Sorry for the delay in posting this week. The end of the semester slammed full speed into a wall. This past week was not typical of a last week of classes. As I walked through the halls the past two days, it seems that this was the case for many of my colleagues. There were a lot more classes than in the past meeting the full time and doing stuff all week. By the number of students dressed up, a lot of that stuff was presentations.

This is likely the last post for a while. It’s a bonus post for my students. I’m being nice and letting them respond for extra credit. I still haven’t thought about what I’ll be doing with the blog next semester.

To all my students (and colleagues): good luck with your finals; have a safe and restful break. January 13 will be here sooner than we all want.

Here are this week’s links:

• More Contact with Nature May Reduce Crime

PsychCentral (Rick Nauert) – November 30, 2015

I’m all for increasing time outside. I’m also all for reducing crime. A study from the UK has found that contact with nature reduces crime independent of other predictive variables associated with crime.

• How Terrorist Attacks Influence Consumer Behaviors

Psychology Today: The Science Behind Behavior (Utpal Dholokia) – December 1, 2015

It depresses me that news of terrorist attacks at home and abroad are becoming common. In his blog, Utpal Dholokia talks about how this affects consumer behavior.

• How to Stop Viewing Your Anxiety as an Enemy

PsychCentral (Margarita Tartakovsky) – December 2, 2015

I’ll be honest, I’m posting this link so I have a quick place to find it when I need to go back and read it to remind myself to stop battling with anxiety.

• Is Safe Sex Going Out of Style?

New York Magazine:The Cut (Ann Friedman) – November 20, 2015

This is an interesting read regarding some of the cultural changes in sex education and public awareness of sexual issues.

• Threats Against Children Increase When Mothers Separate From Abusive Partners

PsyPost (Sam Houston State University) – November 30, 2015

When a woman leaves an abusive relationship, the direct abuse may stop. However, the abusive partner may continue to exert control by threatening to harm or take away the children. This is a real issue. Not reported in the linked report is the fact that most child abductions are by a non-custodial parent or other family member.

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Happy Day After Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving Day began with running the Manchester (CT) Road Race, and setting a new personal record for that race. With over 15,000 people on the course, it was a rough race to run for time. When I started running in 2010, the Manchester Road Race was the first ever race I ran, so it was good to set a new PR.

I did manage to Tweet out several links at the start of the week, so I had several to choose from for this week’s post. So, here are this week’s links:

• California Case Shows How Mental Health Cuts Overload ERs

PsychCentral (Rick Nauert) – November 23, 2015

When cuts are made to mental health care, it doesn’t mean that people stop needing the services. It shuffles them elsewhere – often to ERs.

• This is Why You Should Quit Facebook For One Week

PsyBlog (Jeremy Dean) – November 23, 2015

Want to increase your happiness? Quit Facebook for one week.

• Reducing Intergroup Conflict Through Contact

APS Observations – November 18, 2015

This link reports on a study in the European Journal of Social Psychology by researchers in Germany who conducted a meta-analysis on studies looking at intergroup conflict.

• Online Porn May Feed Sex Adicts’ Desire for New Sexual Images

PsyPost (University of Cambridge) – November 23, 2015

I’ve been talking about the spectrum of human sexuality in my Human Sexuality class. Part of the discussion has included those behaviors considered problematic, such as sex addiction.

• Tone of Voice Trumps Word Choice in Spousal Arguments

PsychCentral (Rick Nauert) – November 24, 2015

This link talks about software that can predict marital success better than descriptions of therapy sessions.

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This week has flown by. It’s hard to believe we’re down to seven days of classes left. My research students are nearing the end of their individual projects and a few have entered panic mode. A colleague and I got to resuscitate a student’s data file, yesterday. It was fun to pull up old grad school skills of importing data files into SPSS.

FYI: I will be posting on 11/27/15. With only a two-day work week leading into that, it could be an interesting post to build. There will also be a 12/4/15 post. I’ll likely take a break over winter break. I’m still not sure what my plans for the blog are next semester.

