September 2010

Dirty Hands, Dirty Mouths

© iStockphoto

Apparently your mom had it right when she threatened to wash your mouth out with soap if you talked dirty. Lying really does create a desire to clean the “dirty” body part, according to a University of Michigan study. 

“The references to ‘dirty hands’ or ‘dirty mouths’ in everyday language suggest that people think about abstract issues of moral purity in terms of more concrete experiences with physical purity,” said Spike W.S. Lee, a U-M doctoral candidate in psychology, who conducted the study with Norbert Schwarz, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), the Ross School of Business, and the U-M psychology department. [continue reading…]

Stress Hormone Blocks Testosterone’s Effects

High levels of the stress hormone cortisol play a critical role in blocking testosterone’s influence on competition and domination, according to new psychology research at The University of Texas at Austin.

The study, led by Robert Josephs, professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin, and Pranjal Mehta, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, is the first to show that two hormones—testosterone and cortisol—jointly regulate dominance. [continue reading…]

The Importance of Sleep

I have just spent 3 weeks in France ( so what)… OK … Show-off—- you might say ! Well the Welsh among you at least!!!
Bear with me I’m slowly working my way into this topic. OMG did I have jet lag… major jet lag. Crossing time zones isn’t easy ,  it wasn’t so bad going  to France but coming back– it took me exactly 1 week to feel like I was back in the land of the living and regain my sleep pattern! This timely TED Video explains the importance of sleep 🙂

So I have 4 sons (gasp)…. and we’re the same mom and dad bringing up the babies right? But wait what happened when son #3 arrived? My smug observations of contemporaries whose kids refused to go to bed on time, threw tantrums and just refused to behave in company.. could it be they were not bad parents after all? Because now I was living in their world. Routines? Schmootines… nothing worked honey. Now I was the mom that people “tut tutted” at in supermarkets… I was the “ineffectual parent”.

Well now parents of children who cannot concentrate, are prone to fidget and act impulsively may for the first time be able to escape criticism of their child-rearing skills, after scientists announced that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a genetic condition. link to read more

Source: The Independent