I hated sixth grade.

It was my first year in middle school and I reeked of awkwardness in a very “Deb-from-Napoleon-Dynamite” sort of way. Side ponytail? Check. Fascination with weird homemade lanyards and keychains? Check.

All the older kids were wearing their grunge-inspired flannel shirts and Grateful Dead t-shirts. Most of my wardrobe came from either Kids R Us or a giant garbage bag of hand-me-down clothes that my mother had collected from her co-workers.

One day, while walking home from school, a eighth-grade boy started harassing me. He’d call me names, comment on my clothing, and taunt me nearly the entire ten-block walk. My entire repertoire of comebacks, unfortunately, came straight from Full House.

“How rude!” I’d exclaim to Mr. Eighth Grade. (Ugh. I couldn’t think of anything better?)

Then, one day, he actually approached me from behind. My backpack, a navy blue Jansport, had two zippers — and on each zipper, I’d clipped at least five different neon plastic lanyard keychains. He grabbed a fistful of them, pulled hard, and ran away with most of them. I was so mad and I hadn’t the slightest idea how to get this jerk to ignore me.

So, the next day at school, I reported him to the assistant principal. As I sat down in her office, visibly upset, waiting for him to arrive for our “mediation session,” the assistant principal turned to me.

“You know,” she said, “don’t worry. The boys start wising up soon. People start doing this kind of thing less and less as you grow up.”

Now, as an adult, I’m not sure if I believe those words. From Jenise Harmon’s new “Sorting Out Your Life” blog:

Like many problems that exist throughout life, bullying doesn’t end at a certain age or level of maturity. Bullying does exist in adulthood. Sometimes it looks different or is called by different names: sexual harassment, stalking, workplace aggression, or scapegoating. But, like in childhood, bullying is one person controlling or harming someone else by use of power.

So, under that definition — as an adult, have you ever been bullied?

If so, check out these six effective ways for us grown-ups to deal with bullies:

This video is based on Jenise Harmon’s blog post, 6 Steps For Dealing With Adult Bullies. 

photo credit: IvanClow

What is positivity, positive psychology and the Positivity Ratio?

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson discovered that experiencing positive emotions in a 3-to-1 ratio with negative ones leads people to a tipping point beyond which they naturally become more resilient to adversity and effortlessly achieve what they once could only imagine.

In this video, Psych Central’s Ask the Therapists Daniel J. Tomasulo, Ph.D. & Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D. discuss the benefits of positivity and understanding how the positivity ratio might help you in your own life.

Take the Positivity Ratio test discussed in the video.

Dr. Marie and Dr. Dan host many videos on relationship and mental health topics here on our blog and you can check them out on our YouTube channel. Want to learn more about Dr. Marie and Dr. Dan?

What do you think about their advice?
Please leave your thoughts in our comments section.

Definition: After watching an episode of a crime-solving drama on television, are you ever left with the feeling that horrific crimes you just witnessed are all to common in real life? According to psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, this tendency to believe that things are more likely simply because they come to mind readily is known as an availability heuristic. They suggest that this tendency operates on the principle that "if you can think of it, it must be important."

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While many students in the U.S. are probably thinking about the upcoming summer break, it will soon be time to start thinking about final exams. While there are no sure-fire shortcuts when studying for a psychology test, there are things that you can do to get the most out of your study time. By following these relatively simple strategies, you can be sure that you'll be ready when test day arrives. Learn more about how to study for a psychology test.

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Have you checked out the Request for Research Participants section of the About.com Psychology Forums? It's a great place to find opportunities to participate in psychology research or to post your own requests for participants.

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Are you fretting over your final exams or standardized tests? Do you ever feel so nervous during a test that you can't concentrate on the material or even forget the answers to questions? Test anxiety is quite common among students. For some, this might mean dealing with a bad case of "butterflies in the stomach," while other students might even have a full-blown anxiety attack.

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While earning a graduate degree is required for many psychology jobs, the fact is that approximately 75% of students who earn a bachelor's degree in psychology do not go to graduate school. According to one study, only about 25% of psychology undergraduates end up working in a field that is closely related to their major.

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Definition: Do people often describe you as quiet, creative, and analytical? Then you might be an INTJ, one of the 16 different personality types identified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)...

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Would you rather eat your dessert before dinner or maybe even instead of dinner? According to a series of studies published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people with a "sweet tooth" were rated as more agreeable and willing to help others. While consuming sweets might not be good for your waistline, lead author Brian Meier suggests that positive social behavior and sugary foods might activate the same areas of the brain.

"It is striking that helpful and friendly people are considered 'sweet' because taste would seem to have little in common with personality or behavior. Yet, recent psychological theories of embodied metaphor led us to hypothesize that seemingly innocuous metaphors can be used to derive novel insights about personality and behavior," Meier explains. "Importantly, our taste studies controlled for positive mood so the effects we found are not due to the happy or rewarding feeling one may have after eating a sweet food."

The authors note that this might not be true across all cultures, so further cross-cultural studies would be helpful in shedding more light on the link between having a sweet tooth and a sweet disposition.

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The APA's latest "Stress in America" report revealed some interesting tidbits about how stress impacts generations differently. The survey found that Millennials reported the greatest increase in stress levels, with 52 percent stating that their stress levels have increased over the past five years. Older adults reported the lowest increase in stress levels; 32 percent reported that their stress levels have stayed the same and 31 percent stated that their stress levels have actually decreased over the past five years.

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Are your dreams vivid, bizarre, or difficult to remember? According to dream researcher J. Allan Hobson, those are just a few of the key characteristics of dreams. In many cases our dreams can be completely illogical and yet during the dream, we accept such inconsistencies without question. If you do happen to remember your dream upon waking, you might reflect back on the oddity of it and even regale your friends and family with tales your "really weird dream." Hobson suggests, however, that we forget as many as 95 percent of all our dreams. Discover more in this overview of the common characteristics of dreams.

