 
Published on May 25, 2010
This post is a response to Money Buys Unhappiness, Proven in a New Study by R. Douglas Fields
Science cannot prove anything. The word “proven” is a clear sign that you are no longer in the province of science, rather you are in the province of people with an agenda. Be wary! But we can find evidence strongly in favor of one idea compared with another. The idea that money leads to happiness or unhappiness is a soundbite. Perfect for a radio advertisement. Ridiculous if you are trying to describe decades of research on the topic. You want a soundbite? Whether money leads to happiness or unhappiness depends on how you spend your money.
Want to dive into the research? If you live in a household that earns more than $40,000 per year, increases in income have a miniscule impact on happiness. You can afford taking your child to the emergency room when the knife misses the bagel and slices through the soft tendons in their fingers. Unlike families with less income, you are not required to do a cost-benefit analysis of whether taking your child to the hospital is worth living on bologna and water for the next week. This leads to my first commonsense point.
Read in Full:Â http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/curious/201005/does-money-influence-happiness-depends-how-you-spend-your-cash
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 25, 2010
A new study suggests that despite warnings, some drugs used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders are still being used.
According to researchers from the University of British Columbia, the drugs are frequently prescribed for baby boomers, despite warnings against long-term use.
Published online in the journal Health Policy, the study by researchers at UBC’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) is the first of its kind to examine the use of benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Ativan for an entire population over time.
It’s also the first to pinpoint the socioeconomic characteristics associated with long-term users of such drugs.
Results show that seniors and low-income earners are more likely to be long-term users of benzodiazepines, with rates remaining steady over a 10-year period. Meanwhile, use among the middle-aged population has increased.
Harms associated with long-term use (more than 100 days in a year) can include dependence and tolerance, cognitive impairment, and increased risks of falls in the elderly.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/25/some-anxiety-meds-overprescribed/14050.html
Â
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 25, 2010
A new study suggests that despite warnings, some drugs used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders are still being used.
According to researchers from the University of British Columbia, the drugs are frequently prescribed for baby boomers, despite warnings against long-term use.
Published online in the journal Health Policy, the study by researchers at UBC’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) is the first of its kind to examine the use of benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Ativan for an entire population over time.
It’s also the first to pinpoint the socioeconomic characteristics associated with long-term users of such drugs.
Results show that seniors and low-income earners are more likely to be long-term users of benzodiazepines, with rates remaining steady over a 10-year period. Meanwhile, use among the middle-aged population has increased.
Harms associated with long-term use (more than 100 days in a year) can include dependence and tolerance, cognitive impairment, and increased risks of falls in the elderly.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/25/some-anxiety-meds-overprescribed/14050.html
 
24 May, 2010.
Time gets faster the older you are. Or does it? When William Friedman and Steve Janssen asked 49 New Zealand undergrads (average age 21) and 50 older adults (average age 68) to say how fast time passed for them, including the last week, month and year, very few differences emerged. Most participants felt time passed quickly but it was only when considering the speed of the last ten years that the older adults said time had gone by more quickly than the younger participants, and even here the effect of age was small.
This finding, and another like it involving German and Austrian participants published in 2005, casts doubt on some of the classic explanations for time speeding up with age, including William James’ suggestion that time feels slower when younger because it is packed with more memorable events. If true, you’d expect the effect to apply over time periods shorter than ten years.
Friedman and Janssen’s initial study also undermined a novel explanation for time speeding up known as ‘telescoping’. This is the idea that time feels faster when we look back on past events and discover that we underestimated how long ago they occurred. Earlier in the study, the researchers had asked their participants to estimate when 12 newsworthy events from the past had occurred, including Saddam Hussein’s capture in 2003. By giving them false feedback on their accuracy, the researchers exaggerated or reduced the telescoping effect but this didn’t have any effect on participants’ subsequent ratings of how fast time goes by.
Â
24 May, 2010.
Time gets faster the older you are. Or does it? When William Friedman and Steve Janssen asked 49 New Zealand undergrads (average age 21) and 50 older adults (average age 68) to say how fast time passed for them, including the last week, month and year, very few differences emerged. Most participants felt time passed quickly but it was only when considering the speed of the last ten years that the older adults said time had gone by more quickly than the younger participants, and even here the effect of age was small.
