Who doesn’t love a good laugh…. https://theconversation.com/the-lowdown-on-laughter-from-boosting-immunity-to-releasing-tension-56568
Benzodiazepines: how to stay free of addiction
Alex Darling wrote a great article on the risks of benzodiazepines like Valium. I did my best to give some useful tips on how to avoid problems. http://thenewdaily.com.au/life/2016/03/01/benzodiazepines-get-addicted/
When it comes to mental health, like attracts like
Is it true that like attracts like? When it comes to mental health, it seems the answer is yes. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry this week sheds light on the influence of psychiatric disorders on relationships and mating. The study from the famous Karolinska Insitute in Sweden examined over 700,000 men and women with…
Winning the lottery – when the dream becomes a nightmare
People claim the great Australian dream is home ownership. Rubbish. It’s winning TattsLotto. Ever since I was a kid, one question has popped up around the kitchen table, at the pub, over coffee, and even in bed: what would you do if you won TattsLotto? Recently the dream took a bizarre twist as we followed…
Injecting regulations into cosmetic medicine
Cosmetic procedures quite often receive bad press; they’re seen as unbridled vanity and something to be frowned upon (if you can still frown, that is). But the industry drivers are far more complex than simple vanity. Society rewards attractiveness in both obvious and subtle ways. Little in our social existence is truly immune from the…
Facebook – friend or foe?
It’s hard to remember life without social media. I saw my first computer in high school – it was the size of a fridge and didn’t have a keyboard. We had to use cards to enter data. We excitedly programmed it to write “happy birthday” and “school is boring” over and over. We weren’t quite…
Enlisting psychology in the fight against terrorism
We are in the midst of a wave of soul searching trying to understand the Lindt Café siege in Sydney. In a sense we’ve been collectively holding our breaths for years wondering if Australia would ever fall victim to a terrorist act. Terrorism has many definitions but by and large usually refers to the use…
KPIs for your life
Anyone who’s worked in a big organisation will know about KPIs – key performance indicators. Numbers to measure how the organisation is functioning. We have dozens in hospitals – time from arrival to discharge, infection rate, falls rate, seclusions rate, sick leave rates etc, etc. They annoy some people who claim they’re “too simplistic” or…
Uncharted passion, disrupted hormones and weird superstitions – the life of a football fan
It’s Grand Final season – it might seem that nothing else matters about now. Writing about the psychology of football is like writing about the psychology of love. A fool’s business. Nothing (so far) has quite made sense of how 100,000 people turn up to shout and scream, cry and gasp, and pin their fortunes…
Ethics, group psychology and Meteora – a tour group dilemma.
Everyday life is full of mini-ethical moments. Do you own up to being under charged? Do you push in when the traffic is heavy and you’re running late? Do you hassle your kid’s teacher to get little Jimmie or Jane an advantage? Most of us do our best, but various emotions, motives, and practicalities act…