Category: Studies
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Unemployed Spouse Stress
Unemployment Stress Affects Other Spouse’s Work Performance (PsychCentral): In the study they examined daily stresses felt by married couples in which one spouse was employed and the other unemployed, and how that stress affected each spouse. “One of the key findings in this study is that couples are better at sharing their burden than helping…
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Facebook Stress
Study: More Facebook leads to more stress (The Telegraph). Dr Kathy Charles, who led the study, said: “We found it was actually those with the most contacts, those who had invested the most time in the site, who were the ones most likely to be stressed. “It’s like being a mini news channel about yourself.…
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Self-Help
Lifestyle Changes as Treatment for Mental Health Concerns, Depression, Anxiety (PsychCentral): For years, health professionals have advocated lifestyle changes in the form of diet, exercise and stress reduction to lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses. New research shows that lifestyle changes — such as getting more exercise, spending more time in…
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Meditation Brain
How Meditation May Change the Brain (NYT): M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after the participants’ meditation regimen found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and stress. A control group that…
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Goal Setting
PsyBlog looks at How to Commit to a Goal. Three approaches to try: Indulge: imagine a positive vision of the problem solved. Dwell: think about the negative aspects of the current situation. Contrast: first imagine a positive vision of the problem solved then think about the negative aspects of reality. With both in mind, participants were asked…
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Study: Meditation Changes Brain
Brain Structure Changes After Meditation (PsychCentral) “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” said Sara Lazar, Ph.D., the study’s senior author. “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may…
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Stress, Anxiety, and Your Brain
Stress, Anxiety Both Boon And Bane To Brain. Stress may help give an edge to our perception, but… “It makes us more sensitive to our external surroundings as a way of learning where or what a threat may be, but interferes with our ability to do more complex thinking.”
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Stressed Out? Just Age
Stress Management and Empathy Improve With Age (PsychCentral) Emerging research suggests older people are better at seeing the positive side of a stressful situation and are better than young adults when empathizing with the less fortunate. This better management of mental processes holds true even though older people may become emotional when confronted with poignant…
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Unemployment Stress
Job-loss stress? Not as bad as you might think, says a study. The researchers divided the participants into four groups based on their life satisfaction reports. The largest group (69 percent) reported a relatively high and stable level of life satisfaction before losing their jobs. These people were more likely to be negatively affected at…
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Dental Anxiety
Does going to the dentist make you anxious? You’re not alone. 1 in 5 women suffer extreme fear of dentists: Patients were asked to rate the level of anxiety they would feel for various dental situations, including the need to go for dental treatment, sitting in the waiting room and waiting to have a filling. 30%…