Study: Love decreases pain. Commenters: Unimpressed.
Researchers from Stanford University studied the link between love and pain by scanning the brains of 15 college students who all professed to being deeply in love. The eight women and seven men were placed in brain scanners that tracked their body’s response to pain — in this case a heated probe placed on the palm of the hand.
A unsurprising study says that where you live affects your mood.
“One of the things we tried to assess was essentially community support — to what extent people in that neighborhood turned to others for child care, other forms of assistance — and whether they socialize and know each other. And it’s clear that in these negative neighborhoods there’s this inverse relationship in terms of their various problems and lack of strong ties.”
Want to be more social? Think about time, a study says.
Does thinking about time or money make you happier? A new study…finds that people who are made to think about time plan to spend more of their time with the people in their lives while people who think about money fill their schedules with work…
About.com helpfully rounds up the wisdom about couples therapy in Does Couples Counseling Work? and Benefits of Marriage Counseling.
There are people who stay in an unhappy marriage until the resentment builds and they feel they have no choice but to divorce. They don’t voice their unhappiness, they go with the flow hoping something will change and the problems will be instantly solved. Then there are those who “try” with everything they have to make the marriage work before they leave. These people are problem solvers who feel they owe it to the marriage to try to find solutions to the problems before they throw in the towel.
The one thing both have in common is that they rarely go to marriage counseling.
Looking for couples therapy in L.A.? Call or write to discuss what you’re going through and arrange an appointment: (323) 610-0112.
Scientific American relays research that finds a reason that may explain why Women Apologize More Frequently Than Men:
Researchers analyzed the number of self-reported offences and apologies made by 66 subjects over a 12-day period. And yes, they confirmed women consistently apologized more times than men did. But they also found that women report more offenses than men. So the issue is not female over-apology. Instead, there may be a gender difference in what is considered offensive in the first place.
The high price of trying to be accepted: Social Exclusion Drives Bad Choices (PsychCentral).
A new study reveals people who feel excluded will go to any length to try to become part of a group. The desire to be accepted or be a member of an “in” group can include spending large sums of cash, eating something dicey, or doing illicit drugs.
There’ve been only thousands years of monogamy, that is–since agriculture got underway–according to the newish book, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. When people started farming, say the authors, they started thinking about things like ownership and where babies come from. Monogamy followed–meaning that lifelong pairing doesn’t necessarily come naturally to us.
Here’s Dan Savage getting very excited about the thesis as he interviews author Christopher Ryan on his podcast [with the usual explicit language]. Not for everyone, but…if it’s for you, there’s more where that came from on Ryan’s Psychology Today blog .
A study posted at PsychCentral: Simple Methods Heighten Women’s Sexual Satisfaction
New psychological research finds that many women with low sex drives reported greater sexual satisfaction after taking a placebo and participating in a clinical trial…Expectations to improve sex and a willingness to work on sexual problems appear to be key toward obtaining greater sexual satisfaction.
PsyBlog scans the research and comes up with 10 Psychological Insights About Online Dating. Number one:
Internet daters are not losers: Contrary to the stereotype, there’s little evidence that internet dating is the last resort of social misfits or weirdos. In fact, quite the reverse. Internet daters are more likely to be sociable, have high self-esteem and be low in dating anxiety (Kim et al., 2009; Valkenburg, 2007). These studies found no evidence that people use online dating because they can’t hack it face-to-face. It’s just one more way to meet new people.
From Wired: Alcohol can increase longevity…but why?
In recent years, sociologists and epidemiologists have begun studying the long-term effects of loneliness. It turns out to be really dangerous. We are social primates, and when we’re cut off from the social network, we are more likely to die from just about everything (but especially heart disease). At this point, the link between abstinence and social isolation is merely hypothetical. But given the extensive history of group drinking – it’s what we do when we come together – it seems likely that drinking in moderation makes it easier for us develop and nurture relationships. And it these relationships that help keep us alive.
