psychology

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Flip-Flopping Pols Are Just Channeling Inner Hypocrite

They know it's wrong, but benefits too great

(Newser) - Think all politicians are self-justifying hypocrites? You're probably right, John Tierney writes in the New York Times. As a recent psychological study demonstrates, all of us, given enough time and mental wiggle room, will succumb to the "self-halo effect," justifying in ourselves and our allies moral lapses we...

Most Lucrative College Majors
 Most Lucrative College Majors 
Jun 21, 2008 4:07 PM CDT

Most Lucrative College Majors

Computer engineering tops list for grads seeking quick cash

(Newser) - College students looking for fast cash after graduation should study computer engineering, Forbes reports. Here are the most lucrative college majors, with salaries for beginners and veterans alike:
  • Computer engineering ($60,500-$104,000)
  • Economics ($48,000-$96,200)
  • Electrical engineering ($59,900-$96,100)
  • Computer science ($54,200-$94,000)
  • Mechanical engineering ($56,
...

Better Red Than Dead in Online Games

Red teams win more often than blue teams, researchers find

(Newser) - If you want to win, at least in the online first-person shooter Unreal Tournament 2004, get your red on. Researchers have found that red teams beat blue teams in the multiplayer game 55% of the time, even though players choose their own teams. One scientist suggested this is because the...

This View Zaps Stress, Naturally

Study finds plasma TV images no substitute

(Newser) - For stress relief, there is no substitute for views of nature, the Seattle Times reports. A University of Washington study found that students who faced a stressful task returned to a normal heart rate most quickly while looking out the window at trees and grass.

Focus, Not IQ, Might be Best School Skill

Kids trained to flex 'executive function' muscles learn better

(Newser) - EF is the new IQ, and if educators accept that new acronym mantra, more preschoolers will be playing games, Newsweek reports. Executive function—the ability to repress distracting thoughts and focus on a task—could be a better indicator of scholarly success than intelligence alone; psychologist Adele Diamond implemented an...

'Do-It-Yourself' Can Be Fightin' Words

35% of British homeowners admit to house-related disputes

(Newser) - Adrian starts painting in the middle, but Hannah wants the wall layered methodically. Adrian storms out, and Hannah works alone. The DIY dispute is no anomaly: 35% of British homeowners said in a recent study that home improvements caused domestic rifts. Underlying the debates on paint color and floorboards is...

NIU Shooter Saw Himself as Sensitive Victim

Kazmierczak's essays trace path from group home to dean's list

(Newser) - Steven Kazmierczak didn’t leave a note before his deadly February shooting spree at Northern Illinois University, nor clues to his motivations on his computer or cell phone. But in essays for graduate-school applications, the Chicago Tribune reports, the future killer writes extensively about his life and his mental problems—...

Suicide Kills More LA Cops Than Criminals

Grim nature of job biggest hazard for officers

(Newser) - Cops in Los Angeles are more likely to die by their own hand than from a criminal's bullet, the Los Angeles Times reports. Psychologists trying to improve the LAPD's suicide prevention efforts found that 19 police officers in the city killed themselves between 1998 and 2007, while just seven died...

Money Brings Happiness — if You Give it Away

Researchers discover giving makes people happier than receiving

(Newser) - Money can buy happiness after all, the Globe & Mail reports. A new study shows that people reported being happier if they spent money on others rather than themselves. "This work suggests that even making small alterations in how we spend money on a daily basis can make a...

What Was Spitzer Thinking?
What Was Spitzer Thinking?
Mar 11, 2008 10:55 AM CDT

What Was Spitzer Thinking?

Experts wonder why smart guys do really stupid things

(Newser) - Eliot Spitzer's reported involvement with a pricey call-girl ring has left, well, everyone scratching their heads, the AP reports. What makes a public figure show such jaw-dropping disregard for the consequences of private actions? One analyst calls it "the psychology of the exception. People in power sometimes feel they...

