School of Psychology Postgraduate Research Blog

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21090875410766360552012-02-16T17:04:24.680ZSchool of Psychology Postgraduate Research BlogWelcome to the blog of the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin. The purpose of this blog is to communicate and disseminate useful and interesting information from the scientific psychological literature. The blog is also used to promote awareness of relevant events occurring in the School and further afield. The blog is moderated by Michael Daly from the School of Psychology. The contents displayed represent individual viewpoints only and not the opinion of any institution or official.Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.comBlogger621100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-87115510143001372212009-11-03T11:34:00.004Z2009-11-03T11:43:02.760ZWhat is the human mind designed for?

Talk by Prof. Roy Baumeister as part of the recent compass online social sciences conference view here

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-86940907961786046012009-11-02T10:06:00.008Z2009-11-02T11:00:46.211ZNeed for Better Student Mental Health Supports?

Using the Beck Depression Inventory cut-off for depression a recent study in the Irish Medical Journal found:"We determined the prevalence and correlates of depression.. and suicidal ideation among medical and business students in Trinity College, Dublin and University College, Dublin... 338 (62.7%) responded. 47 (13.9%) students were depressed.. (5.9%) students reported suicidal ideation in the

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-28754013645847369042009-10-15T21:48:00.003+01:002009-10-15T21:55:00.651+01:00Prescription of antidepressants doubles in 11 years

"The average number of prescriptions issued per patient increased from 2.8 in 1993 to 5.6 in 2004" from a study of approx. 190,000 cases published today in the BMJ.

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-78681309336927585572009-10-15T21:38:00.003+01:002009-10-15T21:42:32.536+01:00Community Quality of Life National Survey

Results from a Canadian survey detailing the factors that contribute to high quality communities are available here

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-22801695321272007632009-10-15T21:26:00.002+01:002009-10-15T21:35:47.806+01:00Powerful ineptitude leads to aggresive defensiveness

"Power paired with self-perceived incompetence leads to aggression, and this aggressive response is driven by feelings of ego defensiveness"from Fast & Chen in press in Psychological Science

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-77658643003909623562009-10-14T11:40:00.002+01:002009-10-14T11:45:04.522+01:00Superfreakonomics: Out this week

Long awaited sequel to freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner: see on amazon

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-46494747231460795402009-10-14T11:35:00.004+01:002009-10-14T11:40:24.550+01:00Some New Must Reads for Social Psychologists

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis & James H. Fowler "Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Drs. Christakis

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-38523742300066817642009-10-14T11:12:00.003+01:002009-10-14T15:06:31.446+01:00How to design your course website...

For anyone interested in disseminating or getting feedback on your lectures, designing something like this and building it into your course comes strongly recommended!: http://justiceharvard.org/

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-56572006643992409692009-10-14T10:33:00.003+01:002009-10-14T10:38:26.090+01:00Ulysses Lecture in UCD Tomorrow

This promises to be a really interesting talk. Prof. Smith's work has clear relevance to the valuation of interventions founded in developmental psychology. On the 15th of October 2009, UCD will award the Ulysses medal to Professor James Smith, former head of the Labour and Population Centre at RAND and two-time recipient of the National Institute of Aging Merit Award. Professor Smith's lecture

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-40510056238332869022009-10-11T16:43:00.003+01:002009-10-11T16:48:17.851+01:00Epigenetics and Psychological Factors

For anyone interested in the effects of environmental factors on gene expression within and across generations and the potential psychological effects of this, a special issue of Biological Psychiatry includes an editorial and three review articles covering the topic of epigenetics: link here.

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-64986612545262731882009-10-11T16:24:00.001+01:002009-10-11T16:25:55.468+01:00Longevity, Regeneration, and Optimal Health Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Special Issue

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-1077706616665825722009-08-10T18:30:00.003+01:002009-08-10T18:34:36.505+01:00Double-Blind Test of the Effects of Distant Intention on Water Crystal Formation

I'm resisting commenting on how this research made a splash a few years ago... Perplexing effects, to say the least. Ideas, insights, suggested mechanisms welcomed!Radin et al.

