Bad behaviour in childhood is associated with long-term, chronic widespread pain in adult life, according to the findings of a study following nearly 20,000 people from birth in 1958 to the present day.
Chronic widespread pain is a common complaint that can have a major adverse effect on quality of life, often requiring referral to a hospital specialist for investigation and treatment. The research, published online in the journal Rheumatology today (Wednesday 10 March), found that children with severe behaviour disturbances had approximately double the risk of chronic widespread pain by the time they reached the age of 45 than children who did not have behaviour problems. [continue reading…]
Nothing captures human attention more than a moral dilemma. Whether we are soap opera fanatics or not, we can’t help sticking our noses in other people’s affairs, pronouncing our views on right and wrong, justified or not. For millennia, philosophers have speculated about how people make moral decisions, what decisions they make, and what decisions they ought to make. To this rich history of theory the Psychology Department at Harvard University hopes to contribute some data — with your help. Their aim is to use data from the Moral Sense Test,(MST) as well as other experiments, to characterize the nature of our moral psychology, how it evolved, and how it develops in our species, creating individuals with moral responsibilities. The MST has been designed for all humans who are curious about that puzzling little word “ought” — about the principles that make one action right and another wrong.
You have the opportunity to participate in the Moral Sense Test right now. The test is short, and your responses are completely confidential. For more information, read the privacy statement.
Source: Cognitive Evolution Laboratory, Harvard University
Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn explains the possibility of robots as companions or as a therapeutic tool for children with autism
Source: The Guardian
University of Herfordshire
Before therapists and medication, were kids better off working out mental health problems for themselves?
That’s the question explored by psychotherapist Erik Kobell in today’s New York Times Cases column, which was inspired by a bar patron who overheard Dr. Kobell’s conversation with a fellow therapist.
“I can tell you one thing,” he announced, as I recall. “Back in my day, you didn’t have young kids going around talking to shrinks. . . .Back in my day, kids were kids! We worked out our problems on our own. We didn’t go crying to some stranger with a whole bunch of initials after his name.”
But were kids better off working things out for themselves? To learn more, read the full column, “Fake Nostalgia for a Pre-Therapy Past” and then join the discussion.