Here are this week’s links:

• Scurvy is a Serious Public Health Problem

Slate: Medical Examiner (Karen D. Brown) – November 20, 2015

The connection between this link and psychology might not be immediately obvious. However, I choose it for two reasons. The first, the cases being reported on are here in my school’s hometown of Springfield. Second, there are a lot of connections to psychology when you read the story and think about the circumstances surrounding the problem.

• Anxiety in a World of Terrorism

PsychCentral (Michele L. Brennan) – November 20, 2015

The terror attacks last Friday night in Paris were startling to many around the globe. Terrorism works because it creates fear and anxiety. We can’t get rid of all of that, but there are some things we can do to keep our fears and anxiety in check and at a more realistic level.

• Why Exercise Helps Depression

PsychCentral (Rolandus Malinauskas) – November 15, 2015

As I found over my half marathon training and my continued running, I get really grumpy if I don’t get a run in every few days. The running just helps balance my stress and keep my emotions in check. No surprise once you read this link.

• Personal Space Gauges (One’s Arms)

Improbable Research (Martin Gardiner) – November 16, 2015

My students are always amused when I start talking about comfort and personal space – I might not get to that this semester in Human Sexuality. I often joked that I’ve got a really good gauge of what is my personal space bubble – my arms. Seems that researchers in Italy have empirically tested this. As an introvert, I’m not at all bothered by the fact that my personal space bubble has a diameter of 70 inches.

• STD Rates Hit Record High in U.S.

Time (Alexandra Sifferlin) – November 17, 2015

Last week I shared that the number of babies dying of congenital syphilis has increased in the U.S. It should come as no surprise that an underlying cause of that crisis (beyond issues in access to quality prenatal care) is the underlying increase in STD rates, in general. If you’re sexually active, you should get yourself tested and encourage your partners to also get tested. If you’ve been tested before, but have had new partners since the last time you were tested, you should get tested again. Many STDs have no symptoms, so you can’t tell who’s infected just by looking.

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Another busy week. I think that is going to be the trend for the remainder of the semester. (Only 12 days of classes left!) Thankfully, I only have 2-3 more Fridays to cover with Friday Five posts. Not sure what I’ll do next semester. I’m not teaching Intro, so I won’t be requiring a course to interact w/my social media on any regular basis unless I work it into other courses.

Without further delay, here are this week’s links:

• How Rescue Dogs Are Helping Veterans with PTSD

National Geographic (Christy Ullrich Barcus) – November 11, 2015

In honor of Veteran’s Day this week, I figured I’d lead with a link on how rescue dogs are helping veterans with PTSD. This National Geographic piece (with brief video) tells of the K9s for Warriors program that partners rescue dogs with veterans.

• The Personality Profile of the Selfie Addict

Psychology Today (Robert Burriss) – November 12, 2015

Psychology Today reports on a forthcoming study from Personality and Individual Differences that looked at the characteristics of people who post a lot of selfies.

• 5 Real Reasons You Procrastinate

Happily Imperfect: PsychCentral (Sharon Martin) – November 11, 2015

Sharon Martin discusses the reasons people procrastinate. If you’ve identified yourself as a procrastinator, then you may also want to read her follow-up blog on Six Simple Solutions to Cure Procrastination.

• The Power of Perspective: 6 Photographers Invited to Photograph 1 Man

My Modern Met (Anna Gragert) – November 5, 2015

How does what you’re told about a person impact how you view that person? Cannon Australia did an experiment where they told each of six photographers a different story about the man they would photograph. What happened is fascinating. The link shows both the 6 images (1 from each photographer) and the video of the whole experiment.

• More Babies in The U.S. Are Dying of Congenital Syphilis

Shots: Health News from NPR (Angus Chen) – November 12, 2015

Although I just finished up the chapter on sexually transmitted diseases in my human sexuality course, I only briefly touched on how infections can get passed from mother to child during pregnancy and/or childbirth. Then this link came across my twitter stream, yesterday. The number of babies affected by congenital syphilis has been rising in recent years.

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I think I have a new measure of how busy my week has been – how few things I retweet. It didn’t help that I was out sick on Monday. But, I’ve weeded through the links and chosen five for the week.