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-68259489333852560672009-08-06T11:19:00.002+01:002009-08-06T11:25:05.465+01:00Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

"CBPR has origins in public health, which has a tradition of involving the community in public health decisions (Israel, Schulz, Parker, & Becker, 2001). Health psychologists have only recently recognized CBPR as a potential route to improving health and reducing health disparities."Partnering with communities for effective and sustainable behavioral health interventions: link here"Emphasizing

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-89324905663212613022009-08-05T16:49:00.002+01:002009-08-05T16:52:23.546+01:00Qualitative research and its place in psychological science.

An article by Anna Madill and Brendan Gough from Psychology Methods last year. Well worth a look: link here

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-57813420256785679852009-08-03T20:46:00.001+01:002009-08-03T20:47:59.154+01:00Special Issue on the Next Big Questions in Psychology

In the latest issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-84589943084463855162009-07-01T14:38:00.004+01:002009-07-01T14:41:56.325+01:00Public lecture

Won't be in attendance myself, but could be interesting: Nobel Laureate, Professor Amartya SenLamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University“On Global Confusion”Chaired by Dr Mary Robinson, Chancellor of the University of Dublin, Trinity Collegeat 6.30pm on Thursday 9th July 2009in the Public Theatre, Front Square, Trinity CollegePlease RSVP to sen@

Andrew P. Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03581140840042803830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-59691032425738728582009-06-10T21:48:00.002+01:002009-06-10T22:03:28.368+01:00Disgust sensitivity predicts intuitive disapproval of gays

A recent study from the journal Emotion moves on from research showing that an action that is thought to be morally wrong is viewed as more intentional than actions that are viewed as morally right. The typical example here is something like this- Frank owns a large-scale pharmaceutical business and is establishing a new factory in China. However, this will have the side-effect of causing 500,000

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-39985663278583166282009-06-05T10:24:00.006+01:002009-06-05T10:41:52.450+01:00Gene x Environment interaction in risk taking prevention study

The science 'highlights of the recent literature' alert today discussed a new study in Child Development l examining the effects of a risk behaviour reduction intervention on teenagers (approx. 300 intervention, 300 control). The researchers tested the adolescents for different versions of the 5HTT (SLC6A4) gene polymorphism involved in serotonin transmission. The short version of this allele is

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-28799985137875784572009-06-02T13:14:00.003+01:002009-06-04T10:22:09.611+01:00Social creativity

There's an interesting interview in the latest issue of Europe's Journal of Psychology that deals with group creativity, touching on organisational psychology, social networking and contemporary politics along the way:http://www.ejop.org/images/05%202009/Interview%20creativity%20as%20social.pdfI also notice an article on pathology and creativity in this issue of EJOP. I wonder if pathology in

Andrew P. Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03581140840042803830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-35513625120352287862009-05-27T15:18:00.004+01:002009-05-27T15:40:43.520+01:00Can we train ourselves to be happier?

Yes according to Sonya Lyubomirsky author of "The how of happiness" and scientific advisor to the newly developed "Live Happy" iphone application. The new positive psychology app advises users to express gratitude, savour the moment, to strive, be optimistic and engage more in social relationships. The application tracks the progress and use of research supported happiness improving techniques

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-57355289068365660102009-05-25T12:12:00.003+01:002009-05-25T12:17:30.299+01:00Guest Speaker: Hille Haker

Hille Haker, Professor of Moral Theology and Social Ethics at Frankfurt University, will be speaking on "Nanomedicine in European Ethics Regulation" today at 5. She will present a lecture on "Synthetic Biology - an emerging debate in European Ethics" tomorrow at 10 in the morning. It might be of interest to people involved in Health Psychology.Both talks will take place in the Emmet Theatre, Arts

Andrew P. Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03581140840042803830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-41818360823466565282009-05-20T16:44:00.006+01:002009-05-20T17:10:59.722+01:00Government plan to create the offence of ‘blasphemous libel’

Todays article in the Times is viewable here. What does 'blasphemous libel' even mean? Is it an oxymoron?Well.. blasphemous language = expressing disrespect for God or for something sacred. and.. libel = a false and malicious publication printed for the purpose of defaming a living person. so.. blasphemous libel = expressing disrespect for God or for something sacred for the purpose of falsely

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-73236114397257089172009-05-20T15:36:00.004+01:002009-05-20T15:46:19.240+01:00The Psychology of Rounders

