science wire

Being bumbling and butterfingered is often accepted as a normal part of growing up but one researcher from The Australian National University is questioning whether the development of certain senses can play a role in clumsiness.

AUSTIN, Texas — People with extremely strong ties to their countries or groups are not only willing, but eager, to sacrifice themselves to save their compatriots, according to new psychology research from The University of Texas at Austin. In a study to appear in Psychological Science , Bill Swann, professor of psychology , and a team of researchers found the majority of "fused" people, those who view themselves as completely immersed in a group (be it ethnic, national or other), are willing to commit extreme acts for the good of their compatriots.

University Park, Pa. Parents understand the challenge of getting infants to sleep through the night, and now Penn State researchers show that being emotionally receptive can reduce sleep disruptions and help infants and toddlers sleep better. "Bed time can be a very emotional time. It heralds the longest separation of the day for most infants," said Douglas Teti, professor of human development and family studies.

Memories can't be trusted and become contaminated when people discuss their memories of an event with others, according to a University of Sydney study.

Most scientists see members of their research team on a daily basis, but not Kasia Kordas. Kordas, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, has always been interested in working internationally and helping other institutions improve their own research programs.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Proposed cuts to community mental health centers in Illinois continues a disturbing trend in the state's lack of commitment to helping families and individuals experiencing a mental illness, according to a University of Illinois expert on community-based mental health services.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. Researchers studying the genetic roots of antisocial behavior report that children with one variant of a serotonin transporter gene are more likely to exhibit psychopathic traits if they also grow up poor. The study, the first to identify a specific gene associated with psychopathic tendencies in youth, appears this month in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

To understand how animals experience the world and how they should be treated, people need to better understand their emotional lives. A new review of animal emotion suggests that, as in humans, emotions may tell animals about how dangerous or opportunity-laden their world is, and guide the choices that they make.

Research sheds light on pros and cons of team diversity National diversity can be harder to accommodate in team work than differences in expertise, according to research by a University of Sheffield psychology student. Research carried out by doctoral researcher and lecturer Tom Calvard into diversity in work groups, explored when, how, and under what conditions groups harness the value of their own diversity.

A new Centre for Music, Mind and Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne will be launched by Australian of the Year and Director of the Orygen Youth Mental Health Centre, Professor Patrick McGorry, tomorrow, 22 July at 8pm. The new Centre is a cross-disciplinary research collaboration exploring the connections between music and wellbeing from a scientific perspective.

PA 194/10 Are more experienced motorcyclists safer on the roads than those who are newly-qualified? And do advanced motoring qualifications make you a better rider? New research at The University of

By Chris Tachibana Research/Penn State The actress Claire Danes, usually so expressive and radiant, looks blank and awkward.

BERKELEY — George Alphonse De Vos, a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a pioneer in cultural psychology, ethnic identity and migration studies, died Friday, July 9, of congestive heart disease at his home in Oakland, Calif.

by Chris Barncard Among monkeys that split child care responsibilities, sharing extends to dinnertime, but grudges do not, according to research published July 14 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Pairs of adult cottontop tamarins will share food, upholding the cooperative breeding hypothesis that expects members of species that share the burden for raising young are also motivated to help each other in other ways.

by David Tenenbaum Monkeys in enduring relationships show a surprising correspondence in their levels of oxytocin, a key behavioral hormone, according to research published online June 28 in the journal Hormones and Behavior. While measuring oxytocin in the urine of 14 pairs of cotton-top tamarins, Charles Snowdon , a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychology, observed a wide range of hormone levels.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. A new study finds that those who know that an unexpected event is likely to occur are no better at noticing other unexpected events - and may be even worse - than those who aren?t expecting the unexpected.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. A worldwide survey of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries included questions about happiness and income, and the results reveal that while life satisfaction usually rises with income, positive feelings don?t necessarily follow, researchers report. The findings, from an analysis of data gathered in the first Gallup World Poll, appear this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

PA 156/10 Researchers at The University of Nottingham are part of a new pan-European research study examining whether working conditions in hospitals are contributing to doctor 'burnout' and putting patients' lives at risk. The five-year project, funded with more than €2m from the European Union, will work with hospital doctors to identify issues within the workplace which affect their ability to practice medicine safely and effectively.

