Unemployment can change people's core personalities, finds research conducted at the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom. The study examined a sample of nearly 7,000 German adults who took a standard personality test at two points over four years. Of this group, 210 were unemployed for anywhere from one to four years during the experiment, while another 251 were unemployed less than a year but then got jobs. Findings suggest that men experienced increased agreeableness during the first two years of unemployment compared with men who never lost their jobs. However, after two years, the agreeableness levels of the unemployed men began to diminish and, in the long run, were lower than those of the men with jobs. For women, agreeableness declined with each year of unemployment. In addition, the longer men spent without jobs, the more their level of conscientiousness declined, whereas women became more conscientious in the early and late stages of unemployment but experienced a slump in the middle of the study period (Journal of Applied Psychology, online Feb. 9).
Many universities appear to undercount sexual assaults on campus, according to research conducted at the University of Kansas. Scientists analyzed the numbers of on-campus sexual assaults reported by 31 large universities and colleges during audits by the U.S. Department of Education for compliance with federal crime reporting requirements. During the audit years, the reported numbers of sexual assaults increased by 44 percent on average from previous years. In the years following the audits, the reported number of sexual assaults dropped to pre-audit levels, evidence that some schools provided a more accurate picture of sexual assaults on campus only when they were under federal scrutiny (Psychology, Public Policy and Law, February).
Having more friends may make you healthier, finds a study by Concordia University psychologists. For five months, they tracked 60 international students experiencing major social change following a move to Montreal, asking participants to provide information on their social integration and how lonely they felt, and monitoring participants' heart rates to detect changes in the high-frequency component of heart-rate variability. Previous research has shown that people with a lower heart-rate variability are at greater risk for developing cardiac problems. The researchers found that the students who were able to form friendships and get involved in new social networks had increases in heart-rate variability, while those who remained isolated over time showed a decrease (Annals of Behavioral Medicine, September).
Lead damages the cognitive function of boys more than girls, suggests a study by Creighton University psychologists. They tested the executive function skills of 40 children ages 3 to 6 living within a residential area in Omaha, Nebraska, that had significant lead contamination in surface soils due to emissions from a local lead refinery. Findings showed that boys with elevated levels of lead in their blood tested poorly on executive function, including memory and attention, while the effects of lead on girls were much less pronounced (Journal of Environmental Health, January/February).
Your friends can predict how long you'll live, suggests research by psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis. They analyzed data from a 75-year longitudinal study in which 600 participants were observed beginning in 1935 through 1938, when they were in their mid-20s, and continuing through 2013. Using information from follow-up studies and searches of death certificates, the researchers found that male participants seen by their friends as more conscientious and open lived longer; for women, friend-rated emotional stability and agreeableness were protective. Friends' ratings were better predictors of longevity than were self-reports of personality (Psychological Science, online Jan. 12).
Closing your eyes appears to boost memory recall, according to a study with 178 participants conducted at the University of Surrey. Participants watched a video of an electrician entering a property and stealing items. Later, half of the participants answered questions about details of the event with their eyes closed, and the other half answered questions with their eyes open. Within each of these groups, half had built up a rapport with the interviewer while the other half had not. Participants who closed their eyes answered 23 percent more of the questions correctly. Building rapport also increased the number of correct answers, although closing one's eyes was effective regardless of whether rapport had been built or not (Legal and Criminology Psychology, online Jan. 15).
Poverty deteriorates working memory, according to a study conducted by Dartmouth University scientists. Researchers broke 186 sixth-graders into four categories based on their demographics — low-income rural, low-income urban, high-income rural and high-income urban — and asked them to complete verbal and visuospatial tests. They found that the students from low-income households — whether urban or rural — exhibited both verbal and visuospatial working memory deficits compared with their high-income counterparts, possibly due to increased stress. They also found that children in urban poverty had poorer verbal working memories than children in rural poverty. High-socioeconomic-status rural and urban children, however, show nearly identical performance on verbal and visuospatial working memory tests (Journal of Cognition and Development, September).
Optimistic people have healthier hearts, according to a study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Researchers assessed the cardiovascular health of more than 5,100 adults ages 45 to 84 and had participants complete surveys about their mental health, levels of optimism and physical health. They found that the most optimistic participants were twice as likely to be in ideal cardiovascular health as their pessimistic counterparts. Optimists also had significantly better blood sugar and total cholesterol levels, were more physically active, had healthier body mass indexes and were less likely to smoke (Health Behavior and Policy Reviewopens in new window, January).
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender adolescents who come out at school are happier later in life than those who aren't open about their sexual orientation or gender identity at school, according to a study by University of Arizona researchers. Scientists examined data from a survey of 245 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young adults, ages 21 to 25, and found that respondents often experienced victimization and bullying in high school, whether they came out or not. However, LGBT youth who were open about their sexual orientation or gender identity in high school reported higher self-esteem and life satisfaction and lower levels of depression as young adults than those who did not disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity at school (American Journal of Orthopsychiatryopens in new window, November).
