Latest science news in Psychology & Sociology
New scale for measuring addiction to work
Researchers from the Jaume I University have proven the usefulness of DUWAS, a new scale for measuring addiction to work, a disorder that affects around 12% of all working people...
Feel like someone's watching? You're probably right
Almost every worker has done it: gotten in a little Facebook updating, personal e-mailing, YouTube watching and friend calling while on the clock.
Speaking up for scientists | Philip Strange
We can be arrogant and nerdish, but overall scientists do not set out to deceive themselves or the publicLast weekend on Cif Nicholas Maxwell accused scientists of "deceiving us and themselves about the...
Yelp Accused of Pressure Tactics
Businesses Claim To Have Been Pressured to Advertise in Exchange for Quashing Negative Reviews
Albert Einstein: 'Dear Ma, sorry you're ill – p.s. I'm a genius'
How Einstein told his ailing mother of his breakthrough on relativityAs an introduction to one of science's most revolutionary theories, one postcard from Albert Einstein – now on display at the Israel Academy...
Reductionism And Systems Thinking: Complementary Scientific Lenses
I'm sure many of you have heard the old story about a group of blind men trying to describe an elephant. One guy grabs the elephant's leg and says an...
'Biological clock' could be a key to better health, longer life
If you aren't getting a good, consistent and regular night's sleep, a new study suggests it could reduce your ability to handle oxidative stress, cause impacts to your health, increase...
Don't make that face at me!
Think back to your last fight with someone you love. How did you feel afterwards? How did you behave? Conflict with a loved one often leaves a person feeling terrible...
Mathematical model can help communities better evaluate sex offender policies
A new mathematical model developed by Indiana University Bloomington and Arizona State University geographers could help communities that are in the midst of passing or reforming sex offender laws. The...
The mathematics behind a good night's sleep
Why can't I fall asleep? Will this new medication keep me up all night? Can I sleep off this cold? Despite decades of research, answers to these basic questions about...
Online daters behave similarly to those who meet face-to-face
People who lie on online dating services likely are people-pleasers who want to present themselves in the most favourable light to get someone to like them - just as they...
Discovery gives insight into brain 'replay' process
The hippocampus, a part of the brain essential for memory, has long been known to 'replay' recently experienced events. Previously, replay was believed to be a simple process of reviewing...
A possible early glimpse of autism's impact on older siblings
A new study suggests a trend toward developing hyperactivity among typically developing elementary-school-aged siblings of autistic preschoolers and supports the notion that mothers of young, autistic children experience more depression...
Job Loss Takes a Toll on Mental Health
Unemployment is linked with higher rates of depression and other mental health problems.
Sleep deprivation influences drug use in teens' social networks
Recent studies have shown that behaviours such as happiness, obesity, smoking and altruism are 'contagious' within adult social networks. In other words, your behaviour not only influences your friends, but...
Why surprises temporarily blind us
Reading this story requires you to willfully pay attention to the sentences and to tune out nearby conversations, the radio and other distractions. But if a fire alarm sounded, your...
Arizona state employee fired over jaguar capture
(AP) -- The Arizona Game and Fish Department has fired an employee based on results of an internal investigation into the capture and death of what was the only...
Camel No. 9 ads appeal to teen girls
If you think teenagers today are less susceptible to smoking advertisements than those of yesterday — remember all those Virginia Slims "You've come a long way, baby" ads? — you'd...
White House Memo: One Subject Pushes Talk of Any Other to the Margins
For several weeks the issue of health care has overshadowed every other issue, foreign and domestic, faced by President Obama.
Suspect in teen murder had run-ins with police
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A convicted sex offender charged with murdering a 17-year-old California girl was repeatedly fined for drug and driving offenses following his 2005...
Brain Waves and Mediation
We all know that mediation helps relax people, but what exactly happens in the brain during mediation? A new study suggests that nondirective meditation yields more marked changes in electrical...
First Person: Asperger’s is a label worth keeping
Plans by the American Psychiatric Assn. to drop it in favor of a more generic autism diagnosis ignores the differences between the condition and its more problematic counterpart. If current plans hold, my...
The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalised Medicine | Book review
Peter Forbes on a book that decodes the futureFrancis Collins was appointed director of the National Institutes of Health (equivalent of the Medical Research Council) by President Obama in August 2009. He is...
What I'm really thinking: The defence barrister
'How can you defend someone if you know they're guilty? The answer is, you never know'People imagine being a criminal defence barrister involves dealing with the devious, dishonest and depraved, that every day...
Prince Charles health charity accused of vendetta against critic
Foundation for Integrated Health could face Charity Commission investigation after complaint by Republic campaign groupPrince Charles's health charity, which campaigns for the wider use of homeopathic and herbal remedies, is facing possible investigation by...
New Web Generation Of China Activists
Internet, Twitter Helping To Create New Generation Of Human Rights Activists In China
Science in fiction and fact, John Burnside on Waking Up In Toytown
Two dispatches from the far frontiers of science send our panellists into orbit around such issues as "how many years will it be before we all carry our personal genomes around with...
Crushed Dreams Don't Cause Depression, Sociologists Say
Despite several social psychological theories that suggest otherwise, failing to meet educational goals does not result in depression, say sociologists from Floria and Kansas State Universities. Their study in American Sociological...