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Deaf Group Homes on the Horizon: Kudos to the state of Georgia, where a U.S. District judge has ordered the establishment of accessible therapeutic group homes for Deaf people with developmental disabilities. The state found violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and granted class-action status to a recent case, making the lawsuit open for other affected residents to join. The state is now in mediation sessions with plaintiffs’ lawyers to develop an action plan to address the needs of Deaf people with disabilities.

Why Teach ASL to Hearing Caregivers? Hire Deaf Employees!: All of this is great news, but more work remains to be done in educating Georgia about the needs of Deaf people with developmental disabilities. The article below quotes one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers: “…the remedy will require the state to set up programs to help prospective caretakers learn American Sign Language, and to make sure group homes are adequately staffed with the right professionals.”

How about hiring Deaf professionals who ALREADY are fluent in American Sign Language?!!! It seems a no-brainer, but apparently the state is in serious need of education when it comes to meeting the needs of its Deaf group home residents with developmental disabilities, a population that needs direct services from Deaf professionals who can communicate clearly with them and understand the subtle nuances of signing so often characteristic of this group.

Judge: State (Georgia) discriminating against Deaf people with disabilities

By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

11:16 a.m. Thursday, May 3, 2012
The state of Georgia is discriminating against people who are deaf and mentally and developmentally disabled by denying them meaningful access to mental health services, a federal judge has found.

In a recent ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Story found the state is failing to provide appropriate group home care to such individuals and does not have enough mental health care practitioners who are proficient in American Sign Language. Because of these deficiencies, the state is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the judge found.

The plaintiffs, Story ruled, “have produced sufficient evidence to prove as a matter of law that deaf consumers, because of their deafness, and as a result of several institutional failures on the part of the state, are denied meaningful access to the mental heath care services provided by the state to the general public.”

Story said crafting a remedy to the problem must still be accomplished and said he was convinced one can be found through a collaborative effort. He directed a magistrate judge to oversee mediation between lawyers for the state and the plaintiffs — two deaf adults who have severe mental illness and developmental disabilities — to find a solution.

Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/judge-state-discriminating-against-1430596.html

This post focuses on research reported today on the discovery of the g-spot. If you are a journalist on a deadline you may find it easier to read through this post now and come back to the links later!

Over the past three years there have been papers published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine claiming to have proved or disproved the presence of a g-spot in cis women.

Earlier this month, the Journal of Sexual Medicine again focused on the g-spot resulting in some pretty hopeless reporting, depressingly from science outlets as well as mainstream media.

Most of the g-spot studies have been limited by a number of problems including a small number of unrepresentative participants having their vaginas examined through ultrasound, or larger studies of women using self-report surveys with confusing questions such as: ‘Do you believe you have a so called G-spot, a small area the size of a 20p coin on the front wall of your vagina that is sensitive to deep pressure?’ They also make claims about a lack of research in this area, which isn’t true. There is a lot of research in this area it just posits different ideas about what women find arousing.

Each time studies on the g-spot have been published the media has reacted as though
- these are groundbreaking studies
- the do they/don’t they have g-spots issue is the most pressing topic in sex research
- these studies require no critical attention

And in all these cases journalists – including health and science correspondents – have responded to these studies in one simple way. To frame their stories with the question ‘does the g-spot exist?’

This hides a whole heap of bad science and poor journalism and misinformation on sex, arousal and orgasm.

Today we will see this story repeat itself. This time claiming that women definitively DO have a g-spot.

The study, G-spot Anatomy: A New Discovery (link to be added shortly) by Adam Ostrzenski published in, wait, could it be? Yes! It’s the Journal of Sexual Medicine. The same journal that published all the other papers proving or disproving the existence of the g-spot.

The current study involved an autopsy performed on an 83 year-old woman and claimed to have found ‘the anatomic existence of the g-spot’.

You can expect the media to do four things with this.
1. They will trumpet that YES, THE G-SPOT DOES EXIST! even though previously they said it didn’t (and it did and it didn’t etc etc).
2. They will use this to bring up the same old debate – does the g-spot exist? But they will not critically engage with the research itself.
3. They will fail to notice that a fortnight ago they were having exactly the same discussion.
4. They will use this as another opportunity to report the story using the now well-established tactic of let’s-set-up-a-debate-with-the-ladies-about-their-orgasms.

The media love this do they/don’t they have a g-spot research because it allows them to mix sex and science without being too sexy or in any way scientific. And posing this as a debate topic allows for people to say whether their lived sexual experiences match the study in question.

Any journalist worth their salt should always ask questions about a study they are reporting on. So here are the core problems with the current paper that we should expect the media to answer – but will probably barely see mentioned.

Firstly this is a study based on an autopsy of one woman, so not all that representative. Only last week we saw what happens when the media runs away with excitement on the basis of a limited, single person study. (And yes, that was the Journal of Sexual Medicine too. Are you noticing a pattern here?)

Secondly there is the issue of consent and ethics. This study required a woman or her next of kin to consent to her body being used in medical research. Presumably with specific consent that her genitals may be included in any investigation. The paper does not make it clear what consent was obtained or who from. That is not to say consent was not obtained but with such a sensitive study you would expect this to be explicitly outlined within the paper or press release. Studying tissue samples is a highly emotive area of research and one that is governed by strict ethical and governance procedures (further reading on this topic here).

Thirdly, appropriating a supposed feminist discourse the paper claims ‘The absence of the identification of the G-spot as an anatomic structure created considerable controversies and a biased interpretation of the scientific results worldwide, leading to a monolithic clitoral model of female sexual response. However, women have held the unwavering position that there are distict (sic) areas in the anterior vagina which are responsible for a sensation of great sexual pleasure’

We have been here before with researchers claiming there is a giant global Clitoral Conspiracy denying women information about vaginal pleasure and prioritizing the clit. In that research as with this one no empirical evidence is given to substantiate these claims. Which do not appear to fit with the mainstream media’s general obsession with vaginas. And most reputable sex educators and therapists who focus on people exploring what brings them pleasure rather than telling them what to enjoy. It remains the case that clitoral pleasure is vital to many women’s sexual experience – and it is disingenuous of practitioners to claim otherwise.