The first official game endorsed by the International Council for Rounders Among Psychologists (ICRAP) will be held on Sunday the 24th May in the Phoenix Park. While it is entirely possible that the day itself will be one filled with enjoyment and perhaps even laughter, participants should not be distracted from the potential dangers that exist. A number of studies illustrate these dangers and

Fearghal O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16380105321221093754noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-62541426073042567172009-05-20T15:07:00.007+01:002009-05-20T15:41:05.078+01:00Kanazawa article on the role of intelligence in explaining a link between inequality and health- A post fall-out review

There has been a discussion around the relationship between intelligence and race and the implications this has, if any, for intervention design and college course and job selection. The fundamental point is that there are a myriad of unobserved factors in studies particularly those using national level data that may explain race-intelligence or nation-intelligence relationships. At the most

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-84916599028693014882009-05-13T17:35:00.004+01:002009-05-13T17:50:52.130+01:00Is Bad Stronger than Good?

When something bad happens to us the first reaction when we have a spare moment is to specify what exactly went wrong and to reflect on how things could have gone differently. A detailed review of the impact of good (e.g having great parents, being told you're doing well) vs. bad events (e.g. abusive parents, being told off) by Roy Baumeister and colleagues has outlined how bad outcomes usually

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-35576426032961538952009-05-13T16:45:00.007+01:002009-05-13T17:16:54.204+01:00School of Psychology/TCIN study sheds new light on synaesthesia

When I think of the letter 'C' it's yellow. Maybe because the wallchart we learnt the alphabet from had this formula or maybe because it sounds like 'sea' and with sea comes sand, and that's yellow.. who knows. For about 4% of the population, a stimulus, like a letter or sound, can trigger an actual percept in a different sense modality. Rather than sparking an associative memory process they

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-36505576783839198472009-05-13T16:41:00.003+01:002009-05-13T16:44:45.390+01:00Pathological gaming

American children and adolescents aged 8 - 18 now spend almost 2 hours a day playing video games according to a recent national survey of 1,178 youths. Pathological gamers were defined as those that met 6 of 11 conditions whereby their video game playing has a detrimental impact on their family, school and social lives. 8.5% of those surveyed met this criteria and were found to play for 24 hours

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-72104611200263060432009-05-08T14:42:00.004+01:002009-05-08T14:49:54.402+01:00Oh, behave!

It may come a surprise to know we are now nearing the end of the 'decade of behaviour' considering the lack of major research initiatives or funding drives in the study of behaviour in the last few years. Psychology research over this period, for instance, has been labelled the 'science of self-reports and finger movements' and researchers ask 'what ever happened to actual behaviour?'. There are

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-44467254107236181812009-05-07T16:11:00.004+01:002009-05-07T16:14:32.380+01:00Q: What's in a name?

A: Quite a lot it seems and maybe even the chance of a job according to this study by the ESRI showing that job applications with Irish names are twice as likely to get called for interview than those with German, Asian, or African names.

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-55570206929747744762009-05-07T16:00:00.006+01:002009-05-07T16:10:18.637+01:00Science study sheds light on neural underpinnings of self-control

Why can some people exert self-control whilst others have severe problems? It's because the ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes the value of a stimulus but the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex fails to down-modulate this value in line with your goals of course!! read more here or read the original article here.

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-76716085676460240612009-05-06T18:54:00.005+01:002009-05-06T19:17:40.027+01:00Geek cloud

I've been messing around with web-crawling software. This is a wordle representation of the TCD psychology site and TCIN from the information pulled out in about 5 seconds with a web crawler: TCD psychology TCINThere are a few papers using web crawlers to glean emotion related words from blog content (e.g. an article Pennebaker was involved with here.). In general this technology is fairly

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-78984416116774805022009-05-06T11:11:00.006+01:002009-05-06T11:37:42.064+01:00Aspire & do Irish clinical psychologists have it good?