Without further delay, here are this week’s links:

• New #CDC Data Stress That Our Work to Halt Untreatable Gonorrhea is Far From Over

Journal of the American Medical Association – November 3, 2015

I started talking about sexually transmitted infections in my Human Sexuality course this week. One topic I touched on was antibiotic resistance of the bacterial STIs. I had mentioned how a few years ago the medical field was facing a crisis in regards to gonorrhea. Looks like that crisis is still looming.

• Interrupted Sleep Tied to Cranky Mood

PsychCentral (Janice Wood) – October 31, 2015

Ok, Intro students, I know a few of you chose this link off Twitter this week. I trust you won’t try to pull one over on me and choose it again. Unlike some of my friends with kids, I am fortunate that the norm for my son is to sleep 10-11 hours at night. But I clearly recall his first 7 months and the disrupted sleeping as he woke a few times each night. I already get grumpy if I don’t get enough sleep, add in the interruptions, and there were days when I was a rage monster.

• New Study Suggests Fair Division of Chores Leads to Better Sex Life

PsyPost (University of Alberta) – November 2, 2015

This link reports on a follow-up study to one from 2012 that found that when men do what are traditionally thought of as women’s chores, there is less sex in the relationship.

• Working on Your Tot’s Memory Now Can Help His High School Success

PsyPost (University of Montreal) – November 3, 2015

Next week, I’ll start covering memory in my Intro course. This link shares research examining working memory in toddlers and how it is related to later school success.

• Toddler’s and Tech: From Alarm to Acceptance

PsychCentral: Sex & Intimacy in the Digital Age (Robert Weiss) – November 5, 2015

This link shares how the American Academy of Pediatrics has shifted their view on media and technology use by children.

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I apologize for the delay in getting this week’s post up. My free time to work on the blog got away from me on Friday. I have a mix of topics this week.

Without further delay, here are this week’s links:

• How We Use Our Smartphones Twice as Much as We Think

Medical News Today – October 29, 2015

Smartphone use is a bone of contention in my household. Both my husband and I accuse the other person of spending too much time with their phone. Medical News Today is reporting on a study published in PLOS ONE that examined how much time people estimated they spend on their smartphone with how much they actually spend on their smartphone.

Because PLOS ONE is an online journal, here’s a link to the PLOS ONE article by Ellis, Shaw, and Piwek.

• What is Inattentional Blindness

About Education: Psychology (Kendra Cherry)

I just wrapped up the chapter on consciousness in my intro class. The chapter started off talking about attention and I covered the concept of inattentional blindness. The work of Daniel Simons has demonstrated that the human mind can be blind to things we are not paying attention to.

Here’s a link to the invisible gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons with some of the videos demonstrating Simons’ work.

• Can’t Sing On-Key? Blame the Brain

Student Science (Bethany Brookshire) – October 25, 2015

Some people just can’t carry a tune. For some, it’s a matter of not enough practice. For others, it’s a matter of true tone deafness. This link talks about a study that examined how true tone deafness happens.

• Many Parents, Coaches Still Unaware of the Dangers of Concussions in Young Athletes

PsychCentral (Traci Pederson) – October 26, 2015

Over the past few years there has been growing media attention to the dangers of concussions in contact sports, especially football. The research has been extending beyond professional athletes to young athletes. PsychCentral reports on a study presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics national conference that looked at parent and coach reactions to concussions in young athletes.

• Video: The Return of Count Spirochete

Armed with Science: The Official U.S. Defense Department Science Blog (John Ohab) – December 13, 2010

CDC STD tweeted the link to this blog as a #Halloween #TBT this week. The full video is 20 minutes. I’m sharing it for two reasons. First, I will start covering sexually transmitted infections/diseases in my human sexuality class on Monday. Second, as someone interested in persuasion, it is always interesting to see historical instances of persuasion. (And I just cringed at calling 19073 historical – I was born that year.)

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It was a one-day on campus work week for me last week, so I didn’t get around to sharing a lot of tweets and didn’t get around to posting a Friday Five. Thankfully, the slew of conference presentations are over for the semester and I can (hopefully) get focus back on other things. Additionally, my half marathon training is over, so I get chunks of my Saturday mornings back. (BTW: I did finish the Newport Half Marathon in 2:46:43. Which is a new PR for me.)

