Tradition: But, we’ve always done it that way…
April 17, 2015 Comments Off on Tradition: But, we’ve always done it that way…

Medical Daily

Tradition: It can make life rich (big ethnic holiday feasts) and sometimes limited (seemingly arbitrary social taboos about clothing), but where does it stem from?

New research out of Karolinska Institutet’s Emotion Lab in Sweden attempts to answer that question, by creating a psychological model behind the notion of tradition. It turns out that humans have a tendency to be quite sheep-like: the researchers found that it likely comes from a threat of punishment – as well as people’s willingness to copy others.

Read more
Here’s how you spot the next suicide bomber
April 15, 2015 Comments Off on Here’s how you spot the next suicide bomber

Aeon

Even if blowing oneself up were instantaneous and the individual didn’t feel physical pain, adds Caouette, there is still great psychological duress. ‘This is not mentioned in our paper, but suicide bombers usually go through a long preparation to make them ready to become suicide bombers.’ They have to say goodbye to or cut off contact with their families, who might not approve of their actions. ‘In the end,’ she said, ‘martyrdom can take many forms of self-sacrifice, whether feeling pain or losing one’s life.’
Read more
How to learn.
April 13, 2015 Comments Off on How to learn.

PsyBlog

People who learn the quickest show the least neural activity, a new study finds.

The research flies in the face of the common myth that the key to learning is trying harder and thinking it through.

Instead, quick learners in particular showed reduced brain activity in the frontal cortex, an area linked to conscious planning.

In other words: good learners don’t overthink what they are trying to learn.
Read more
Just relax and have a glass of Shiraz…
April 12, 2015 Comments Off on Just relax and have a glass of Shiraz…

Brain Blogger

Have you ever heard of the “French paradox”? This concept originated in the 1980s and refers to the epidemiological observation that French people have a relatively low incidence of cardiovascular diseases despite having a diet rich in saturated fats.

Although it has been argued that the French paradox may be an illusion due to statistical distortions and the way health statistics are collected in France, it did promote a lot of research interest around what could be allowing the French to eat saturated fats and avoid cardiovascular disease.
Read more
I just have no idea what I am feeling…
April 10, 2015 Comments Off on I just have no idea what I am feeling…

Our emotions are powerful, born of countless unknowable forces and planted by childhood events we may never consciously recall. For many of us, they exist as shrouded mysterious urges we mostly focus on managing and suppressing.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. They are in us for a reason: to be a dashboard that displays the state of our entire being. Learning to listen to and name the read-outs on that dashboard is essential to caring for ourselves and loving other people.
Read more
Yes, Facebook is making you feel abnormal…
April 8, 2015 Comments Off on Yes, Facebook is making you feel abnormal…

Psych Central

According to Feiler and Kleinbaum’s research, only the most introverted people, just one percent of the population, can be expected to have networks that are representative of the population in terms of extraversion.

The rest of us view our social world through a distorted lens-a kind of carnival mirror that could create the impression that others are more social than we are. This could have profound effects on our job performance, relationships, and self-esteem. Having biased social perceptions could also hurt leaders or product developers.
Read more
Guys: Here’s how to really keep sex alive.
April 7, 2015 Comments Off on Guys: Here’s how to really keep sex alive.

Cedars Sinai –

Nearly 300 study participants self-reported their activity levels, which researchers then categorized as sedentary, mildly active, moderately active or highly active. The subjects also self-reported their sexual function, including the ability to have erections, orgasms, the quality and frequency of erections and overall sexual function.

Results found that men who reported more frequent exercise, a total of 18 metabolic equivalents, or METS, per week, had higher sexual function scores, regardless of race.
Read more
Maybe faith is not so dead…
April 6, 2015 Comments Off on Maybe faith is not so dead…

National Post

You don’t need to be a churchgoer to pray. That’s one of the findings of a sweeping new poll on faith from the Angus Reid Institute, conducted in partnership with Dr. Reginald Bibby of the University of Lethbridge. The recent survey of 3,041 Canadians showed that even as our affiliation with organized religion continues to decline we still believe – just in our own, often deeply personal, ways. Here’s a snapshot of how faith shapes our behaviour and our views of one another today.
Read more
A Zen Buddhist take on love…
April 2, 2015 Comments Off on A Zen Buddhist take on love…

Brain Pickings

At the heart of Nhat Hanh’s teachings is the idea that “understanding is love’s other name” – that to love another means to fully understand his or her suffering. (“Suffering” sounds rather dramatic, but in Buddhism, it refers to any source of profound dissatisfaction – be it physical or psychoemotional or spiritual.) Understanding, after all, is what everybody needs – but even if we grasp this on a theoretical level, we habitually get too caught in the smallness of our fixations to be able to offer such expansive understanding. He illustrates this mismatch of scales with an apt metaphor:
Read more
Why people in positions don’t seek help.
April 1, 2015 Comments Off on Why people in positions don’t seek help.

HuffPo

The revelation adds to questions about how much Lufthansa and its insurers will pay in damages for the passengers who died.

It also underlines questions about how thoroughly the aviation industry and government regulators screen pilots for psychological problems.

It’s pretty much the same story all over again.

Someone in a position of power goes off and kills others due to a common-cold level mental illness such as depression that remained untreated.
Read more

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Session Notes

Tradition: But, we’ve always done it that way…

Here’s how you spot the next suicide bomber

How to learn.

Just relax and have a glass of Shiraz…

I just have no idea what I am feeling…

Yes, Facebook is making you feel abnormal…

Guys: Here’s how to really keep sex alive.

Maybe faith is not so dead…

A Zen Buddhist take on love…

Why people in positions don’t seek help.

Search

Calendar

Categories

Pages

Blogroll

Archives

Contact us