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Edited by Jill Wright,
The insights offered by Dr Pauline Chen's New York Times Doctor and Patient blog post about the extraordinary benefits for burnt-out physicians of a course of mindfulness training are a must read for anyone suffering from the emotional, mental and physical symptoms of a condition that is all too common these days. Dr Chen drew her observations from two studies...
Edited by Jill Wright,
I want to acknowledge right now that I have been carrying around an unconscious prejudice about technology professionals. I've always held them in awe for their expertise in a domain that frankly turns my brain to jelly, but I have somehow imagined that they have little interest or expertise in human psychology. I'd fitted them, you see, into a convenient...
Edited by Jill Wright,
The op-ed column in the New York Times this week drawing attention to "psychotherapy's image problem" is something that deserves similar attention in this country. It's not your conventional image problem: as the author, Brandon A. Gaudiano, points out, psychotherapy has proved itself in numerous peer-reviewed studies to be more effective than drugs in relieving the most common mental health...
While I was exploring the topic of psychologists and cyberbullying in my most recent post, I came across another thoughtful take on the less-than-optimal legislative responses to bullying in an earlier issue of The Walrus by Rachel Giese. There's an audio file here. Giese asks whether anti-bullying measures that are being enacted internationally as a response to public horror over...
Edited by Jill Wright,
As I mused recently in my post about the inordinate interest some psychologists demonstrate about behaviour in drinking places, I often wonder what it is that motivates research psychologists to pursue a particular topic. This week, for instance, comes news of a US study which revealed that the expressionless faces poker players try to develop to avoid revealing that they...
Edited by Jill Wright,
I've been doing a lot of smiling since I read a story in The Age about a Sydney economist who decided to measure the income-generating effects of happiness. No doubt because their field is generally described as "the dismal science", economists are quite obsessed with the commodity of happiness. They seem to be constantly casting their slide rules over it. There's...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Psychology Melbourne is continually impressed by the quality of the work done by the Black Dog Institute. This month, for instance, it is promoting Exercise Your Mood month, aimed at convincing Australians that regular exercise is good not only for the body, but also for the mind. You might want to have a look at the video and the comments from...
Edited by Jill Wright,
An article in this month's issue of the British Journal of Psychology reminded me of one of the myths frequently identified by the team of organisational psychologists that can hamstring business. It re-ran an article from its September 2006 edition in which it advised businesses looking for fresh ideas to resist the temptation to hold a group brainstorming session. "Time...
Edited by Jill Wright,
A research paper released early this year by cognitive and educational psychologists has some practical clues for students: easy-to-use study techniques that actually work ... and advice on some widely accepted ones that don't work. You might start by throwing away your highlighter and creating some flash cards. A friend of mine who recently studied Mandarin highly recommends a computer-based...
Edited by Jill Wright,
The ABC's Life Matters report on the Benevolent Society's Next 200 "Our Kids and Violence" dialogue at the NSW State Library last week provides some important and moving insights into child abuse and neglect. The report touches on the deprivation of critical experiences during the early years of childhood brain development - described in research by Dr Bruce Perry as "possibly...