Paracademia

This Blog Has Moved

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:32:00 +0000

Now here

The Genetic Origins of Psychopathy

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:20:00 +0000

Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice has recently published a study into the genetic origins of psychopathic personality traits, with some interesting results.

The study focused on adoptees who had one or more psychopathic biological parents, and determined that there is a genetic link for such traits. Interestingly, however, it seems to be exclusive to the male side: for males, having a criminal biological father increased the probablility of being on the extreme end of the psychopathic personality trait scale by a factor ranging between 4.3 and 8.5; however, female adoptees were unaffected by having a biological criminal father, and there was no association between having a criminal biological mother and having psychopathic personality traits.

Kevin M. Beaver, Meghan W. Rowland, Joseph A. Schwartz and Joseph L. Nedelec (2011). The genetic origins of psychopathic personality traits in adult males and females Journal of Criminal Justice

Find the full article here

Cash Prizes for Students from Santander

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Anyone who knows me (or reads my blogs) will know I'm a big fan of Formula 1. In general, I'm a Ferrari girl, but it's nice to see Button & Hamilton teaming up with Santander to promote their latest competition in which students can win cash prizes.

The bank are giving away £50 per hour for thirty days, as well as five cash prizes of £1,000. All you need to do is visit their Facebook page to find out more, and open a Santander Student Current Account. What's more, even if you're not one of the winners, Santander will give you £240 worth of free gadget insurance and a £1,000 overdraft to tide you through uni.

Find out more here.

This post is sponsored by Santander

Shame and Blame in Juvenile Offenders

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:25:00 +0000

The relationship between child abuse and juvenile delinquency is already well-established, but a recent study at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School aims to discover the cognitive and emotional processes behind this relationship.

112 adolescents were studied, with results showing that those who converted shame into blame of other people, rather than recognising it as an emotion centering on themselves, showed more delinquent and violent behaviour than those who expressed their sense of shame without trying to transfer it elsewhere. Thus the conversion of shame into blame seems to contribute to pathological outcomes in relation to trauma, and the study recommends that clinicians bear this in mind when working with juveniles who are displaying delinquent behaviour.

Jason Gold, Margaret Wolan Sullivan and Michael Lewis (2011). The relation between abuse and violent delinquency: The conversion of shame to blame in juvenile offenders Child Abuse & Neglect

Find the full article here

Children's Ability to Draw Human Figures Does Not Measure Intellectual Ability

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sat, 28 May 2011 10:03:00 +0000

A study at the Department of Psychology in the University of Otago, New Zealand, has shown that children's ability to draw humans has no relation to their level of intellectual ability. Previously, the two were thought to be linked, and children's intelligence levels were scored partially on this test. Being someone who can't draw for toffee, I'm quite happy to discover that it doesn't necessarily mean I'm intellectually lacking...!

Find the full article here

Emma Willcock, Kana Imuta and Harlene Hayne (2011). Children’s human figure drawings do not measure intellectual ability Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Pilot Study: The Survivor to Thriver Program

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:43:00 +0000

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Researchers from East Carolina and Houston Universities have piloted an online program set up to help rape victims suffering from PTSD. They point out that 15-20% of women have been raped, and almost a third report rape-related PTSD, depression or anxiety. However, very few people seek formal help, suggesting that alternative ways to reach such individuals are needed.

The Survivor to Thriver Program is based online and was tested over seven weeksby five college women with rape-related PTSD. At the end of the study, four of the participants reported that their PTSD symptoms had been reduced. All five reported lower vulnerability fears, and four reported reductions in related negative cognitions. Results imply that the program might be worth further development; the paper discusses how this could be done and how clinicians can use it in treating rape-related PTSD.

Heather Littleton, Katherine Buck, Lindsey Rosman and Amie Grills-Taquechel (2010). The From Survivor to Thriver Program: A Pilot Study of an Online Program for Rape Victims Cognitive and Behavioral Practice

The Presence of Spirits in Madness

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:20:00 +0000

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Today I discovered an interesting paper by Wilson Van Dusen, on patients in mental hospitals who see and hear voices that they attribute to spirits.

Van Dusen managed to converse with the hallucinations as well as with the patients themselves, thus giving himself an idea of common traits within such voices and visions. He defined two orders, lower and higher, and described the differences between the two:

All of the lower order are irreligious or anti-religious. Some actively interfered with the patients' religious practices...The lower order seems incapable of sequential reasoning... The rarer higher order seldom speaks, whereas the lower order can talk endlessly. The higher order is much more likely to be symbolic, religious, supportive, genuinely instructive, and communicate directly with the inner feelings of the patient.