Moreover if those who have made the claim that women have consistently reported pleasure from the stimulation of the front wall of the vagina, why then do *they* feel the need to continually survey, scan and now dissect women? Surely if they believe what women say that should just be taken as read?

Fourthly this was an autopsy study so the researcher makes claims about the physiology of a woman but did not apparently talk to her before her death. So we know absolutely nothing about her relationships, her sexual life, what gave her pleasure, what her sexuality was, whether she experienced orgasm or not. Regardless of the physiological findings this paper presents these are meaningless without these other details of the woman’s life.

Finally the author claims he has no conflict of interest. Which is concerning given he runs a Cosmetic Gynaecology practice this is not in itself sinister but it does have a bearing on why he may have an interest in proving the presence of a g-spot and should have been declared in both the press release and the paper. It is remiss of the journal and publisher not to ensure this was done.

Alongside the numerous cosmetic genital procedures he offers, Dr Ostrzenski trains practitioners in procedures including ‘g-spot fat augmentation’ and ‘g-spot surgical augmentation’.

This sounds very much like something that could well be considered a conflict of interest and should have been declared as such in the paper.

I think I would feel less anxious making these criticisms if I had not read Improbable Research’s blog. They have been investigating Dr Ostrzenski and in particular I would draw your attention to him bringing a lawsuit against a peer reviewer he disagreed with. This is sobering stuff.

[Although unrelated to this study, it is worth noting G-spot augmentation is an experimental procedure and in the UK the main practitioner offering this practice was recently struck off by the GMC in a truly tragic case of medical misconduct].

Who benefits from research like this?
We’ve seen how the media benefit from stories like this. Others who benefit include drug companies, who have offered unlimited grants to some of these studies. Cosmetic surgeons, as they can use this research to indicate why g-spot amplification should be performed (despite it having tragic consequences for some women). Sex toy stockists, as they can sell products aimed at either stimulating the g-spot or the clitoris (depending on whether the g-spot is supposed to exist or not). And therapists or sex educators who can promote workshops or counselling that hinges on the supposed confusion around g-spot orgasm.

And who loses out?
The rest of us do! Women and their partners miss out, as these studies do not fully explore the diverse ways women may experience arousal. Trans women are not included in these studies (nor really in any discussions about orgasm). Most studies on g-spots or female orgasm also focus on straight women in relationships, so single women and lesbian or bi women’s voices are rarely heard.

Limited research and poor media pickup results in a situation where misleading stereotypes are repeatedly rehearsed: such as the idea women’s sexuality is understudied, that women’s orgasms are complex and mysterious, that women are unreliable in their sexual response, or that there are superior forms of orgasm that can be related to specific parts of the body.

What could we do instead?
Rather than repeating the do/don’t women have g-spot orgasms we could use this opportunity to ask critical questions about the quality of existing research, what problems this can cause women and their partners, who benefits from the continued g-spot debate, and examine how we might instead celebrate diversity in sexual pleasure. In particular we ought to be asking why the Journal of Sexual Medicine appears fixated on this topic?

Another approach might be to consider how this scenario would look if it were penises under the microscope. While there are undoubtedly distressing issues facing men around penis size and stamina the stereotype for men is they all experience pleasure from their dicks. If you talk to men you discover some get intense pleasure from testicle stimulation and are unable to orgasm without this. Some hate their balls touched. Some get a lot of pleasure if attention is paid to the shaft of the penis. Some find direct stimulation to the glans uncomfortable. Others experience more pleasure from anal stimulation.

Yet we do not suggest because men can and do experience pleasure from different areas in their genitals that there are specific spots that guarantee male orgasm or that men are somehow deficient if they do not experience say, a left testicle orgasm. We don’t scan, survey, or perform autopsies on penises to establish the most sensitive parts. Nor do we have self help books, courses or sex toys designed to coach men into experiencing orgasm through stimulation to specific areas of their genitals.

Indeed suggesting this usually results in people laughing. Why would we do this? But we do seem to feel the need to continue to make women’s bodies and sexual responses seem complex and difficult. Actually that’s not quite true. One journal and the media appear preoccupied with this. Most people are not that bothered and certainly most sex researchers are not.

The take home message is
- there are numerous conflicting messages about the g-spot, many of them from papers with limitations, all recently published in the same journal
- this is not cutting edge sex research nor the prime focus of what sex research is
- this distracts us from the exciting and wonderful stories and studies within sexology – and people’s daily lives
- this makes people anxious about their bodies, sexual experiences and sexual performance
- it gives legitimacy for untested cosmetic gynaecological procedures to be promoted uncritically by the media
- it implies orgasm is solely a physiological experience that is located in specific areas of the genitals (in cis women)
- it suggests particular kinds of orgasm are superior to others or that you should train your body to orgasm in particular ways/locations
- this discourages us to celebrate sexual diversity and pleasure in our genitals and elsewhere, and find what excites and arouses us

How can you help?
Given the media coverage of this story is undoubtedly going to be enthusiastic, extensive and (for the most part) poor, let’s use this as an opportunity to put the media under the spotlight.

As the story spreads through the news look out for the journalists who:
- simply regurgitate the press release
- fail to ask basic questions about the aims/scope/ethics of the paper
- use this as an opportunity to roll out the ‘does the g-spot’ exist story again
- use this as a platform to promote untested cosmetic genital procedures or sex toys but not to talk about the science
- appear not to have actually read the paper

Share your findings on twitter via the hashtag #erronagspot to capture poor (and good) coverage (or if you’re not on twitter but spot something drop me an email at info@drpetra.co.uk and I’ll add it to the list). If you are a journalist or blogger who hasn’t yet covered this story and wants to – please use this blog to help question further the issues raised in the ongoing g-spot saga.

