news 2015

Charismatic business leaders can cause their followers to suppress emotions, which can harm companies over the long term, according to new research. Remember that even the most charismatic person is only human. Jochen Menges While charismatic leaders may be magnetic, they can cause their followers to suppress emotions, which can harm companies through increased strain, lower job satisfaction and reduced information exchange among employees, according to new research from the University of Cambridge.

Fish react emotionally to stress, indicating a degree of consciousness, a ground-breaking new study, led by scientists at the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture and co-authored by Professor Toby Knowles of the University of Bristol, has found. For the first time in fish, the team scientifically demonstrated that exposure to stress resulted in 'emotional fever' - where fish temporarily increased their body temperatures by up to four degrees Celsius by moving through a thermal gradient.

A new study from UCL and King's College London has revealed that 7.5 per cent of adults in a South London sample could be diagnosed as having an eating disorder. The clinical criteria surrounding eating disorders recently changed with the introduction of the fifth and latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals across the world.

David Greenberg (Department of Psychology) discusses how musical preferences are linked to thinking styles. We're exposed to music for nearly 20% of our waking lives. But much of our musical experience seems to be a mystery.

A National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded study by public health experts from the University of Liverpool has found that the programme of reassessing people on disability benefits may have had an adverse effect on the mental health of claimants. In England between 2010 and 2013, just over one million recipients of the main out-of-work disability benefit had their eligibility reassessed using a new functional checklist-the Work Capability Assessment.

Mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety are likely to increase in UK military personnel during the months after returning from Afghanistan, according to a study by researchers from King's Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London.

A new study by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London provides the first clinical evidence on the toll human trafficking has on mental health, including high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, amongst a patient population in South London.

Dan Denis, PhD student in the University of Sheffield's Department of Psychology, comments on the causes of sleep paralysis and what treatments may be available for the condition in the near future. Understanding sleep paralysis: a terrifying but unique state of consciousness By Dan Denis, 5 October 2015, posted on The Conversation "I awake in bed.

University of Sheffield helps to launch the Institute of Inertia to examine the truth behind behaviour costing the UK £7.6bn New institute will explore why we do things that can cost us our time, health and money and find strategies to make us better off 53 per cent of people admit to never having switched a household utility despite almost a quarter of them (24 per cent) worrying about their finances at least once a week There are differ

A study of nearly a million tweets from over 10,000 Twitter users has found that liberals swear more, conservatives are more likely to talk about religion, and liberals use more individual words like "me" while conservatives opt more for the group-oriented "us". Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) studied tweets sent between 15 and 30 June 2014 by followers of either Republican (conservatives) or Democrat (liberals) party Twitter accounts, and found that you can tell a lot about someone's political leanings just from the words they use.

Pressure to be cool and look good is detrimental to many children The pressure to be cool, look good and own the 'right stuff' is detrimental to many children and teenagers, according to new research by University of Sussex psychologists. The study shows that, while many young people buy into consumer culture believing it will make them feel better about themselves and help them to make friends, often the reverse happens.

Lancaster University's Work Foundation has been commissioned to assess new health and wellbeing measures in a school, as part of a new pilot study by Nuffield Health. Over the next two years, researchers will be providing independent evaluation of Nuffield Health's school wellbeing pilot , which will explore the concept of a Head of Wellbeing post as an integral part of secondary school infrastructure.

A UCL-led lifelong study of people in England, Scotland and Wales has found that those who perceived their parents as more caring and less psychologically controlling during their childhood were likely to be happier and more satisfied throughout their lives. Care from both mother and father were found to be equally important predictors of participants' mental wellbeing through to middle age, although paternal care had a greater association with wellbeing in later life (age 60-64).

A new study conducted by the University of Warwick links being born premature with low wages. Researchers have identified a link between being born preterm and decreased intelligence, reading and in particular mathematical ability and have highlighted an effect on earnings into adulthood.

Young people who identify with the goth subculture might be at increased risk of depression and self-harm, according to new research led by academics at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. The findings show that teenagers who identified very strongly with being a goth at age 15 were three times more likely to be clinically depressed and were five times more likely to self-harm at age 18 than young people who did not identify with the goth subculture.

An international investigation into the reproducibility of psychological science by 270 researchers, including academics from the University of Bristol, is published today. Launched nearly four years ago, the Reproducibility Project: Psychology has produced the most comprehensive investigation ever into the rate and predictors of reproducibility in a field of science.

Young people who identify with the goth subculture might be at increased risk of depression and self-harm, according to new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. The findings show that teenagers who identified very strongly with being a goth at age 15 were three times more likely to be clinically depressed and were five times more likely to self-harm at age 18 than young people who did not identify with the goth subculture.

Research from the University of Warwick indicates that the IQ of adults born very premature or of very low birth weight can be predicted when they are just a toddler. The study was led by psychology researcher Professor Dieter Wolke. Previous studies have linked very premature birth and very low birth weight with impaired cognitive function from childhood and throughout adulthood.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have found that wild bonobos, our closest living relatives in the primate world, communicate in a similar manner to human infants, using a high-pitched call type, or 'peep', that requires context to be understood. The finding that bonobos use a type of call, that alters meaning depending on context, echoes the context independent manner in which human babies can also communicate.

Best friendships help disadvantaged teens overcome adversity, study shows A single supportive close friendship can help young people from low-income backgrounds to thrive in challenging circumstances, according to a new University of Sussex study. The research, led by psychologist Dr Rebecca Graber , is published in the British Journal of Psychology.