Nearly four in 10 workers wouldn't tell their managers if they had a mental health problem, according to a study out of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, a consortium of mental health clinics in Toronto. Researchers surveyed 2,219 working adults and found that the biggest reason people cited for not disclosing a condition was fear about how it would affect their career. Other reasons included fear of losing friends and the negative experiences of others who had shared a psychological condition with their manager. At the same time, half of respondents said they would want to help a co-worker reveal a mental health issue (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicineopens in new window, October).
Couples may be more likely to get healthy together, finds research by University College London scientists. The study followed 3,722 couples, either married or living together and over age 50, and found that people were more successful in replacing bad health habits with good ones if their partners made the change as well. For example, 50 percent of women smokers quit if their partners gave up smoking at the same time, compared with a 17 percent success rate among women whose partners were already non-smokers, and 8 percent success among those who partners were regular smokers. Men were equally affected by their partners and were more likely to quit smoking, get active or lose weight if their partners made the same behavior change (JAMA Internal Medicine, online Jan. 19).
Mice that are genetically deficient in serotonin are more vulnerable to social stress than mice without such deficits, according to research by Duke University scientists. Researchers compared the responses of normal mice and transgenic mice deficient in serotonin after a period of social stress that was inflicted by housing the mice with an aggressive stranger mouse briefly every day for a week. By the end of the week, the serotonin-deficient mice were more likely to avoid interacting with the stranger mouse — a depressionlike behavior — than the normal mice. In addition, researchers found that a three-week treatment with fluoxetine following the stress exposure alleviated depression-like symptoms in normal mice, but not the transgenic ones (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online Feb. 9).
Childhood adversity and a history of psychiatric disorders may lead to accelerated aging, according to a study by Brown University scientists. Nearly 300 healthy adults provided blood samples and completed diagnostic interviews to assess lifetime psychopathology and experience with such childhood adversities as parental loss, abuse and neglect. Researchers found that people with depressive disorders and anxiety disorders, as well as those with parental loss and childhood maltreatment, were more likely to have shorter telomeres and higher mitochondrial DNA — two indicators of accelerated aging. A history of substance abuse disorders was also associated with significantly higher mitochondrial DNA (Biological Psychiatryopens in new window, online Jan. 16).
Girls lead boys in academic achievement globally, finds research led by University of Glasgow and University of Missouri–Columbia psychologists. The study examined educational achievement of 1.5 million 15-year-olds using data collected from 2000 to 2010. Results showed that boys fall behind girls in overall achievement in reading, math and science in 70 percent of the 74 countries studied — regardless of the level of gender, political, economic or social equality of those countries. Boys outperform girls in only three countries or regions: Colombia, Costa Rica and the Indian state Himachal Pradesh. Boys and girls had similar educational achievement in the United States and United Kingdom (Intelligenceopens in new window, January/February).
A school-based mindfulness program may help students regulate stress, be more caring and perform better in math, according to a study conducted at the University of British Columbia. Researchers from several disciplines — a neuroscientist, developmental pediatrician, developmental psychologists and education experts — examined the effectiveness of the program MindUP™, which teaches mindfulness practices, including breathing, tasting and movement exercises. The researchers found that fourth- and fifth-graders who participated in the program were better at regulating stress, were more optimistic and helpful and were also better liked by their peers than children in a program that taught caring for others without a mindfulness component. The children in the mindfulness program also performed better at math than the children in the caring program (Developmental Psychologyopens in new window, January).
Sleep difficulties appear to predict alcohol and drug problems in adolescents, according to research led by Idaho State University psychologists. They analyzed three waves of data — 1994–95, 1996 and 2001–02 — collected via interviews and questionnaires from 6,504 adolescents. Sleep difficulties at the first wave significantly predicted binge drinking, driving under the influence of alcohol, risky sexual behavior and using illicit drugs at the second wave (Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Researchopens in new window, February).
Teen girls report less sexual victimization after virtual reality assertiveness training, according to research by psychologists at Southern Methodist University. The study followed 78 adolescent girls, 42 of whom took part in a 90-minute assertiveness training program that emphasizes resisting unwanted sexual advances in a virtual environment. Researchers also found that those girls who had previously experienced dating violence reported lower levels of other forms of victimization and less psychological distress after completing the program, relative to girls in the wait-list control group (Behavior Therapyopens in new window, online Nov. 24).
Just looking at somebody shivering is enough to make us feel cold, according to a study by University of Sussex researchers. They asked 36 participants to watch videos of people putting their hands in either water that was clearly warm (from a steaming kettle) or clearly cold (containing ice). At the same time, the temperature of participants' own hands was measured. Their hands were significantly colder when watching the "cold" videos. However, the "warm" videos did not cause a change (PLOS ONEopens in new window, Dec. 31).
— Amy Novotney
