Category: Psychology

psypost.org

The story we tell ourselves (autobiographical memory) can be a way to improve ourselves - or to destroy ourselves.
Study finds that people with depression are less likely to remember positive events from their life, and it doesn’t even help them to be reminded of them.
Depressed people view negative events as equally important to positive effects, whereas healthy people simply focus on the positive to create their self-image.
Which means that depressed people can’t benefit from positive Autobiographical Memory.
This keeps them from viewing themselves in any positive light, and perpetuates their negative self-image.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on January 8, 2021

All humans, from kids to adults, prefer fractals from simple shapes, and it seems to a preference that we’re born with.
The aesthetic experience of viewing fractals influences our brains in many positive ways, like reducing stress and refreshing our minds.
Nature provides this for free, but humans remove it when we create urban landscapes that don’t have fractals.
Incorporating fractals into our environments could benefit people of all ages.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on December 18, 2020

uea.ac.uk

Researchers did two lab-based studies of relative deprivation (feeling bad about other people having it better than us) on 55 volunteers.
People who had high scores of relative deprivation had less hope, which weirdly caused them to be more eager to take risks.
Having more hope for the future seems to protect people from unhealthy behaviours that lead to poor outcomes, like gambling and substance abuse.
Interestingly, this wasn’t true for people who were relatively rich, suggesting that gambling for them is fun rather than an attempt at turning around one’s fate.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on December 18, 2020

bmj.com

Teens unhappy about their looks are up to 285% more likely to develop depression later in life.
This finding comes from a long-term study of ~4000 children born in 1991/2.
At age 14, both boys and girls were mildly satisfied with their bodies, but girls were more dissatisfied.
Body dissatisfaction at 14 predicted depressive episodes at 18, with the boys at much greater risk of severe depressive episodes.
Study authors conclude that body dissatisfaction should be seen as a public health issue, and reducing it could lead to better mental health outcomes for young adults.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on December 18, 2020

Understanding code is neither done by language centers, nor by mathematical centers of the brain — it’s a whole different ball game.
This comes from a researcher who’s studying how different cognitive functions relate to language processing parts of the brain.
The study involved young programmers who analysed code while their brains were scanned.
People either say that great coders are great at language, or great at maths - neither seems to be true, and there is no single specialized area that lights up from coding.
The test activated the multiple demand network in participants’ brains, a wide network for performing mentally challenging tasks.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on December 18, 2020

Psychology (category filter × )