In my countdown of the top ten psychology studies of all time, in which 588 votes have been cast, the clear front runner is former Yale and Harvard social psychologist, Stanley Milgram. His series of experiments on obedience to authority are amongst the best known in psychology. They have such clear implications for our view of human nature that they are impossible to ignore. The very idea that we so readily obey others is at once both a powerful insight and deeply disturbing.
Hollywood actor Owen Wilson’s recent suicide attempt once more raises the question of what leads people to take their own life. Research into suicidal poets provides some clues.
This week it was confirmed that Owen Wilson, the Hollywood actor, attempted suicide. The question ‘why?’ naturally arises in these circumstances. While people’s specific reasons vary greatly, psychologists are, of course, interested in the general factors that lead to suicidal behaviour. Some fascinating evidence about what these general factors are comes from a study on poets, who appear particularly prone to suicide.
That’s it, I’ve had enough. I’m fed up with endless bogus stories claiming substantial differences between men and women which pass for news in the popular press. With the help of Janet Shibley Hyde of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and literally thousands of psychology studies, this myth can be banished forever (Hyde, 2005).
The excellent BPS Research Digest is running a ‘behind the news‘ series which gives links to the scholarly articles and lead authors on which news items are based. Two entries so far – long may it continue.
…although we’re just as likely to provide support to optimists, pessimists and realists alike.
Being an optimist is supposed to be good for health, success and happiness. But does optimism have a downside in that other people think you’re self-deluded, mindless and just plain annoying? And on the flipside, how do people view pessimists? In particular, do we tend to shy away from helping out pessimists when they are in trouble?
Positive psychology research asks whether experiencing fear is a central component of courage.
Imagine you are in this situation:
“I was sitting in a Tube carriage next to an attractive young woman who was reading a magazine. There was a guy sitting opposite me, who was kind of Neanderthal [and starts hassling the woman sat next to me].
Anyway, all the passengers on the Tube were aware of this. The Tube stops. He gets out of the doors – the thug. He walks off down the platform, we’re all quite happy he’s gone. Another passenger flips him a V-sign. The doors have closed, by the way, when he does this. And then the disaster happens – the doors reopen.
The thug runs back in. He’s six foot three, his muscles are so big they’re flexing against the Tube glass, and he just starts beating seven bells out of this fellow. And actually when you see physical violence or are on the receiving end of it, it’s very very nasty.
His fist went into the side of his head, blood came out, another fist, the guy goes down on the carriage floor, and the thug walks off very happy with himself. And I did nothing. The carriage was pretty full. But none of us did anything. It was terrible.”
For decades psychologists were almost exclusively concerned with alleviating mental distress.
For decades psychologists were almost exclusively concerned with alleviating mental distress. No bad thing of course – psychological knowledge has contributed to great strides in the treatment and understanding of mental illness. But to only study pathology, damage and weakness in humanity is to leave out half the picture. What about human strengths, human virtues and human excellence – surely these are worth studying too?
In the last few decades the positive psychology movement has recognised this need for research into what makes us happy, what makes us excel and how these things might be enhanced. Acknowledging this important movement, over the coming weeks PsyBlog will be looking at some of the research emerging from this area. We start with three reasons life is worth living to whet your appetite.
The Telegraph has a story suggesting the Russian psychiatric system may be returning to the abusive practices common during Soviet times.
This week, from my psychology notebook…
Soviet psychiatry
The Telegraph has a story suggesting the Russian psychiatric system may be returning to the abusive practices common during Soviet times. The article, called ‘Labelled mad for daring to criticise the Kremlin‘, tells the story of Larisa Arap who has been forcibly treated after publicising systematic abuses of patients at a clinic where she has been held. The Telegraph’s leader column goes on to say:
“Things are different in modern Russia, where, as we report in horrifying detail today, it takes only modest influence to secure the incarceration and chemical torture of a business rival, wealthy relative or prosecution witness, and where the sectioning of citizens hostile to the Kremlin seems set to become once more a fact of political life.”
A new website, bpr3.org, has been set up to highlight peer reviewed research – the process by which academics check each other’s work.
A discussion about ‘peer review’ is ongoing over at Cognitive Daily suggesting science bloggers should use an icon to indicate when they are discussing peer reviewed research. Peer review is simply the system academics use for checking each other’s work. Before research is published in peer reviewed journals it gets sent to other experts in the field to be checked. Peer review is seen as the academic gold standard.
In stressful times we can all do with a little help from our friends.
In stressful times we can all do with a little help from our friends. Sometimes, though, our friends cannot provide – or we do not want to ask for – the kind of support required. Mutual support groups based around shared topics such as cancer or addictions have grown rapidly to meet this need. But, can mutual support groups really help people recover from mental health problems? A small but growing body of research suggests they can.