Without further delay, here are this week’s links:

• How Your Brain’s Thalmic Reticular Nucleus Controls Sleep

PsyPost (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) – October 13, 2015

My Intro students just started the chapter that covers sleep. I thought this was a fitting post to share given that it connects this new material back to material from an earlier chapter on the brain.

• Need a Nap? Science Thinks So Too

AllPsych (Amie Kolodziej) – October 20, 2015

Another sleep link. I have to admit that I’m a fan of napping, when I can get it. I have always realized that I tend to need more sleep than the average person. Since becoming a parent, I’ve found the impact of getting less sleep even more noticeable than in the past.

• Your Vestigial Muscles Try to Pivot Your Ears Like a Cat’s

Slate (Rachel E. Gross) – October 16, 2015

Your cat (or dog) can probably move their ears around quite a bit (unless you have a floppy-eared dog that isn’t quite as talented). Most humans have lost that ability, but the neural pathways are still there.

• Here’s a History of Bisexuality, From Ancient Egypt to Stonewall

Huffpost Gay Voices (Kira Brekke) – October 20, 2015

This link is to a video that gives a history of bisexuality from Egypt to Stonewall. I’ll start talking about sexual orientation in my Human Sexuality class on Monday.

• How to Get Contraception Into Hands of 225 Million Women in Need

HuffPost Women (Eleanor Goldberg) – October 14, 2015

Last week (the one day I had class) I was wrapping up the chapter on contraception in Human Sexuality. I had given my students an online discussion of what historical contraceptive option they would choose had they lived in that time. Many said they would just have sex and risk pregnancy, or comments that women just accepted that pregnancy would happen. This led me to bring up the issue of status and access to contraceptive options. I saw this link after that class and had to tweet it out. I’m sharing again because I think access to reliable contraceptive is an important public health issue.

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It has been a busy week prepping for the second round of tests (the official midterm point is 10/21), a long weekend, and a really short week (1 day!) before heading off to present at another conference. Oh, and I’m presenting at the New England Psychological Association Conference, tomorrow. So, it wasn’t too surprising that I didn’t have a lot of retweets this week, and that those I did make were early in the week.

Without further delay, here are this week’s links:

• From King Henri II to Phineas Gage: How Brain Wounds and Illnesses Advanced Neuroscience

PsyPost (History News Network) – October 4, 2015

My Intro students just wrapped up the chapters on the brain and sensation/perception. I hadn’t even realized until this week that I forgot to talk about Phineas Gage. Even the text for the course left him out – Poor Phineas. This link is a review of a new book by Sam Kean, entitled The Tale of Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery.

• Understanding Sleep paralysis: A Terrifying but Unique State of Consciousness

PsyPost (The Conversation) – October 5, 2015

The next topic my Intro students will be moving on to is states of consciousness. I thought it fitting to include this link to (hopefully) jump start their interest in the topic.

• Children Learn from Stress and Failure: All the More Reason You Shouldn’t Do Their Homework

PsyPost (The Conversation) – October 6, 2015

I just had a conversation with a new psych major. She was doing an interview of a professor as an assignment for one of her courses. She asked me what piece of advice I’d give college students. This link may have influenced the answer I gave her. I said: “Don’t be afraid to fail. We often learn more from our mistakes than from always being successful.” At least as it applies to experimental design, I’ve got a lot of lessons to share with my students because of my own research mistakes.

• Female Scientists #prettycurious About Campaign Aimed at Young Women

Higher Education Network (Helen Lock & Zofia Niemtus) – October 5, 2015

The energy company EDF has launched a campaign, #prettycurious, to encourage girls to pursue further study and careers in traditionally male-dominated fields such as the sciences. The link is about how the campaign is being taken by women already in the sciences.

• Celebs Get Real About Baggy Condoms and Powerful Vaginas in New Sex Ed Videos

HuffPost Women (Nina Bahadur) – September 30, 2015

Several celebrities have come together with Funny or Die and WomanCare Global to create a set of in-your-face sex-ed videos. I’ll let the videos and the link speak for themselves.

