Psychology of religion and spirituality research is lacking an important aspect of today’s society — racial and ethnic (RE) diversity. Ingrid Morales-Ramirez conducted a literature review for one of her recent projects on frequency of prayer, self-disclosure to God and religious service attendance and found literature on only three RE…
Addiction Is a Complex Brain Disease, Says Volkow
Advances in medical imaging have revealed that addiction is a complex disease of the brain, said NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow. “By understanding how addiction affects different neuronal processes, we can gather insights that give us a better understanding of why the behaviors of people who are addicted are so…
What Do Musical Experiences Have in Common Across Cultures?
Music is a vital part of cultures around the world, and the idea that it has some universal features is not new. But a paper recently published in the journal Science analyzes these characteristics systematically—finding evidence of both variation and common threads running through the world’s songs and song-related behaviors. “Music perception and music production…
“Marshmallow Test” Redux: New Research Reveals Children Show Better Self-Control When They Depend on Each Other
Children are more likely to control their immediate impulses when they and a peer rely on each other to get a reward than when they’re left to their own willpower, new research indicates. The findings appear in Psychological Science. The researchers say their experiments are the first to show that children are…
More Than 100 Billion Doses of Opioid Pills Were Shipped Between 2006 and 2014
Data collected by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) shows more than 100 billion doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone were shipped nationwide between 2006 and 2014, The Washington Post reports. In July, the newspaper reported that the nation’s drug manufacturers had distributed more than 76 billion opioid pills from 2006 through 2012. Two…