This finding, and another like it involving German and Austrian participants published in 2005, casts doubt on some of the classic explanations for time speeding up with age, including William James’ suggestion that time feels slower when younger because it is packed with more memorable events. If true, you’d expect the effect to apply over time periods shorter than ten years.
Friedman and Janssen’s initial study also undermined a novel explanation for time speeding up known as ‘telescoping’. This is the idea that time feels faster when we look back on past events and discover that we underestimated how long ago they occurred. Earlier in the study, the researchers had asked their participants to estimate when 12 newsworthy events from the past had occurred, including Saddam Hussein’s capture in 2003. By giving them false feedback on their accuracy, the researchers exaggerated or reduced the telescoping effect but this didn’t have any effect on participants’ subsequent ratings of how fast time goes by.
 
Following up on last week’s entry on Psychology going digital in the form of iPhone apps, as promised, I downloaded several Psychology and Psychotherapy related apps and tried them out. The first batch of apps I looked at were apps for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and their promising names were iCBT, eCBTmood, and CBTReferee.Â
To give you some background, the idea in CBT is that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors mutually influence each other. In other words, what I think (or, simply put, the things I say to myself throughout the day) will influence how I feel, and how I feel will influence what I think. Hence, our interpretation of events in our lives influences our emotional reaction to the events. We all have automatic ways of thinking to ourselves that sometimes are a little biased, or, let’s say, “distorted.†For instance, if I walk down the street and trip, and stranger smiles, I could interpret this as “She is making fun of me and things I am stupid.†Alternatively, I could interpret it as “She smiling at me sympathetically†or “She is having a good day and his smile has nothing to do with me.â€Â Depending on people’s interpretation, their reactions to the exact same event can be quite different.
Read in Full: http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=37186&cn=8
Â
Following up on last week’s entry on Psychology going digital in the form of iPhone apps, as promised, I downloaded several Psychology and Psychotherapy related apps and tried them out. The first batch of apps I looked at were apps for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and their promising names were iCBT, eCBTmood, and CBTReferee.Â
To give you some background, the idea in CBT is that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors mutually influence each other. In other words, what I think (or, simply put, the things I say to myself throughout the day) will influence how I feel, and how I feel will influence what I think. Hence, our interpretation of events in our lives influences our emotional reaction to the events. We all have automatic ways of thinking to ourselves that sometimes are a little biased, or, let’s say, “distorted.†For instance, if I walk down the street and trip, and stranger smiles, I could interpret this as “She is making fun of me and things I am stupid.†Alternatively, I could interpret it as “She smiling at me sympathetically†or “She is having a good day and his smile has nothing to do with me.â€Â Depending on people’s interpretation, their reactions to the exact same event can be quite different.
Read in Full: http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=37186&cn=8
 
By JENNIFER FITCH
May 23, 2010
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Temple Grandin laughs at the way her autistic mind works and laughs at the ways she thinks a normal mind could perhaps process information better with autism.
It’s in this disarming manner that the author and associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University presents important theories about achieving success when living with autism-spectrum disorders.
“The autistic person’s world is a world of detail. In fact, scientific research shows the normal mind tends to drop out detail, and that can be very, very disastrous in a lot of engineering things and scientific things,†Grandin said. “If you are building a bridge, you better see the details.â€
Grandin served as Wilson College’s commencement speaker on Sunday. College officials said they received an overwhelming response after announcing Grandin’s visit, with requests pouring in from community members who wanted to hear her speak.
“I’m thrilled,†graduate Karen (Ryland) Wurster said.
Wurster, of Mount Airy, Md., started a therapeutic riding business, Gaits of Hope, to work with children who have special needs. Autistic children hold a special place in her heart.
Wurster had already read all of Grandin’s books before meeting her the night before commencement.
“She’s wonderful,†Wurster said.
Grandin, one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People for 2010, was played by actress Claire Danes in an HBO film based on her life. The movie addressed how a science teacher mentored Grandin, starting her on a path toward changing the ways cattle are handled.
Autistic individuals live in a detailed sensory world, much like animals, Grandin said. Attention to detail allowed her to analyze what cows see, hear and smell when they’re in equipment like chutes, she said.
“I’m a total visual thinker. I think in pictures, like Google for images,†she said.