Aspire magazine includes informative about the work Clinical Psychologists do, how to train as one, as well as focusing on some of the emerging areas for the profession (eg diversity, regulation, etc). It's freely available here and the latest issue includes articles such as 'Is a 'Desmond' good enough' (is a 2:2 enough to be eligible for doctoral work!). It seems like a great resource for

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-89548810212534380092009-05-05T14:52:00.003+01:002009-05-05T15:19:25.555+01:00Taking a step back boosts self-control

Simulating a smile by holding a pencil between your lips makes it easier to feel happiness and pushing two dots together on your forehead makes sadness more prominent (Laird, 1974). These and a wide-array of interesting findings have emerged from studies on embodied cognition. They have shown us that we are more likely to buy something when we're hungry, to think of the future when we're cold and

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-4531493436278599302009-03-04T17:10:00.010Z2009-03-04T17:41:07.502ZNorman Doige Talk TCIN

Norman Doige, author of 'The brain that changes itself' will be speaking in Trinity College Institute of NeuroScience (Lloyd Building Room 11) on Thursday 19 March from 6.00pm-7-30pm and on Friday 20 March from 11:30am-1pm. Both events are free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, contact John Kerins, Neuron Learning Ltd.,

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-86552164316043808472009-02-11T00:06:00.002Z2009-02-11T00:16:05.375ZArina Bones Research

The website of Prof. Bones from the University of Darache includes implicit association tests that overcome reliance on explicit measures for important questions such as an "are you alive?" or "are you a space alien?". There's also a poster presentation that tests the hypothesis that priming research causes social psychologists rather than vice versa!

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-80983809962965424592009-01-30T22:25:00.004Z2009-01-30T22:31:36.169ZfMRI statistical methods and technique foundations questioned

The use of inappropriately adjusted statistical techniques has lead to many "voodoo" correlations being identified in contemporary social neuroscience according to a controversial paper in press at Perspectives on Psychological Science (available here).A second strike to neuroscience was a letter to Nature this week documenting how increases in blood flow were found to occur in the absence of

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-12348123422610292392009-01-30T20:35:00.009Z2009-03-04T17:30:27.294ZHuman

Michael Gazzaniga has written a relatively new book entitled "Human: The science behind what makes us unique". It's reviewed in Science this week and in New Scientist . He covers a huge bulk of neuroscientific research focusing on uniquely human capabilities such as imagination.

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-43692182924112848882009-01-09T15:35:00.001Z2009-01-09T15:35:38.833Z

Chaos Begets Chaos A new study supports the controversial claim that people can be morally swayed by the state of their surroundings. by Sheila Prakash • Posted January 8, 2009 01:30 PM The Spreading of DisorderScience 12 December 2008 A 5-Euro note serves as bait to illustrate a sociological

Caoiltehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01180708176533890696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-53501914674577822522008-05-02T13:58:00.002+01:002008-05-02T14:05:55.461+01:00IQ: Precocity on Parade

PT Staff discusses the various forms and uses of intelligence in this 'Psychology Today' article. Whilst psychologists go into depth relating and debating the facets of intelligence and its hierarchical factor structure little coverage is given to the ways in which intelligence is used. Staff describes the Bully who uses intelligence to gain power over others and belittle them, the affable who

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-71980090174870550552008-02-28T11:49:00.001Z2008-02-28T11:58:09.904ZDo people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner?

The Situationist comments on a recent article in the JPSP."In paradigms in which participants state their ideal romantic-partner preferences or examine vignettes and photographs, men value physical attractiveness more than women do, and women value earning prospects more than men do. Yet it remains unclear if these preferences remain sex differentiated in predicting desire for real-life potential

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-7676435123192330882008-01-22T15:29:00.000Z2008-01-22T15:30:20.424ZThe World Database of Happiness

"The World Database of Happiness is an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective enjoyment of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic work. The Database consists of the following interrelated collections, the interconnections of which are visualized on a flow chart."

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-45219152282600647162008-01-22T15:06:00.000Z2008-01-22T15:14:17.594ZPerspectives on Psychological Science

This relatively new journal (2006) looks at the direction psychological research is taking and discusses some of the most contemporary theoretical and methodological issues facing the field.A few articles from the January 2008 issue:The Unconscious MindABSTRACT—The unconscious mind is still viewed by many psychological scientists as the shadow of a "real" conscious mind, though there now exists

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-57581036678035452832008-01-22T14:53:00.000Z2008-01-22T14:55:21.907ZFreakonomics prof studies Chicago's sex trade

Researchers have concluded in a yet-to-be published study of the economics of prostitution in Chicago that the women were forced to service police officers, worked more on holidays and varied pricing based on race.link...