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Other than the deceptive Tuesday felt like Thursday so Wednesday must be Friday quirk earlier this week, this week has felt more normal in the craziness of the semester. Which is good, because it’s a bit of a calm before the storm of two conference presentations and a half marathon happening in two weeks.

Here are this week’s links:

• Think Remembering Is Always Best? Forget About It!

NPR: 13.7 Cosmos & Culture (Tania Lombrozo) – September 28, 2015

This link was forwarded to me by a colleague who is teaching a course on Forgetting this semester. It was in response to several links to memory studies that I had been sharing with her this week as I was retweeting them out to my Twitter followers.

• People can be Convinced They Committed a Crime that Never Happened

PsyPost (Association for Psychological Science) – January 15, 2015

This is one of the links I forwarded to my colleague teaching the forgetting class. As her students have come to realize, maybe we can’t really trust our memories.

• Chimpanzee Personality Linked to Anatomy of Brain Structures, Study Finds

Medical News Today – September 30, 2015

My Intro students have been learning about the brain this week and last week. This link is about the connection between personality traits in Chimpanzees and specific brain anatomy.

• Here’s What It’s Like to Grow Up Intersexed

HuffPost Gay Voices (JamesMichael Nichols) – September 30, 2015

I wrapped up Sexual Anatomy and Gender this week in my Human Sexuality class. This link (with video) relates to those chapters.

• How Gonadal Hormones Like Testosterone and Estrogen Affect our Mood

PsyPost (The Conversation) – October 1, 2015

Occasionally, I find a link that is equally applicable to both classes following the blog. As I mentioned in the previous link, the Human Sexuality class just wrapped up Sexual Anatomy and Gender. And, although I didn’t spend class time talking about it, the book chapter on the brain for Intro covers the endocrine system.

Here are some additional links with helpful information for students:

• Stephen Chew: How to Get the Most out of Studying (5 parts)

This is a link to a series of five short videos by Stephen Chew, a psychology professor at Samford University. These cover some strategies to get the most out of studying.

• Beginner’s Guide to College Success

This is a link to a site maintained by Dr. Jonathan Golding at the University of Kentucky.

• Careers in Psychology

This is another site maintained by Jonathan Golding. Through this site, you can explore a number of different career options related to psychology.

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Hard to believe that it is the last Friday in September. A full 4.5 weeks of the semester has flown by. Midterm point is only a few weeks away. So just as I regain my footing from the first round of exams, it will be time for the next round.

Here are this week’s links:

• Self-Control Competes with Memory

Minds On the Road: Association for Psychological Science (Scott Sleek, Alexandra Michel, Anna Mikulak) – September 23, 2015

In general, the Minds on the Road blog looks pretty interesting. Apparently, it has been around since June 2014, but I only discovered it today due to an APS (Association for Psychological Science) tweet. This particular entry discusses the competition between self-control and memory. Intro students: although the research in this entry doesn’t specifically look at neurotransmitters, it might be interesting to think about how they play a role in the competing processes going on.

• Braking the Code: Why Yuor Barin Can Raed Tihs

Live Science (Natalie Wolchover) – February 9, 2012

This is an older link, and I may have even shared it three years ago. The brain is a marvelous thing, and the interplay between sensation and perception is amazing. Intro students: this topic will come up either on Thursday or the following Tuesday as we cover the Chapter 4 material.

• Are Impulsivity Problems Memory Problems?

Observations: Association for Psychological Science – September 16, 2015

Hmm. Two links to memory research in one week. My cognitive psychology roots might by showing.

• Trying to Add the ‘M’ Word (Menstruation) to the U.N.’s New Goals

NPR: Health (Rosie Spinks) – September 25, 2015

A potentially eye-opening piece about sanitation practices in undeveloped countries.

• My Husband is Now My Wife

New York Magazine (Alex Morris) – September 22, 2015

This is a longer piece than I usually link for the Friday Five. It originally came across my Facebook timeline and I tweeted the link out when I saw it. I still need to read the full piece, myself.

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