Clipmarks | dmegivern's Psychology collection

Trying to Go Private Fails Mentally Ill

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:18:44 GMT

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Reform wastes millions, fails mentally ill

North Carolina's mental-health reform was supposed to improve treatment for the mentally ill and provide good value for taxpayers. It has done neither.

The state has wasted at least $400 million in an ill-conceived and poorly executed plan to treat more mentally ill people in their own communities and fewer in the state's four psychiatric hospitals, a News & Observer investigation shows.

Local governments, forced to stop offering treatment, were replaced by providers out to make a profit. Most of their workers were high school graduates, not licensed professionals, but the bill was stunning. In a few months, the cost of the community support program was $50 million a month, more than 10 times what the state had expected.

Meanwhile, some seriously ill people had to do without treatment. Services that were more likely to help them avoid hospitalization were in short supply.

It May Be Best to be only Sorta Happy

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:19:44 GMT

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Clip Source: psychcentral.com

A Moderate Level of Happiness Is Best

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

While the pursuit of happiness is a wonderful goal, an interesting research study found individuals at the uppermost end of the happiness scale (people who report that they are 10s on a 10-point life satisfaction score) are in some measures worse off than their slightly less elated counterparts. The finding that moderate happiness may be preferable to full-fledged elation comes from a review of data from the World Values Survey, a large-scale analysis of economic, social, political and religious influences around the world.

The research team began with the prediction that mildly happy people (those who classify themselves as eights and nines on the 10-point life satisfaction scale) may be more successful in some realms than those who consider themselves 10s.

This prediction was based on the idea that profoundly happy people may be less inclined to alter their behavior or adjust to external changes even when such flexibility offers an advantage.

The Pretty, Compelling Pictures of fMRI

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:10:12 GMT

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Clip Source: psychcentral.com

The Pretty, Compelling Pictures of fMRI

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

So it’s no wonder that humans love research that comes with pretty pictures. And not just pretty pictures, but compelling pretty pictures that seem to illustrate a direct, causative relationship. Even if one doesn’t exist. Or other data exist that water down the pretty-picture study’s findings.

The Basics of an fMRI

What does an fMRI actually measure? The fMRI indirectly measures the flow of oxygenated blood in the brain. That’s all. Not “activity of the brain” as it is often referred to in short-hand by journalists (and even some researchers). How is a typical fMRI study conducted?

So there are some challenges in getting the pretty pictures to line up with actual behaviors or thoughts (or political preferences, as at least one researcher has attempted to show).

The mind is what the brain does, and so every mental event, from falling in love to worrying about your taxes, is going to show up as a brain event.

The Psychology of Superstition

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:03:40 GMT

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Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Do We Have a Natural Bias Toward Superstitions?

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

A top British psychologist is attempting to explain the biological basis for superstitions.

In an unusual experiment during a recent lecture, Hood demonstrated that ordinary people often behave in irrational ways, so scientists’ efforts to combat “irrational” beliefs ultimately may be futile. He asked members of his audience if they would try on an old blue cardigan in return for a small financial reward. After receiving many volunteers, he then stated that the cardigan used to belong to the English serial killer Fred West. At this point, most of the volunteers put their hands down.

According to Hood, people often attach meaning to physical objects — a common, if not completely logical, belief. “A minority of people are totally rational; I doubt if I could find a totally cold rationalist,” he said.

The sweater experiment at the BBC

Psychology of superstitions