It's an interesting paper and definitely worth reading. Download it here.

Wilson Van Dusen (1984). The Presence Of Spirits In Madness Swedenborg Foundation, N.Y., N.Y. 10010

Men, Death and Sex

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sat, 14 May 2011 14:32:00 +0000

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A recent study by Gillath et al has shown that men who believe they are likely to die in the near future find it easier to become sexually aroused. This suggests that exposure to low survivability cues will increase men's willingness to have sex.

Participants were shown subliminal and supraliminal death primes and then measured on level of physiological arousal in response to sexual images. The second part of the study involved measuring their behavioural responses to similar imagery.

The full study can be found here

Omri Gillatha, , , Mark J. Landaua, Emre Selcukb and Jamie L. Goldenbergc (2011). Effects of Low Survivability Cues and Participant Sex on Physiological and Behavioral Responses to Sexual Stimuli Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Google Science Fair: Last Call for Entries

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 10:49:00 +0000

If any of you have kids who are wondering what to do with the rest of their weekends, you can direct them towards the Google Science Fair, which finishes tomorrow. Young people from all over the world have been submitting their entries since January, and now it's nearly over. The countries involved include the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, India, Singapore and South Africa, and the prizes are amazing. Kids can win a three-day trip to CERN (what I wouldn't give for that!), a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with the National Geographic, a $50,000 scholarship, and loads more.

Check out the video below, then head over to the competition website and submit your entry!

Post sponsored by Google

Neurological Effects of Child Maltreatment

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:04:00 +0000

Researchers at the University of Nebraska have recently completed a study into how maltreatment as a child affects a person neurologically as well as psychologically. Unsurprisingly, they discovered that child abuse has long-term detrimental consequences to the child's development, including to future brain growth and functioning of neurological mechanisms.

Child maltreatment can alter the biochemical stress response system in the brain. This changes a person's ability to respond to future stressors, making them less able to efficiently deal with and react to stressful situations.

The main brain areas affected include the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the amygdala, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. What does all that mean? Essentially, that children may find it difficult to process stimuli - both emotionally-loaded and neutral - in the future.

The researchers suggest a future study in whether early interventions help recovery.

Find the full article here

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Effect of Parental Assets on Children's Educational Attainment

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:05:00 +0000

A study of 632 young people in the USA has shown that parental assets - specifically income, as well as non-financial assets - have a significant impact on children's education. In particular, children from higher-income families had a higher rate of high school and college completion than those whose parents earned less money. Children's own educational expectations also had an effect on their achievement at high school level.

Find the full article here

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Border Collies Speak the Best English

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:09:00 +0000

...or something to that effect. A border collie has now been taught the names of 1,022 items, putting it ahead of any other recorded non-human animal as far as learning words is concerned.

Find the full article here

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Profiling adult survivors of severe abuse

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:28:00 +0000

In a recent study in Ireland, adult survivors of abuse were divided into three groups: those who reported their worst form of abuse to be sexual, physical or emotional. The participants were then given questionnaires in order to identify profiles.

Survivors of severe sexual abuse had the most abnormal profiles, with higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and substance abuse, antisocial personality disorder, trauma symptoms and life problems. Survivors of severe emotional abuse were the best-adjusted of all three groups.

Find the full article here

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The heterogeneity of religion

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:25:00 +0000

Meredith McGuire, in Lived Religion, confronts the problem that when we talk about people "having a religion", we assume that they are following one religion with one clear path, to the exclusion of any influences from other spiritualities.

She also points out that people tend to set aside the idea that material things are also important to religious life; that if one follows a faith, it spills into every area of life and is therefore affected by things there as well.

McGuire concludes that "extensive religious blending... and religious heterogeneity are the norm, rather than the exception."

Find the full review here

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The Easternisation of the West

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Colin Campbell argues that the West has been going through a period of 'cultural Easternisation' for the past century. He focuses on the 1960s as the tipping point for this change, and speaks about the way New Age ideas and beliefs have begun to influence mainstream culture more and more in the past fifty years.

Find a full review here

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Can spirituality help in treating psychiatric disorders?

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:03:00 +0000

The core argument of a recently-published article by Kelley Raab Mayo states that mental recovery can occur through a combination of spirituality and creativity. Mayo speaks about mysticism as a dissolution of rigid boundaries between objects and subjects, and relates this to both creative and spiritual activities. She believes that creative expression is necessary to "negotiate [the] dialectic between self and other", because it provides an outlet for inner feelings and beliefs.