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-19758209437733133802008-01-18T11:34:00.000Z2008-01-18T11:36:04.726ZDemocracy and non-Western cultures

This was a letter in the times todaythought it was an interesting ideaIS DEMOCRACY ALWAYS BEST? Madam, - During the 1930s, my grandfather was friends with the late Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, and the two would often meet to debate politics and philosophies. According to family accounts, Kenyatta professed great admiration for the concept of democracy, while at the same time questioning vigorously

Grainnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12256306877244844005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-23073178856628147962008-01-15T17:38:00.000Z2008-01-15T17:39:52.978ZHigher wine prices boost drinking pleasure

STANFORD, California (Reuters) - The more wine costs, the more people enjoy it, regardless of how it tastes, a study by California researchers has found. Researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology found that because people expect wines that cost more to be of higher quality, they trick themselves into believing the wines provide a more

Caoiltehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01180708176533890696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-77210321305087144482007-11-28T13:42:00.000Z2007-11-28T13:44:11.243ZDomestic Dogs and Human Health: An Overview

Purpose. The domestic dog is one of the most commonly owned, and widely utilized, animals in today’s society. This paper provides an overview of research that has explored the relationship between the domestic dog and human wellbeing.Methods. The article initially concentrates on the value of dogs for physical health in humans, exploring the evidence that this species can prevent us from becoming

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-77248972933292182872007-11-25T17:47:00.000Z2007-11-25T18:02:58.263ZAbnormal cerebral cortex structure and delay in cortical maturation in children with ADHD

Abstract1Examination of cerebral cortical structure in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has thus far been principally limited to volume measures. In the current study, an automated surface-based analysis technique was used to examine the ADHD-associated differences in additional morphologic features of cerebral cortical gray matter structure, including surface area,

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-85489894902758842542007-11-25T17:44:00.000Z2007-11-25T17:46:11.650ZThe emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Americas and beyond

HIV-1 group M subtype B was the first HIV discovered and is the predominant variant of AIDS virus in most countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa. However, the circumstances of its origin and emergence remain unresolved. Here we propose a geographic sequence and time line for the origin of subtype B and the emergence of pandemic HIV/AIDS out of Africa. Using HIV-1 gene sequences recovered from

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-43159932918233126412007-11-20T16:20:00.000Z2007-11-20T16:27:12.244ZPsychsoc talk by Dr. Kenneth McKenzie

This week Psychsoc present a talk by Dr Kenneth McKenzie, on the topic "Do market researchers know something that psychologists don't?". Dr McKenzie will provide insights into why we buy the things we do, why we're often suckers for advertising, and how we are persuaded to part with our money. If you want to know the answers to these questions, come along to the Swift theatre, Arts Block room

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-54940822085966722492007-11-15T13:58:00.000Z2007-11-15T14:12:42.253ZCyberpsychology talk tonight

Dr. Gráinne Kirwan's will be giving a talk at 7pm this evening in the Lloyd building room 11 (in the basement) on the exciting and emerging field of Cyber-psychology.There is now a masters in Cyberpsychology in Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Their website gives an insight into Cyberpsychology as focusing on the study of the human mind and behaviour in the context of

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-25847355605458332642007-11-15T10:52:00.000Z2007-11-15T10:58:38.266ZThe benefits of being normal

Despite frequent discussions of what it means to be normal in clinical, social, and personality psychology theory, the characteristics of individuals who call themselves normal are little understood.In 5 studies, the authors investigated various hypotheses concerning the nature of normality evaluations. The authors add to recent evidence that normality evaluations represent a distinct dimension

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-38266144157564983252007-11-12T21:14:00.001Z2007-11-12T21:47:50.653ZContraception: A tip for most people except lapdancers!

