Psychology - Page 28 of 55

College Binge Drinking ‘Seriously Kicks Ass’

Data collected at bars and fraternity parties on the UMass campus has yielded unexpected conclusions with regard to the practice of binge drinking.

A wry smile, courtesy of The Onion:

“Data collected at bars and fraternity parties on the UMass campus has yielded unexpected conclusions with regard to the practice of binge drinking,” study head Dr. Albert Greaves said. “Over the course of our research, a consistent pattern emerged demonstrating that binge drinking seriously kicks ass.”
“There was this one bar called The Depot, where they serve beer in these humongous three-foot glasses that are like giant boots,” Greaves continued. “You have to stand back and tilt the thing to drink it all. Our team conducted an experiment to see who could finish one off the fastest. Myself, Dr. Milton Laurian and these eight 20-year-old test subjects lined up against a wall and started chugging away. After completing the test and subsequently throwing up all over the place, I could only conclude that downing huge-ass boot beers is really awesome.”

Now read on (via The Language Log).

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Larry David is Role Model for Schizophrenia Sufferers

Roberts considers Larry David to be the perfect proxy for a schizophrenic person.

From The New Yorker:

[Trainee clinical psychologist, David] Roberts began showing TV clips during therapy sessions [with schizophrenia patients]. Soon he had narrowed his selections down to one show: television’s purest expression of social dysfunction, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Roberts considers Larry David to be the perfect proxy for a schizophrenic person. “On his way into his dentist’s office, he holds the door open for a woman, and, as a result, she’s seen first,” he said. “He stews, he fumes, he explodes. He’s breaking the social rules that folks with schizophrenia often break. […] It’s a classic example of a major social cognitive error-jumping to conclusions – that schizophrenic patients are prone to.”

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Why War? The Most Dangerous Animal by David Livingstone Smith

The Most Dangerous Animal of David Livingstone Smith’s title is, of course, man.

‘The Most Dangerous Animal‘ of David Livingstone Smith’s title is, of course, man. It is man’s continued determination to band together in order to slay members of its own species that qualifies us for this most dubious of superlatives. The question this book tackles is simply: why? Smith employs a variety of academic disciplines to answer this question. It crosses territory from psychoanalysis to prehistoric archaeology and even microbiology, but the heart of his argument lies in evolutionary psychology.

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Professor Richard Wiseman is King of Weird Psychology Studies

The king of weird psychology studies here in the UK is Professor Richard Wiseman.

Ducks are the funniest animals [Photo by Gaetan Lee]

The king of weird psychology studies here in the UK is Professor Richard Wiseman who has published books on magic, luck and psychics. Wiseman is the author of a new book, ‘Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things‘ which contains some interesting ‘coctail party’ psychology. Here’s a taster of some of some of his work. Please make sure your cocktail glass’s rim is liberally coated with salt.

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Big Picture Questions for Humanity from ‘Overcoming Bias’

Continuing my search for intelligent life in the blogosphere, I wanted to introduce you to a blog I’ve belatedly realised is excellent.

Continuing my search for intelligent life in the blogosphere, I wanted to introduce you to a blog I’ve belatedly realised is excellent. ‘Overcoming Bias‘ is from Oxford University’s ‘Future of Humanity Institute‘ whose mission statement says they are:

“…pursu[ing the] big picture questions for humanity. We study how anticipated technological developments may affect the human condition in fundamental ways, and how we can better understand, evaluate, and respond to radical change.”

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Accessible Science Blogging Outside Psychology

In the spirit of open-minded exploration I have been looking around at blogs outside psychology to see what’s going on.

In the spirit of open-minded exploration I have been looking around at blogs outside psychology to see what’s going on. As I mentioned earlier in the week I’m particularly interested in blogs on physics and sociology – two fine bedfellows! Nothing on sociology yet but here’s a couple of physics blogs and one where the professors ‘rate’ their students, letting out all that bottled up tension.

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Wealth Psychologists: Money is a Problem

It’s so hard to be rich nowadays that people need special help from ‘wealth psychologists’.

[Photo by EricGjerde]

It’s so hard to be rich nowadays that people need special help from ‘wealth psychologists’. Apparently one of the problems frequently faced by the rich is guilt. Along with this there’s the question of how to raise kids responsibly when almost anything is affordable. Financial management firms are now hiring their own in-house psychologists to help those rolling in piles of filthy lucre.

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Avoid Email Miscommunication

The tone of an email is incredibly easy to misinterpret, explains emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman, writing in the New York Times.

[Photo by larskflem]

The tone of an email is incredibly easy to misinterpret, explains emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman, writing in the New York Times. The main problem is there is no channel to convey our emotion – other than emoticons which are notoriously crude.

We’ve all done it: written something that’s meant to be a joke in an email and then received a cold response when the message is misunderstood. Or received an email we can’t make head nor tail of. Is this a joke or are they being serious?

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“Silliest” Psychology Research

Ig Nobel awards: prizes are awarded for research that makes you: “laugh and then think”.

[Photo by Olivander]

Studies on the physics of wrinkled sheets and the side-effects of sword swallowing were amongst the winners at the 2007 Ig Nobel awards. Prizes are awarded for research that makes you: “laugh and then think”. Unfortunately (or fortunately) no wins this year for psychologists, but psychological research has produced pretty weird winners in previous years. Here’s the countdown of the ‘silliest’ research in psychology as judged by the Ig Nobel awards over the past 16 years.

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The Truman Show Experiment

While the greatest psychology experiment imaginable has never been done, it has been filmed.

I recently contributed to The BPS Research Digest for a series of articles on the best psychology experiment that’s never been done. My suggestion is the ‘Truman Show Experiment’.

While the greatest psychology experiment imaginable has never been done, it has been filmed. The film is The Truman Show in which the main character Truman Burbank, played by Jim Carrey, lives in an entirely manufactured world, and has done since birth. The island on which he lives is a stage, his wife is an actress along with all his friends, neighbours and acquaintances – indeed everyone on the island is playing a part.

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