Grandin mentioned to the Wilson College audience how she built an optical-illusion room as portrayed in the movie.
“I was interested to find out the stage crew for the movie had a hard time building it, even though they had drawings off the Internet,†she said to laughter.
“Different, quirky kids†need to get involved in shared interests like horseback riding, art and science, Grandin said.
“I think it’s a shame a lot of high schools are taking out the hands-on classes,†she said, saying she is also concerned about a lack of science teachers in schools.
Some of the great minds in the past, such as Albert Einstein’s, and those in the present actually benefit in some ways from autism, according to Grandin.
“One of the problems you have with autism is you aren’t all that social. You wouldn’t have any geeks in Silicon Valley if you didn’t have just a little bit of autism,†Grandin said. “Social circuits take up a lot of space in the brain, and you run out of room for good, fun geek stuff.â€
Source:Â http://www.herald-mail.com/?story_id=245950&cmd=displaystory
Â
By JENNIFER FITCH
May 23, 2010
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Temple Grandin laughs at the way her autistic mind works and laughs at the ways she thinks a normal mind could perhaps process information better with autism.
It’s in this disarming manner that the author and associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University presents important theories about achieving success when living with autism-spectrum disorders.
“The autistic person’s world is a world of detail. In fact, scientific research shows the normal mind tends to drop out detail, and that can be very, very disastrous in a lot of engineering things and scientific things,†Grandin said. “If you are building a bridge, you better see the details.â€
Grandin served as Wilson College’s commencement speaker on Sunday. College officials said they received an overwhelming response after announcing Grandin’s visit, with requests pouring in from community members who wanted to hear her speak.
“I’m thrilled,†graduate Karen (Ryland) Wurster said.
Wurster, of Mount Airy, Md., started a therapeutic riding business, Gaits of Hope, to work with children who have special needs. Autistic children hold a special place in her heart.
Wurster had already read all of Grandin’s books before meeting her the night before commencement.
“She’s wonderful,†Wurster said.
Grandin, one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People for 2010, was played by actress Claire Danes in an HBO film based on her life. The movie addressed how a science teacher mentored Grandin, starting her on a path toward changing the ways cattle are handled.
Autistic individuals live in a detailed sensory world, much like animals, Grandin said. Attention to detail allowed her to analyze what cows see, hear and smell when they’re in equipment like chutes, she said.
“I’m a total visual thinker. I think in pictures, like Google for images,†she said.
Grandin mentioned to the Wilson College audience how she built an optical-illusion room as portrayed in the movie.
“I was interested to find out the stage crew for the movie had a hard time building it, even though they had drawings off the Internet,†she said to laughter.
“Different, quirky kids†need to get involved in shared interests like horseback riding, art and science, Grandin said.
“I think it’s a shame a lot of high schools are taking out the hands-on classes,†she said, saying she is also concerned about a lack of science teachers in schools.
Some of the great minds in the past, such as Albert Einstein’s, and those in the present actually benefit in some ways from autism, according to Grandin.
“One of the problems you have with autism is you aren’t all that social. You wouldn’t have any geeks in Silicon Valley if you didn’t have just a little bit of autism,†Grandin said. “Social circuits take up a lot of space in the brain, and you run out of room for good, fun geek stuff.â€
Source:Â http://www.herald-mail.com/?story_id=245950&cmd=displaystory
Jan
22
 
Reported by: Sherry Christian
Email: sherrychristian@cbs21.com
Last Update: 5/24 8:47 am
A part time job at Royer’s flower shop on Queen street in Lancaster has helped 22-year old Laura Pavlovic improve her social skills.
Difficulty picking up on social cues is one of the challenges people with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of Autism, have.
And as a result, “Aspie’s” as they are affectionately called can often be isolated.
But, as a child, Laura had her mother’s help taking her to doctor’s appointments and activities that are paid for by the state.
Once Laura turned 21, funding for education, therapies and other support that exist for children, ceased for the adult Laura.
But in the state of Pennsylvania
, there are programs geared specifically for adults — which don’t exist in other states.
One of the programs is ACAP — or Adult Community Autism Program.
Read in Full:Â http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story/UPDATE-Adult-Autism-Program/Qegcl9hrqk2vUZijPFPSZA.cspx