This study was mentioned during last weeks seminar by Hugh Garavan in relation to the section on female inhibitory processes to attractive male faces at different stages of the menstrual cycle. Reading the abstract brought me back to leaving cert biology and the teaching that estrus was a phase where fertility was signaled to males which was related to non-human mammals only as when human females

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-22854671624773356712007-11-12T17:15:00.000Z2007-11-12T17:20:55.658ZSeminar in the School this week

Prof. Francis McGlone from the Cognitive Neuroscience Group at Unilever Research Laboratories in the UK will give a seminar entitled "Touching stuff....." tomorrow Tuesday 13th of November at one o'clock in lecture theatre number 2 in the basement of the Lloyd Institute. Below is a brief summary of the talk:The skin senses have traditionally been described as conveying tactile, thermal and

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-84265522723002126272007-11-11T17:36:00.000Z2007-11-11T17:48:32.641ZPsychiatry, Heredity, and the Fruitless Search for Genes

Serious problems with genetic approaches to psychological conditions have been demonstrated of late and this page gives a chapter-by-chapter account of Jay Joseph's book 'The Missing Gene' which focuses on research in this area.A really interesting talk by Richard Lewontin gives some nice examples of the difficulties in making judgements about and weighting the relative contributions of genes and

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-46793059314835403152007-11-08T19:55:00.000Z2007-11-08T20:25:58.560ZWhy are we still in college? Grit or Lack of Imagination or Both!?

Angela Duckworth introduces a new concept termed 'Grit' which is essentially the ability to consistently follow goals with perseverance and effort. It sounds worthwhile though on closer examination its promise is questionable as GritScale items like 'My interests change from year to year' indicate that inconsistency of interests is necessarily a bad thing and the use of 'spelling bee' success as

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-67013021808071154792007-11-08T12:11:00.000Z2007-11-08T12:23:23.698ZLargest meta-analysis shows link between overweight and cancer

The World Cancer Research Fund has published the findings from what must be the largest meta-analysis ever conducted. The researchers started off with half a million studies and narrowed these down to a mere 7,000 to produce the most definitive evidence to date that a healthy BMI (20-25) is of central importance for cancer prevention. Other findings from the report emphasize the usual factors

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-88879802448542022202007-11-06T18:26:00.000Z2007-11-07T10:28:24.967ZPSI conference offer for Postgrad Volunteers

The PSI conference will take place this year down in Killarney from the 15th-18th of this month. There will be over 100 talks at the conference with interesting talks including discussions around things we can all relate to such as 'Feelings and pain in office workers'!The PSI are offering postgrads who volunteer to assist in running the conference free admission to the conference and the

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-83725644046563638042007-11-06T11:35:00.000Z2007-11-06T11:39:16.319ZFree access to Sage publications for the month of November

For those who don't already know, Sage publications are offering free access to all their journals for the month of November, you just need to register on the link below:http://www.sagepub.com/Amy

Amy Broganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12629580184460850539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-26673243908028533832007-11-06T09:59:00.000Z2007-11-06T11:36:21.981ZTalks in the School of Psychology today

Prof. Hugh Garavan will give a talk entitled 'Sex on the Brain' at 1pm today in Room 1.11 in Aras an Phiarsaigh. Prof. Garavan's work focuses largely on the neuroanatomical substrates which are involved in control processes such as inhibitory control and performance monitoring. These processes are fundamental to health or financial decision-making and interact with more affective processes such

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-2908609893057189802007-11-06T09:16:00.000Z2007-11-06T09:31:15.174ZVisions from LSD Psychotherapy

This has to be one of the most bizarre forms of therapy ever trialed. It involved giving people LSD and using the associated altered states of consciousness to promote healing, growth etc. whilst engaging in psychotherapy. This therapy was pioneered by Stanislav Grof and the 'Visions' website includes some of the artwork produced by his patients. In general the impression from the paintings is a

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-81967909118935643112007-11-05T17:32:00.000Z2007-11-05T17:40:22.057ZDecision-making special in Science

A new science special points to recent advances in decision-making research. For anyone interested in the role of executive functioning in decision-making or for those with an interest in economics or the more mathematically minded, there is an interesting article on game theory and social decision-making in combination with neuroimaging!The later study points to how the brain supports

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2109087541076636055.post-56997088130561575152007-11-05T16:40:00.000Z2007-11-05T17:15:28.237ZThe importance of coding your variables right

In 1998 DeNeve & Cooper published their seminal meta-analysis 'The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being'. In this article the authors consider the results of a huge number of studies and report a significant negative correlation between a repressive-defensive coping style and subjective well-being. Many researchers including myself have run with

Michael Dalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218444900545461083noreply@blogger.com0