New research has found that students benefit more from being taught the concepts behind math problems rather than the exact procedures to solve the problems. The findings offer teachers new insights on how best to shape math instruction to have the greatest impact on student learning.
Read the press release in ScienceDaily or the abstract in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Illusionary relationships with the characters and personalities on favourite TV shows can provide people with feelings of belonging, even in the face of low self esteem or after being rejected by friends or family members. The research provides evidence for the ‘social surrogacy hypothesis,’ which holds that humans can use technologies, like television, to provide the experience of belonging when no real belongingness has been experienced.
Read the press release at the University at Buffalo, or the abstract in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (February 2009, vol. 45, no. 2).
Researchers have found that cognitive behavioural therapy is helpful for short-term improvement in anger and aggression in adolescents with Tourette syndrome (TS). Parents reported a decrease of 52% in disruptive behaviour in the anger management group, compared with a decrease of 11% in the control group. Clinicians who were unaware of the treatment rated 69% of the children who completed anger management training as improved, compared with 15% in the control group.
Read the press release at Yale University or the abstract in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (April 2009, vol. 48, 4). The full article can be accessed online for $20.
Botox, by preventing you from frowning, may make you happier. Patients who had received Botox treatment to the forehead were found to be significantly less depressed, anxious and irritable than the other group, which had different forms of cosmetic treatment. These results support the theory that our expressions feed back and impact on our emotions. By preventing you from frowning, botox injections prevent the expression of negative emotions, resulting in a happier mood.
Read the press release at Medical News Today. The study was presented at The British Psychological Society Annual Conference held in Brighton, UK, 1–3 April 2009.
I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around this study on Botox and depression. Are we talking about people who were using anti-depressants or are we talking about people who reported feeling blue?
In cases of depression with a chemical origin, it seems that forcing a smile (essentially) would ultimately be distressing.
Posted by: Doctor Stephen Doyne | 25 August 2011 at 07:34
I'm not convinced by this study either. The sample size is small, and apparently drawn from the researcher's dermatology practice, which is hardly a random sample. Depression is much more complicated than simply the brain responding to frowning, and the researcher's field is dermatology, not psychology. My feel is that the study measures level of happiness, not depression.
Posted by: Martie Groenewald | 25 August 2011 at 14:56