Psychologon / Rešerše The complicated truth about social media and body image "Much has been made over the years about how mainstream media presents unrealistic beauty standards in the form of photoshopped celebrities or stick-thin fashion models. Now that influencers fill up our feeds, it's easy to imagine that social media, too, is all bad when it comes to body image. But the reality is more nuanced, and there may be ways to curate your Instagram feed to make you feel happier in your own skin – or, at least, stop you feeling worse."

BBC / 14. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše The "dementia village" that's redefining elder care "What we saw every day was that the people that lived in our nursing home were confused about their environment, because what they saw was a hospital-like environment, with doctors and nurses and paramedics in uniform, and they lived on a ward. And they didn't understand why they lived there. And they looked for the place to get away. They looked and hoped to find the door to go home again. And we said what we are doing in this situation is offering these people that already have a confused brain some more confusion. We were adding confusion to confusion. And that was not what these people needed."

www.ted.com / 12. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše Study suggests humor could be an emotion regulation strategy for depression "“As such, it appears that humor could broaden depressed individuals’ repertoire of adaptive tools of dealing with potentially depressogenic experiences, and in the long run, enhance their resilience. The study also demonstrated that creating humor in the face of adversity is difficult and requires from vulnerable individuals substantial effortful, which may potentially lead to their reluctance and lack of success in applying this strategy,” Braniecka said."

PsyPost / 11. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše How brain biases prevent climate action "We lack the collective will to address climate change because of the way our brains have evolved over the last two million years.  "Humans are very bad at understanding statistical trends and long-term changes,” says political psychologist Conor Seyle, director of research at One Earth Future Foundation, a programme incubator that focuses on fostering peace long-term. “We have evolved to pay attention to immediate threats. We overestimate threats that are less likely but easier to remember, like terrorism, and underestimate more complex threats, like climate change.”"

BBC / 9. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše How your language reflects the senses you use "Humans are often characterised as visual beings. If you are a native English speaker, you may intuitively agree. After all, English has a rich vocabulary for colours and geometric shapes, but few words for smells. However, a recent global study suggests that whether we mainly experience the world by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or feeling varies hugely across cultures. And this preference is reflected in our language."

BBC / 6. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše Brain clue to 'broken heart' syndrome "Your heart can be damaged after a sad event and it may be your brain's doing, experts believe. (...) Also known as takotsubo syndrome - referring to the shape of the heart in people with this condition, which resembles a Japanese pot with the same name - broken heart syndrome can be brought on by shock. It's different to a heart attack caused by blocked blood vessels, but has similar symptoms, including breathlessness and chest pain. Often, an unhappy event is the trigger, but exciting big events, such as a wedding or new job, have been linked with it too."

BBC / 5. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše Why Do So Many College Students Have Anxiety Disorders? "Some explanations might be early childhood trauma, a biochemical imbalance, or the stress of economic insecurity and political polarization in today’s world. And yet earlier generations managed to thrive during the Depression, World War II, Watergate, and the Vietnam War. Research points to three changes in our culture that could be undermining the mental health of today’s college students."

www.psychologytoday.com / 2. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše Bedtime social media use may be harming UK teenagers, study says "More than a third of teenagers spent at least three hours a day on social media, with a fifth devoting at least five hours to the activity, researchers found. Those who were on social media for three hours or more daily were most likely to get to sleep late. Going to sleep late on school nights was a particular concern, researchers said, because it put teenagers at risk of “poorer academic and emotional outcomes”. Insufficient sleep in adolescence has been linked to a range of mental health problems, obesity and poor performance at school."

www.theguardian.com / 2. 3. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše How your belly could heal your brain "Existing antidepressants aim to alter the balance of chemicals such as serotonin in the brain, but they are not effective for all patients: only two out of every 10 patients taking antidepressant drugs show signs of improvement, over and above the placebo effect. And although they help many patients, talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy are similarly hit and miss. As a result, many patients are left without and struggle to find an appropriate treatment, and the gut-brain axis would seem to offer one of the most promising lines of enquiry."

BBC / 28. 2. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše Oxytocin, the so-called “hug hormone,” is way more sophisticated than we thought "The myth of oxytocin as the “hug hormone” isn’t dead. You can still read new articles — especially around Valentine’s Day — on the internet about how being given chocolates or flowers boosts oxytocin, or how couples who work on art projects together can boost it as well (and presumably inject more empathy into their relationship). The real story of oxytocin research reminds us — as many science stories do — that the truth is often more nuanced, and more wonderfully complicated, than it first appears." Read more in this article. More about oxytocin in our article from Kateřina Skalická.

www.vox.com / 14. 2. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše Why some people are more altruistic than others "Why do some people do selfless things, helping other people even at risk to their own well-being? Psychology researcher Abigail Marsh studies the motivations of people who do extremely altruistic acts, like donating a kidney to a complete stranger. Are their brains just different?"   Více zde.

www.ted.com / 4. 2. 2019

Psychologon / Rešerše Do you really know why you do what you do? "Experimental psychologist Petter Johansson researches choice blindness -- a phenomenon where we convince ourselves that we're getting what we want, even when we're not. In an eye-opening talk, he shares experiments (designed in collaboration with magicians!) that aim to answer the question: Why do we do what we do? The findings have big implications for the nature of self-knowledge and how we react in the face of manipulation. You may not know yourself as well as you think you do."

www.ted.com / 20. 1. 2019