Tag: PSYCHOLOGY

There's plenty of anecdotal and scientific evidence that should tell you that driving while using your cell phone is pretty dumb. Yet plenty of you continue to do so, and freely admit to it, too. We can only assume that you all believe you belong to a sect of individuals researchers have dubbed "supertaskers." A new study being released in the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review (.PDF) suggests ...

We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried: Lee Sheldon, a teacher of game design in Indiana, bases his entire teaching philosophy on the online game, 'World of Warcraft.' The nerdy professor coordinates several game design courses at Indiana University, and has now overhauled the grading system of his classes in an effort to better motivate students. Instead of traditional grades, IU game ...

The Capio Nightingale Hospital in London has just launched a rehabilitation program dedicated to Internet addiction. The program is being offered as a one-stop shop for intensive in-patient treatment, day care, and group therapy sessions. While treatment will be offered to children as young as 12-years old, it is particularly aimed at tech-junkies aged 15 to 17. The need for Net addiction ...

And here we thought it was just another case of the wintertime blues that had us laying in bed and staring blankly at the ceiling for hours. Turns out, though, it may just be a simple case of Internet addiction that's been getting us down. According to researchers at the University of Leeds, spending too much time online can unleash a "dark side of the soul," and can even lead to legitimate ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) poses a significant threat to military personnel, and some psychological experts believe that more than one-third of the troops returning from Iraq will suffer from some form of the debilitating psychological condition. Coping with, and easing the effects of, the disorder has proven to be incredibly difficult, so the armed forces are taking a direct, and ...

At this point, we're all aware that Facebook knows far too much about us. It can apparently be used to detect our sexual orientations and, well, just about anything else about us, really. Today, though, the reigning champion of social networking has begun peering not only into our lives, but into our very hearts. Under the title 'How Happy Are We?,' Facebook intern and Ph.D. student Adam Kramer ...

If it appears on a video, or in a photograph, it must be true, right? A new study by a group of psychologists at the University of Warwick shows how dangerous it can be to accept video or photo evidence as fact, according to Wired. In the study, 60 college students played a computerized gambling game, each student being matched against a researcher posing as a participant. If a player answered a ...

Dr. James Heilman of Moose Jaw, Canada recently created a stir in the psychology and psychiatry fields when he posted to Wikipedia 10 inkblot images used in the Rorschach test. Relying on how an interviewee describes what they see in the blots, the blotchy images can supposedly reveal the workings of a human mind. The copyright on the images (published in 1921 by a Swiss psychiatrist of the same ...

The usefulness of searchable, user-generated content apparently knows no bounds -- especially for zealous researchers who set out to determine exactly what all those bloggers, tweeters, and status updaters really think. Studies have shown that a nation's mood can be foretold on the Net, Twitter can be used to produce psychological profiles, and even desktops speak volumes. The analytical ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/08/21/u-s-gets-its-first-net-addiction-rehab-center/'; Internet addiction has been blamed for bad grades, lackluster sex lives, and violence. Now, finally completing its rise to the status of a serious affliction, it has its first rehabilitation center in the U.S. reSTART, a new Internet addiction recovery center 25 miles outside of Seattle, features a ...

Internet, blogs, Web journals, Facebook -- all of these things have given researchers, psychologists and online buddies an unprecedented glimpse into our personal lives. Suddenly, an influx of gadgets designed to communicate our every thought and move are prevalent, and behavior scientists are having a field day. The New York Times wrote on Wednesday about a paper that is being released by a ...

Engaging in discussion with anthropologists or linguists can be highly awkward. Those clinical types tend to scrutinize and evaluate every word, gesture, and facial expression, which can make conversation seem impersonal and uncomfortable. What else would you expect? These social scientists are attempting to decipher your unspoken messages and subconscious motivations. Well, now you can subject ...

Two separate studies at two different California universities are both suggesting that online social networks could cause psychological, and potentially moral, harm to avid users, reports the Daily Mail. One of those studies, led by Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang at the University of Southern California, claims that the speedy, immediate transfer of information on such sites does not provide the ...

Privacy is a funny thing, isn't it? These days, it's fairly common to update your Facebook page with your likes and dislikes, taste in music, contact information, personal photos and who knows what else. This is information we give out consciously and willingly, and it all says something about the types of people we are. But what are we unconsciously saying about ourselves when we use the ...

Okay, look, we know that unchecked addiction to the Internet and social networking sites is going to have a negative impact on your mental abilities and attention span, but warnings from neuroscientist Susan Greenfield make Facebook out to be an epidemic worse than the Bubonic Plague and Rickrolling combined. Most of the news isn't new; scientists believe that the Internet is changing how ...