Microsoft's Math Genius Talks Shop, Opens New Lab

It's all about phase transitions, psychology

(Newser) - When Microsoft hired math professor Jennifer Chayes 11 years ago, the company couldn’t have realized how prescient they were, to the degree that her high-level research would impact applications as diverse as search, keyword advertising, and social networks. “Who would have thought?” Chayes tells Technology Review in a...

Cops Arrest Suspect in Shrink Slaying
Cops Arrest Suspect in Shrink Slaying
UPDATED
Feb 16, 2008 4:20 PM CST

Cops Arrest Suspect in Shrink Slaying

Patient claims he only planned to rob his psychiatrist

(Newser) - Police arrested an "emotionally disturbed" patient today for brutally slaying a New York psychologist earlier this week, the New York Post reports. Suspect David Tarloff "made statements implicating himself in the homicide," police said, and was identified by four witnesses as the killer of psychologist Kathryn Faughey....

Meat Cleaver Murder Hunt Hits Roadblocks

Cops can't check patient files; top suspect has alibi

(Newser) - Yesterday police thought they had found the man who viciously stabbed a Manhattan psychologist to death. But after 9 hours of questioning, the prime suspect in the murder of Kathryn Faughey was released after his alibi checked out. Frustrated investigators turned to Faughey’s patient records, only to learn that...

Man Hacks Shrink to Death in NY Office

Police hunt killer who wielded meat cleaver in furious assault

(Newser) - Police are urgently hunting an unidentified man who walked into a New York psychologist's office Tuesday night and hacked her to death with a meat cleaver. Another doctor, who came to her rescue, was also slashed and left in critical condition, the New York Post reports. The killer pinned him...

Man-Training Manual Finally Hits the Stores

Therapists call dog analogy cute but no marital cure-all

(Newser) - A woman who has long compared men to dogs has a book coming out and a movie in the works, all plugging the notion that men can be trained. But critics fear that What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage is another pop psych title that props up...

Bah, Happiness: Gloom Is Normal
Bah, Happiness: Gloom Is Normal
Feb 7, 2008 8:06 AM CST

Bah, Happiness: Gloom Is Normal

Sadness is a normal emotion, not a disease, cries anti-joy crowd

(Newser) - Maybe you're feeling a little down—not to worry! Turn to self-help books, psychiatrists, little blue pills, or Dr. Phil to make you happier! But in Against Happiness, melancholy Eric Wilson rails against our culture’s “craven disregard for the value of sadness.” And a growing wave of...

Therapists Want End to Britney Diagnoses

Identifying mental illness through media inaccurate, dangerous

(Newser) - The media loves to publish experts' diagnoses of Britney Spears, but assessing a patient's mental condition from gossip columns is irresponsible—and it's giving therapists a bad rep, concluded some professionals at an American Psychoanalytic Association summit. "Brains don't have a checkbox," one analyst told the AP, but...

Stop Picking on Nerds!
Stop Picking
on Nerds!
NEW RELEASE
Jan 1, 2008 6:25 PM CST

Stop Picking on Nerds!

US needs more brainiacs, even if they are unsexy, new book argues

(Newser) - Americans mock nerds ad nauseum, and psych prof David Anderegg says it's time to lay off. In his new book, Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them, Andregg breezily but thoroughly critiques a cultural prejudice that he claims dates back to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Washington ...

Psych Prof Puts Bush on the Couch
Psych Prof
Puts Bush
on the Couch
OPINION
Dec 17, 2007 2:46 PM CST

Psych Prof Puts Bush on the Couch

Snarky summary has implications prez should take seriously

(Newser) - President Bush recently scorned a reporter’s “Psychology 101,” but one mind-minded professor says he could benefit from a few lessons. Bush should start by trying “pattern matching,” Jonathan Haidt writes in the LA Times, with no little humor: If he’d stop equating Islam with...

Iraq Vet Faces Life Over Suicide Try

Shrinks say she's mentally ill, but Army calls it 'psychobabble'

(Newser) - First Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside faces possible life in prison. Her crime? Attempting suicide in Iraq. At a military hearing this week, her diagnosed mental illness was spurned by superiors as an "excuse” and labeled “psychobabble." Suicide tries remain illegal in a military culture that scorns mental disorder,...

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