some memory problems common to older adults may stem from an inability to segment daily life into discrete experiences, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-older-adults-memory-lapses-linked.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 07 May 2013 12:24:02 EST news287148235 (Medical Xpress)—You may be more than a single number, according to a team of Western-led researchers. Considered a standard gauge of intelligence, an intelligence quotient (IQ) score doesn't actually provide an accurate measure of one's intellect, according to a landmark study – the largest of its kind – led by Adrian Owen of the Brain and Mind Institute at Western. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-debunking-iq-myth.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 07 May 2013 07:30:37 EST news287130628 People who gain weight are more likely to give in to temptations but also are more thoughtful about their actions, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-weight-gain-linked-personality-trait.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 06 May 2013 11:52:36 EST news287059938 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's warning that high doses of the antidepressant citalopram can cause potentially serious abnormal heart rhythms might be doing more harm than good. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-fda-high-dose-antidepressant-prescription.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 03 May 2013 13:11:49 EST news286805500 When children with conduct problems see images of others in pain, key parts of their brains don't react in the way they do in most people. This pattern of reduced brain activity upon witnessing pain may serve as a neurobiological risk factor for later adult psychopathy, say researchers who report their findings in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 2. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-kids-brains-under-react-painful-images.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 02 May 2013 12:00:06 EST news286714692 (Medical Xpress)—By studying what happens in the normal brain when neurons fire, Australian scientists have been able to identify a finely and dynamically regulated process. They also describe how dysfunction of this process is associated with schizophrenia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-faulty-neural-schizophrenia-revealed.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 02 May 2013 08:34:39 EST news286702472 A new study from investigators at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) finds that elicitation of the relaxation response – a physiologic state of deep rest induced by practices such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing and prayer – produces immediate changes in the expression of genes involved in immune function, energy metabolism and insulin secretion. Published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the study combined advanced expression profiling and systems biology analysis to both identify genes affected by relaxation response practice and determine the potential biological relevance of those changes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-genes-pathways-response.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:14 EST news286628359 There may be a way for older people to prevent natural aging of their minds, and it could be as simple as playing a video game. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-mental-agility-game-cognitive-decline.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:09 EST news286644795 It's no secret that stress increases your susceptibility to health problems, and it also impacts your ability to solve problems and be creative. But methods to prevent associated risks and effects have been less clear – until now. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-self-affirmation-problem-solving-stress.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:08 EST news286645269 Abuse during childhood is different. A study of adult civilians with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) has shown that individuals with a history of childhood abuse have distinct, profound changes in gene activity patterns, compared to adults with PTSD but without a history of child abuse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-ptsd-distinct-gene-patterns-childhood.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 01 May 2013 16:02:40 EST news286642947