Mayo employs her model in the treatment of anxiety, mood and eating disorders, which allows her to show how implementing such spiritual concepts as biblical narratives, meditations and rituals can initiate healing. The main limitation of Mayo's work seems to be that her idea of 'spirituality' is not very rigid; but having said that, it's a very abstract concept. Perhaps she's on to something.

Find the full article here

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Being a workaholic is good for you, as long as you love your job

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:13:00 +0000

Andreassen et al have spent some time studying workaholics, and discovered that it's not how much you do, it's how much you like it. They examined 'workaholism' traits alongside potential outcomes in terms of mental well-being and physical health. 661 Norwegian employees from 6 different organisations were asked to report their job satisfaction, life satisfaction, insomnia and subjective health complaints.

The results showed that people who loved their jobs were more likely to report high levels of life satisfaction and fewer health complaints. However, people who said they were very emotionally involved in their jobs reported a lower level of life satisfaction and more health problems.

Find the full study here

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Facial expression and emotional experience in anorexic people

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:55:00 +0000

A recent study by Davies et al shows that people with anorexia nervosa are less facially expressive when watching both positive and negative film clips than healthy participants. They also looked away from the screen more often and reported more negative emotion than their non-anorexic counterparts.

The full study can be found here

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Consent to treatment among anorexic adolescents

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:40:00 +0000

One of the most difficult parts of treating anorexic young people is that they often don't want to recover. They also often appear rational and straightforward in their reasoning, making it harder to justify treating them against their will.

In view of this, Turrell et al conducted to examine the ability of young anorexic patients to make informed decisions about their treatment. They compared a group of adolescent anorexic people with a group of non-anorexic participants, and discovered that the members of the anorexic group showed inferior reasoning skills when it came to treatment.

The full study can be found here

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How to Sell Your Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:34:00 +0000

I must say I've never had to sell gold. I don't exactly have stacks of it lying around, but as anyone who has seen an episode of Cash in the Attic will know, sometimes that old piece of jewellery you inherited from Aunt Flora might be worth more than you thought.

Monster Cash for Gold is one way of getting rid of your unwanted gold and turning it into cold hard cash. Or indeed nice crispy cash notes. It's a really simple process of putting your gold into an envelope, taking it along to the Post Office and waiting for them to make an offer, and the prices they're willing to pay tend to be higher than other people's because they don't advertise on TV.

If you change your mind or don't like their offer, you can have your stuff back; and they also accept silver and platinum, so it might be worth raking through your jewellery collection in time for Christmas; they'll get back to you within 48 hours, so you'll have enough money for some last-minute shopping.

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Effects of Childhood Trauma on Adult Romantic Relationships

noreply@blogger.com (Scar) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:53:00 +0000

A very interesting study on the effects of childhood trauma on adult relationships has recently been published in Personal Relationships. Busby, Walker & Holman assessed 5,400 heterosexual couples split into four groups:

- Neither party had experienced childhood trauma

- Both parties had experienced childhood trauma

- Only the man had experienced childhood trauma

- Only the woman had experienced childhood trauma

The results indicated that experience of childhood trauma had little impact on the selection of a partner, but was related to the way the relationship was perceived. People who had been traumatised rated both themselves and their partners as more neurotic and conflictual compared with people who had not experienced childhood trauma. However, partners of traumatised people did not believe themselves to be more neurotic or conflictual than partners in relationships where neither person was abused.

Find the full article here

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A Story Told in File Names

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:03:00 +0000

Found here

Cognitive Bias Song

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:28:00 +0000

Effects of Parents' Marriages on Offspring's Future Relationships

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:15:00 +0000

A study of 285 young adults on the effects of parental divorce and marital conflict showed that each aspect was independently associated with the children's romantic relationships in different ways. Divorce was associated with a low level of relationship quality due to a negative attitude towards marriage and a lack of commitment to relationships. Marital conflict also corresponded with a low quality of relationship, but focused on conflict behaviour between partners.

Find the full study here

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Effect of Pro-Eating Disorder Websites on Eating Habits

noreply@blogger.com (Scar de Courcier) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:29:00 +0000

This study was conducted using female college students with a BMI higher than 18 and no history of eating disorders. The women were split into three groups and exposed to either pro-eating disorder websites, healthy/exercise websites or tourist websites for one and a half hours. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used to determine eating behaviour.

The pro-ED group saw a significant decline in their calorie intake during the week after exposure to the websites, averaging 9,697 calories over the week rather than 12,167 calories the week before. Participants reported strong emotional reactions to the websites and used techniques they learned from the sites to help cut their calorie intake. These changes tended to continue for three weeks after the end of the study.

Find the full article here

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