Researchers at The University of Nottingham are part of a new pan-European research study examining whether working conditions in hospitals are contributing to doctor 'burnout' and putting patients' lives at risk.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Heavy objects make job candidates appear more important, while rough objects make social interactions appear more difficult, and hard objects increase rigidity in negotiations, according to new research findings by a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management.

Cambridge, Mass. June 24, 2010 - Psychologists report this week in the journal Science that interpersonal interactions can be shaped, profoundly yet unconsciously, by the physical attributes of incidental objects: Resumes reviewed on a heavy clipboard are judged to be more substantive, while a negotiator seated in a soft chair is less likely to drive a hard bargain.

University of Melbourne researchers will investigate the impact of bushfires on community connections and people's mental health after receiving more than $1.28 million in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) funding.

June 23, 2010 — Coral Gables — WHAT: Haitian Mental Health Summit. The Summit is organized to raise awareness of the post-earthquake mental health needs in Haiti and to foster collaboration to address those needs.

Liverpool, UK - 22 June 2010: A Centre to tackle the low life expectancy and high cancer rates of residents in the Liverpool city region will be launched at the University of Liverpool.

Liverpool, UK - 17 June 2010: Scientists at the University of Liverpool are providing training for North West filmmakers to enhance understanding of how the human brain processes the visual information in 3D film and television. Researchers at the University's Vision Laboratory at the School of Psychology are leading an industry workshop to demonstrate the common problems that filmmakers face in creating naturalistic 3D film images.

Sports psychologists at the University of Birmingham are investigating how factors such as motivation can influence how likely a football player is to adopt antisocial behaviour in their quest for victory in contests such as the World Cup.

Sixty-six percent of people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries, but only ten percent of population-based research is carried out in these areas, according to Professor Steve Iliffe (UCL Primary Care & Population Health).

By now, the fallout from the epic financial crisis is both familiar and tangible: foreclosed mortgages, failed banks, lost jobs, recession.

"Preventing psychiatric illness is a major public health problem and it appears that the armed forces are beginning to take this challenge seriously," writes Professor Glyn Lewis of the University of Bristol in The Lancet this week in response to new research into the mental health of military personnel deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When I was in high school, Disney released the animated feature film "Aladdin," and I was elated. Finally, I thought, a Middle Eastern princess.

PA 95/10 Researchers at The University of Nottingham have won government funding to improve the services which help people living with serious mental illness to tackle their tobacco dependence.

The largest, most comprehensive clinical trial of couple therapy ever conducted has found that therapy can help even very distressed married couples if both partners want to improve their marriage.

Over the space of a year, Dr Juliet Foster analysed 96 different drug advertisements carried in the British Medical Journal and the British Journal of Psychiatry. She discovered stark differences in the way that psychiatric and non-psychiatric drugs are advertised to health professionals.

UCL Occupational Health Service is supporting Mental Health Action Week 2010, running 4?11 April. Each spring the Mental Health Foundation uses Mental Health Action Week to raise awareness of mental health issues across the country.

The satisfaction we get from buying vacations, bikes for exercise and other experiences starts high and keeps growing. The initial high we feel from acquiring a flashy car or megascreen TV, on the other hand, trails off rather quickly, reports a new Cornell study. "Your experiences are inherently less comparative, they're less subject to and less undermined by invidious social comparisons," said professor of psychology Thomas Gilovich, who published the study with Travis J. Carter, Ph.D.

A spotted hyena carrying the spine of an antelope giggles as it avoids a higher-ranking group-mate. The picture was taken by a research team led by Kay Holekamp of Michigan State University.

a Confidential Inquiry into the Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities, a partnership led by NFRC involving the University of Bristol Department of Community-Based Medicine, NHS Bristol, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Department of Health.