Deaf Counselors: Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf (SWCID) in Texas has a job opening for a Career Placement Counselor. Contact Nancy Bonura, Campus Dean of Student Affairs, at NBonura@howardcollege.edu

One of the things I love about researching sex and relationships is you get to hear about other people’s amazing pieces of work. A recent programme that has caught my attention is the Open University’s ‘Enduring Love’ project.

According to the project team this two year study will look at “how couples think about and experience their long-term relationships” and aims to “examine the emotional and practical ‘work’ that people do to keep their relationships going and the ways that social policies and popular culture shape what it means to be a couple”.

The study is based around a questionnaire the researchers explain “will tell us about what relationships look like in the 21st century and the different factors that are associated with diverse relationship experiences”.

They invite you to talk about your relationship and add to their understanding of this topic.

The survey and project website can be found at www.enduringlove.co.uk. I hope you can support this study. I’ll be looking forward to hearing their findings in a few years time. And I wish the project team every success with this innovative venture.

HASH: 677dc43b423b9a26d5fb6fc93c1111b4c52ade04
*Kool Ade Acid Test - Geraldine Penny.zip
+01 - Kool Ade Acid Test - Doggies wiggle.mp3
+02 - Kool Ade Acid Test - Dr. Brain is back.mp3
+03 - Kool Ade Acid Test - Sugar bliss.mp3
+04 - Kool Ade Acid Test - Ms. Peaches.mp3

• Suicide is a significant risk for anyone with a mental illness, but is exponentially higher for people with depression.
• Women attempt suicide more than men.
• The steep rise in abuse of “narcotic pain relievers” by women is considered a public health crisis.
• Physical pain can often mask a depressive disorder
• Prescriptions for anti-anxiety medication and antidepressant medication have tripled over the last decade, while the seeking of psychotherapy has significantly reduced. This suggests pills are valued more-so than skills.
• Economic stress presses heavily on baby boomers, creating a sense of vulnerability with regard to financial security.

Here are the deception-related crimepsychblog tweets from last month.

Technology-facilitated deception detection (brain scans and machines that go ping):

• Thermal Imaging as a Lie Detection Tool at Airports http://retwt.me/1QhzC
• New research on fMRI-based deception detection measures’ vulnerability to countermeasures http://retwt.me/1QbCJ
• Article on fMRI in court is one of Nature News top stories of 2010. Well worth a (re)read. http://retwt.me/1QfBJ
• New research: Improving efficacy of Concealed Information Test? “Denoised P300 & machine learning-based CIT method” http://retwt.me/1QbCC
• Psychophysiological Response Pattern in Symptom Validity Testing Arch Clin Neurology http://retwt.me/1QbDE
• Great write-up of a rare study of fMRI countermeasures (via @ResearchBlogs) How To Fool A Lie Detector Brain Scan http://goo.gl/fb/7oNFv
• Free access: The Polygraph and Forensic Psychiatry (Don Grubin) J. American Academy of Psychiatry & Law http://retwt.me/1QggR
• Beliefs, predictions and shortcuts in the deceitful brain (Uni of Cambridge article): http://bit.ly/eK1rVw
• Ocular motor deception detection technology http://secprodonline.com/articles/2010/09/01/seeing-through-the-lies.aspx
• Frequent truth telling makes lying more difficult, but frequent lying makes lying easier. http://is.gd/hQeIM
• Articles on cognitive neuroscience of confabulation, free access til Feb 28 (scroll down ->symposia) http://ht.ly/3qYl8
• “When volunteers suspected they were being lied to activity levels rose in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex” New Scientst http://retwt.me/1Qcgj

Interviewing (deception detection the good ole fashion’d way):

• Eliciting Cues to False Intent: A New Application of Strategic Interviewing http://retwt.me/1QhzA
• Influence of Investigator Bias on the Elicitation of True & False Confessions http://retwt.me/1QhzB
• Looks & Lies: Physical Attractiveness in Online Dating Self-Presentation and Deception. Communication Research 37(3) http://retwt.me/1QgIz

And some other deception-related stuff that caught my eye:

• From Scientific American: What Makes An Honest Smile Honest? http://bit.ly/hkX7HN
• Can deception be a life skill? http://bit.ly/e4jYYk
• @evbasedmummy discusses how and why parents lie to their children http://is.gd/ivosZ
• Cricket’s old boys are proposing lie detectors as a way to combat corruption: http://ht.ly/3q4KH Sigh
• Great summary of the DWP ‘Lie Detector’ trials from @Unity_MoT http://tinyurl.com/2366dlg. Big sigh.

A round-up of December tweets from crimepsychblog

New Journal Issues

• Women & Criminal Justice 20(4), articles on IPV, life sentences and risk http://retwt.me/1Qjtd
• Justice Qtrly 27(6), articles on transgender prisoners, gangs, social learning theory, self-control, in-reach http://is.gd/jtBjs
• Dec 10 issue of Learning & Individual Differences 21(1) has special section on education of children in detention http://retwt.me/1QjrH
• Violence Against Women 16(12), includes special section on false allegations of sexual assault http://retwt.me/1QceY

See also:

• Law Journal of the Month – Oxford Journals offer free access to all content for one journal for one month http://retwt.me/1QcYq

Deception and interviewing

Scholarly articles:

• Thermal Imaging as a Lie Detection Tool at Airports http://retwt.me/1QhzC
• Influence of Investigator Bias on the Elicitation of True & False Confessions http://retwt.me/1QhzB
• Eliciting Cues to False Intent: A New Application of Strategic Interviewing http://retwt.me/1QhzA
• Looks & Lies: Physical Attractiveness in Online Dating Self-Presentation and Deception. Communication Research 37(3) http://retwt.me/1QgIz
• New research on fMRI-based deception detection measures’ vulnerability to countermeasures http://retwt.me/1QbCJ
• New research: Improving efficacy of Concealed Information Test? “Denoised P300 & machine learning-based CIT method” http://retwt.me/1QbCC
• Psychophysiological Response Pattern in Symptom Validity Testing Arch Clin Neurology http://retwt.me/1QbDE
• Free access: The Polygraph and Forensic Psychiatry (Don Grubin) J. American Academy of Psychiatry & Law http://retwt.me/1QggR
• Great write-up of a rare study of fMRI countermeasures (via @ResearchBlogs) How To Fool A Lie Detector Brain Scan http://goo.gl/fb/7oNFv

See also:

• Spotting liars: The Law of Sufficient Motivation, in Psychology Today http://retwt.me/1QgI9
• Article on fMRI in court is one of Nature News top stories of 2010. Well worth a (re)read. http://retwt.me/1QfBJ
• Cricket’s old boys are proposing lie detectors as a way to combat corruption: http://ht.ly/3q4KH Someone plse tell them it doesn’t work
• From Scientific American What Makes An Honest Smile Honest? http://bit.ly/hkX7HN
• RT @vaughanbell ” Fascinating @evbasedmummy piece on how and why parents lie to their children http://is.gd/ivosZ “
• RT @psypress Can deception be a life skill? http://bit.ly/e4jYYk
• RT @NeuroCog Beliefs, predictions and shortcuts in the deceitful brain (Uni of Cambridge article): http://bit.ly/eK1rVw
• RT @researchdigest Articles on cognitive neuroscience of confabulation, free access til Feb 28 (scroll down ->symposia) http://ht.ly/3qYl8
• RT @vaughanbell Frequent truth telling makes lying more difficult, but frequent lying makes lying easier. http://is.gd/hQeIM
• RT @readinglies Ocular motor deception detection technology http://secprodonline.com/articles/2010/09/01/seeing-through-the-lies.aspx
• Great summary of the DWP ‘Lie Detector’ trials from @Unity_MoT http://tinyurl.com/2366dlg
• “When volunteers suspected they were being lied to activity levels rose in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex” New Scientst http://retwt.me/1Qcgj

Video games and aggression

• How interacting with aggressive virtual characters in video games affects trust and cooperation of players http://retwt.me/1QhBJ
• Press release: “New study shows that depression, not video games, could be to blame for youth violence” http://retwt.me/1QbDr

Elsewhere in the forensic research literature

• Howard Zonana & the Transformation of Forensic Psychiatry J. American Academy Psychiatry & Law 38(4) http://retwt.me/1QggM
• Free access, explores propensity to blame female rape victims. Social Justice Research 23(4) http://retwt.me/1QggK
• Free access, investigating psychological dynamics underlying demonizing (seeing others as pure evil) http://retwt.me/1QggH
• Intelligence-led & traditional policing approaches to drug markets – comparison of offenders http://retwt.me/1QcYs
• Free research article on traumatic brain injury in male young offenders in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation 20(6) http://is.gd/iCayc
• Press release: link between an individual’s sensitivity to testosterone and aggressive behaviour http://retwt.me/1QbDp
• Press release: Preteen conduct problems leads to teenage serious violence and delinquency http://retwt.me/1QbDw

And:

• In December’s APA Monitor: Researchers disagree about whether violent video games increase aggression http://retwt.me/1QdVa
• Study fr Berkeley Ctr fr Crim Justice: Increasing Employment Opportunities for People with Prior Convictions http://retwt.me/1QbDD
• Online interactions involving suspected paedophiles who engage male children http://tinyurl.com/3ygu8ls
• ‘Impulsivity gene’ found in violent offenders. New Scientist 23 December 2010 http://retwt.me/1QgIB

See also:

• Compendium of reoffending statistics & analysis – selection of papers summarising analysis by Ministry of Justice http://retwt.me/1QbDo
• Call for chapter proposals – Police and Protesters: Motives and Responses http://retwt.me/1PZzP
• “Scared Straight not only doesn’t work, it may actually be more harmful than doing nothing” via World of Psychology http://retwt.me/1PUpf
• RT @vaughanbell Excellent @chriscfrench piece on how UK prosecutions have been based entirely on ‘recovered memories’ http://is.gd/hLwgP
• New (to me) blog on false Confessions (HT to @cjprof) http://retwt.me/1Qhzu

If you've seen the photos of crumbling Detroit buildings that are being circulated lately, you'd probably expect the whole city to be full of miserable, despairing people, a place where a suicide rate of zero is unthinkable. Think again! Detroit is struggling but not nearly as badly as those photos suggest, and this Crain's article on the Henry Ford Health System that serves southeast Michigan suggests that "perfect" depression care is entirely possible even in an area that's going through tough times:

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As Christmas and New Year's draw closer, many of us are bracing for changes to our routines that could shake anyone's mental health. Travel and jetlag, a break from the rigid schedule of work or school, meals at unusual times, and the distractions of family can all contribute to forgetting to take medication. Many therapists and other mental health providers are out of reach while they enjoy their own celebrations (and hard-earned rest). Holiday stress may worsen mental health conditions, and while holiday joy is a wonderful thing, January can be a real let-down.

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The news that made me happiest in the last few weeks is here: Government abandons lie detector tests for catching benefit cheats (The Guardian, 9 Nov):

The government has dropped plans to introduce controversial lie detector tests to catch benefit fraudsters after trials found that the technology is not sufficiently reliable. The Department for Work and Pensions has given up on “voice risk analysis” (VRA) software after spending £2.16m on trials to assess whether the technology can identify people who are trying to fiddle the system when it eavesdrops on their telephone calls to benefit offices.

Though obviously it would have been good if they hadn’t had to spend £2.16 million to find that out.

Freebies

Open access to Springer journals means you can grab some good deception research for free, but only until 30 November (so hurry) :

• Interviewers outperform thermal imaging technology in identifying liars & truth-tellers. Great study, FREE til 30/11 http://is.gd/hxePN
• Police Lie Detection Accuracy: The Effect of Lie Scenario from Law & Human Behavior 33(6) Free access til 30 Nov http://retwt.me/1Pl5J
• The Reliability of Lie Detection Performance in Law & Human Behavior 2009, currently free access til 30 Nov PDF: http://retwt.me/1Pl6M
• Outsmarting the Liars: The Benefit of Asking Unanticipated Questions in Law & Human Behavior 2009, currently free access PDF: http://retwt.me/1Pl6l

You can also bag a free copy of new research on trust and deception courtesy of Sage Publishing:

• Carter, N., & Mark Weber, J. (2010). Not Pollyannas: Higher Generalized Trust Predicts Lie Detection Ability Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1 (3), 274-279 http://retwt.me/1PyQX

Not free (as far as I can tell) but looking interesting:

• Jo Are You Lying to Me? Temporal Cues for Deception — Journal of Language and Social Psychology http://retwt.me/1PORv
• In press: Role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in deception when remembering neutral & emotional events Neurosci Res http://is.gd/hxdN4
• Neat new study on deceptive groups: Extracting Concealed Information from Groups in J. of Forensic Sciences. http://retwt.me/1PO2N
• Aw, bless. New research in Psychol Science 21(10) shows 3-yr-olds have highly robust bias to trust what people say. http://is.gd/g5hB2
• Fascinating in press article on how honesty is rewarded and deception punished across cultures, in Pers Soc Psychol Bull http://is.gd/g5h3s
• Articles on reality monitoring, deceptive handwriting (ok, this one is free) & false memory in latest issue of Applied Cog Psy 24(8) http://is.gd/g5iAc

And some other miscellaneous articles and blog posts:

• In The Job Hunt, People Do Lie, But Honesty Pays Off, Study Finds http://retwt.me/1PyQd
• Misguided: Polygraphs provide false reassurance. Sigh. “Polygraph Testing Against Border Corruption” via Secrecy News http://retwt.me/1Pr4k
• To detect lies it’s equally as important to be able to detect when someone is being truthful. http://retwt.me/1Pr3Q via @humintell
• Blog post from @humintell on interesting new research: Are Children Good Liars? http://retwt.me/1Pr3k
• Is It Always Bad To Lie? Review of a new book on deception, via http://retwt.me/1POR5

A month’s worth of tweets in one post (I know, I know, but I’ve been away).

New journal issues

Free:

Others:

• • Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Volume 26, Number 4 http://retwt.me/1PORx
• Journal of Family Violence, Volume 25, Number 8 http://retwt.me/1PORw
• Critical Criminology 18(4). Special Issue on Green Criminology. http://retwt.me/1PORt
• International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 33(5-6) http://retwt.me/1PORs
• Policing 4(4). Special issue on police corruption. http://retwt.me/1PORg
• Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 16(4) http://retwt.me/1PORf
• Homicide Studies November 2010, 14 (4) http://retwt.me/1PySs
• Special Issue of Journal of Experimental Criminology [6(4)]: Experimental Studies of Violence Against Women http://retwt.me/1PyQI
• Crime, Law & Social Change 54(2). Special Issue: The Present and Future of Left Realism http://retwt.me/1PrU6
• Violence Against Women 16 (10) http://retwt.me/1PrU2
• Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 49(7) http://is.gd/gwiwL
• Aggression & Violent Behavior 14(6). Ethics, female offenders, child abuse, IPV, PTSD, & athletics (rly) http://retwt.me/mvdD

Journal articles that caught my eye

• New research on traumatic brain injury in youth offenders – balanced press release here: http://retwt.me/1POQI
• Psychological science & sound public policy: Video recording of custodial interrogations American Psychologist 65(8) http://is.gd/hwocg
• In press: social status of drug procurers & their social distance from drug dealers affects sales, fraud & gift-giving http://retwt.me/1PyRR
• Interactional norms in the Australian police interrogation room Discourse & Society 21(6) http://retwt.me/1PyQH
• Women’s testimony on domestic violence in India & legal implications. Indian J of Gender Studies 17(3) http://retwt.me/1PyQg
• Forensic evidence: Materializing bodies, materializing crimes. European J of Women’s Studies 17(4) http://retwt.me/1PyQf
• Child abuse victims who blame themselves & families present higher rates of PTSD http://retwt.me/1Pr3i

New deception research and commentary:

• Sanity at last. “Government abandons lie detector tests for catching benefit cheats” http://is.gd/gXtqI
• Jo Are You Lying to Me? Temporal Cues for Deception — Journal of Language and Social Psychology http://retwt.me/1PORv
• Is It Always Bad To Lie? Review of a new book on deception, via http://retwt.me/1POR5
• Interviewers outperform thermal imaging technology in identifying liars & truth-tellers. Great study, FREE til 30/11 http://is.gd/hxePN
• In press: Role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in deception when remembering neutral & emotional events Neurosci Res http://is.gd/hxdN4
• Neat new study on deceptive groups: Extracting Concealed Information from Groups in J. of Forensic Sciences. http://retwt.me/1PO2N
• “Trusting people make better lie detectors” from SAGE Insight. Includes link to free PDF of journal article http://retwt.me/1PyQX
• In The Job Hunt, People Do Lie, But Honesty Pays Off, Study Finds http://retwt.me/1PyQd
• Misguided: Polygraphs provide false reassurance. Sigh. “Polygraph Testing Against Border Corruption” via Secrecy News http://retwt.me/1Pr4k
• To detect lies it’s equally as important to be able to detect when someone is being truthful. http://retwt.me/1Pr3Q via @humintell
• Blog post from @humintell on interesting new research: Are Children Good Liars? http://retwt.me/1Pr3k

Research and resources on terrorism and counter-terrorism

• Methods to Detect and Characterize Terrorist activity, report from Institute for Homeland Sec Solutions http://retwt.me/1POQO
• Deradicalization: Literature review and comparison with research on anti-cult and anti-gang initiatives http://retwt.me/1POQN
• The Impact of Emotion in the American Public’s Assessments of and Reactions to Terrorism, summary and link to full txt http://retwt.me/1POQL
• via Resource shelf: Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism Suicide Attack Database http://retwt.me/1Pr42

Retweets and other miscellaneous links

• @PhilipBecnel’s article in Pursuit Magazine called “A Private Investigator’s Take on Social Media”: http://bit.ly/cqfz0r
• RT @vaughanbell What makes a psychopath? http://is.gd/hq2f9 The Economist on recent findings.
• @navarrotells Four opportunities to detect deception in an interview: http://bit.ly/braLm1 in Psychology Today
• Mental illness in US prisons – video via @channelNvideo http://retwt.me/1Pr41
• The awesome @kfranklinphd explains what it takes to become a forensic psychologist at her new Psychology Today blog http://retwt.me/1Pr3l

The American Psychiatric Association (not to be confused with the American Psychological Association) has released new treatment guidelines for depression. According to Medscape Today, the guidelines include:

• A clinician- and/or patient-administered rating scale for psychiatric symptoms to help with treatment strategies;
• A recommendation for the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT or "shock therapy") to treat depression if many other treatments have been tried unsuccessfully, along with monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), transcranial magnetic stimulation, and vagus nerve stimulation as other potential options;
• Aerobic exercise or resistance training to improve mood symptoms, especially in older adults with other physical or mental illness; and
• Consideration of long-term maintenance treatment, especially for patients at risk for recurrence.

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Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that infects mice and makes them less afraid of cats. The fearless mice are more likely to be eaten by cats, and the parasite reproduces in the cats' digestive tract. Toxoplasma's ability to alter mouse behavior has led to a bit of evidence and a lot of theories about how human brains might be affected by the parasite. Since about a third of adult humans worldwide have toxoplasmosis, this is a pretty important question.

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May is Mental Health Month.

Across the country the National Alliance on Mental Illness will be hosting walks and other events to address the need for an improved mental health treatment program.

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Five years ago today, we made the first post that would eventually make its way onto a blog called Cognitive Daily. We thought we were keeping notes for a book, but in reality we were helping build a network that represented a new way of sharing psychology with the world. Cognitive Daily wasn't the first psychology blog, but clearly it filled an important niche, because within a year, we were receiving over 30,000 page views a month. Now we often get over 100,000 page views a month, and we've totaled over four million. We reach many more people than would ever have bought our book, and we've made many people aware that psychology is much more than Sigmund Freud.

Now, it's time to say goodbye to that. We are permanently closing Cognitive Daily, and this will be our last post.

While we won't be here, we've seen a number of exceptional psychology blogs join us in sharing the science of psychology with the world, and we encourage you to visit them. Rather than single any of these blogs out, we ask that you visit Dave's ongoing project, ResearchBlogging.org. There, by clicking on the "Psychology" and "Neuroscience" channels, you can find nearly 100 blogs that regularly discuss peer-reviewed research in the same fields we've been covering here. You can also follow dedicated psychology and neuroscience RSS feeds, or the @researchblogs twitter feed, to get an even broader view of what's going on in the world of science.

We're grateful to many, many people who have helped make Cognitive Daily great. There are too many to mention by name, but without the many scientists who provided the raw materials, the bloggers who've helped share ideas, and the administrators and techies who've made it all work, this blog simply couldn't exist. And, of course, without our readers and commenters, Cognitive Daily probably wouldn't have been around for more than a few months. You've inspired us, motivated us, corrected us, disputed us, informed us, and responded to more polls and surveys than we ever imagined possible. We hope you'll continue to find Cognitive Daily useful; the archives will remain here for all to see.

What will we do with all that time we've freed up? Greta plans to continue her work as Professor of Psychology at Davidson College, teaching and mentoring students, conducting research, and sharing her love of music, literature, and art. Dave will continue as editor of ResearchBlogging.org and weekly columnist for SEEDMAGAZINE.COM, and he'll maintain his personal blog, Word Munger and his obsessively-updated Twitter account. In addition, Dave's planning a new project, to be unveiled within the next few weeks. Look for more information about it on Twitter and Word Munger. In addition, Dave's now launched a new blog, The Daily Monthly. Check there for a new post every day, a new topic each month.

Thanks again for being a part of Cognitive Daily. It's been an amazing ride.

Take a listen to this brief audio clip of "Unforgettable."

Aside from the fact that it's a computer-generated MIDI performance, do you hear anything unusual?

If you're a non-musician like me, you might not have noticed anything. It sounds basically like the familiar song, even though the synthesized sax isn't nearly as pleasing as the familiar Nat King Cole version of the song. But most trained musicians can't listen to a song like this without cringing. Why? Because the music has been made "bitonal" by moving the accompanying piano part up two semitones (a semitone is the difference between a "natural" note and a sharp or flat). Here's the original, unaltered piece:

Can you tell the difference? A 2000 study led by R.S. Wolpert found that non-musicians couldn't distinguish between monotonal and bitonal music played side-by-side. Meanwhile musicians found artificially-created bitonal music to be almost unlistenable. For most non-musicians, if they heard anything wrong with the clips, they typically said they were being played too fast, or mentioned some other unrelated concept.

But Mayumi Hamamoto, Mauro Bothelo, and Margaret Munger (AKA Greta) wondered if years of musical training were really necessary for non-musicians to hear bitonal music. Bitonality is actually a bit controversial in the world of music, and it can be a little hard to define. In principle, there's a difference between bitonality and just playing or singing off-key, but in practice, the difference may not even exist. Advocates of bitonality like to point to the works of composers like Milhaud, Bartók, Prokofiev, and Strauss. These composers deliberately wrote in two different musical keys. But how is that different from occasionally or regularly writing dissonant chords? After all, all the same notes can be written using any musical key. To be truly bitonal, advocates say the two separate parts must unfold independently in different keys. This results in a distinctive "crunch" when the music is played. The separate question is, is this noticeable? Wolpert's work shows that it is, at least for trained musicians.

Thirteen people were killed and several more wounded in a shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday.

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The Watercooler Diaries has just released this story on Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) for depression. See what you think.

Update:

Here are some additional links to TLC-related content you may find of interest:

1) Los Angeles Times story

2) In-depth piece in KU Alumni Magazine

3) Neuroscene podcast interview with Dr. Ilardi

4) Kansas City Star story on TLC, picked up by national newswires

5) Radio interview with Dr. Ilardi

Counters

The villain in this story is Toxoplasma gondii, a microscopic parasite that likes to take up temporary residence inside the brain and muscle tissue of warm-blooded animals. Once safely lodged inside the brain, Toxoplasma orchestrates a series of subtle neurological changes in the host. This process has numerous effects on the infected animal's behavior - effects that are especially pronounced in rodents. Afflicted mice and rats become fearless and disinhibited, and they exhibit particular boldness around housecats. Instead of avoiding cats at all costs (as any sane rodent would do), infected mice and rats will charge straight at a feline nemesis. It's a sure-fire strategy for winding up as cat chow, especially given the parasite's annoying tendency to induce slowed reaction times in its host.

If we didn't know any better, we might guess that Toxoplasma is trying to commandeer the rodent's body, to use it as a delivery vehicle to get itself inside a cat . . . and, in a very real sense, this is exactly what's going on. For it turns out that Toxoplasma can only reproduce effectively inside the feline small intestine. Its offspring can then hitch a ride back out into the world encased in cat feces, from which they make their way into the ground and then on into the body of any animal that happens to ingest them. Often the unsuspecting critter is something a cat can then prey on, after which the entire reproductive cycle repeats itself . . . Over the millenia, Toxoplasma has evolved a remarkable ability to make its way back inside cats to reproduce - primarily through altering the brain function of its temporary non-feline hosts.

Now, by this point in the story, some of you are no doubt wondering, "Hey, wait a minute; haven't I heard of this parasite somewhere before? Isn't it the one that causes toxoplasmosis, that disease pregnant women can catch from cats and pass on to their babies?"

Indeed it is. Fortunately, though, the best research suggests that Toxoplasma infection is no more likely among cat owners than it is among the general population, so the risk of contact with cats appears to be minimal. Medical experts do, however, urge some caution when cleaning out a litter box, as Toxoplasma is readily transmitted to humans through the accidental ingestion of cat feces. (As if such an unsavory fate weren't bad enough!)

1) Just as Toxoplasma reduces reaction times in rodents - presumably, to make them easier for cats to catch - it also makes people react more slowly. In fact, infected individuals are at much higher risk of experiencing an automobile accident. (And remember, most people who have contracted Toxoplasma are completely oblivious to the fact.)

2) Women infected with Toxoplasma experience a suite of changes that might be considered generally positive. They tend to be very kindly, and to exhibit, on average, slightly higher IQ, conscientiousness, warmth, generosity, and guilt-proneness. Why in the world would the parasite engender these particular effects? Well, anything Toxoplasma can do to aid and abet its genetic kin will be subject to evolutionary selection pressure, since this will still effectively help pass along its genes. Thus, Toxoplasma appears to be trying to turn its female hosts into people who will be particularly nice to cats - aka, "cat ladies!"

3) Men, on the other hand, have a completely different set of reactions to Toxoplasma infection. They experience reduced IQ and initiative, and tend to become more stoic, laid-back, and slow-tempered. In other words, they become just the sort of guys who would be unlikely to interfere with their "cat lady" wives, to hinder them from tending to their brood of adoring felines!

Now, having outlined this array of creepy Toxoplasma effects, I need to give the following disclaimer: these effects on personality are often fairly subtle, and many infected individuals exhibit no measurable effects at all.

Nevertheless, the obvious question for each of us is: what if I'm infected, and if so, what can be done about it? I am duty-bound to urge you to consult with your physician on this one. Certainly, there are fairly straightforward blood tests that can determine whether or not you have Toxoplasma antibodies in your system (which would in turn indicate whether or not you've ever had an active infection, in which case it's likely that you would still have Toxoplasma cysts in muscle and nervous tissue).

There are a number of different antibiotics that seem to have at least some effect in combating the Toxoplasma cysts in the brain, although at this point it's premature to say that any single drug (or combination) is a guaranteed cure. Given the enormous potential public health implications of this issue - which is just now coming to widespread attention - I think it's safe to say that finding a reliable way to eradicate Toxoplasma will become a high clinical research priority in the years ahead.

Counters

Bonnie Burton is a trauma survivor who writes about therapy from the inside. As a gifted writer, she conveys some essential truths about the process of therapy, and shatters some stereotypes along the way. Her experiences with good therapists and not-so-good therapists are essential reading for client and therapist alike.

Ms. Burton's own experience of therapy convinces her, for example, that trauma survivors don't always make the best trauma therapists. This is especially true if they never completed their own therapy. She has seen them react with fear and dissociation in response to traumatic material or negative emotions expressed in a session.

While we don't learn who her current therapist is, it is clear that they are working together toward healing. She writes with clarity and maturity; and without a chip on her shoulder. It is a privilege to publish an article from a guest author who is such an articulate therapy client. This article will help me be a better therapist.

Read Bonnie Burton's insightful article.