The learning styles myth, and the evidence-based study techniques that really work (spacing, testing yourself, teaching others) – it's Episode 13 of our PsychCrunch Podcast. Christian Jarrett speaks to Nate Kornell, Paul Howard-Jones and Abby Knoll. Listen and download via iTunes and other popular services here: https://digest.bps.org.uk/…/episode-13-how-to-study-and-le…/

By Christian Jarrett For decades, personality psychologists have noticed a striking, consistent pattern: extraverts are happier more of the time than introverts. For anyone interested in promoting wellbeing, this has raised the question of whether it might be beneficial to encourage people to act more extraverted. Evidence to date has suggested it might. For example, regardless of their usual disposition, people tend to report feeling happier and more authentic whenever they are behaving more like an extravert (that is, more sociable, active and assertive). [ 986 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/first-trial-of-an-act-like-an-e…/

By Alex Fradera Workplace wellness programmes are an assemblage of wellbeing activities like yoga or cycling clubs, packaged together with diagnostic activities like biometric screenings; their aim is to reduce sickness, increase productivity and cut insurance costs for an organisation’s members. This is big business – in the USA, the market is around $8 billion – with a return-on-investment claim, thanks to a plethora of studies that tout the benefits of these programmes (for example, see this… [ 828 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/first-randomised-controlled-tri…/

By Emma Young That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… It’s an adage that’s backed up in part by studies of people who’ve been through a trauma, such as a car accident or a robbery. While it’s true that around 7-8 per cent of trauma survivors develop chronic PTSD and experience persistent intrusive, unwanted memories of the event, most people recover quickly, and some even report better mental health than they had before (generally when the trauma has been moderate, rather than severe). [ 697 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/for-some-experiencing-trauma-ma…/

By guest blogger Julia Gottwald The last time you and your class-mates or co-workers pulled an all-nighter before a deadline, you may have noticed: there are always those lucky individuals who seem to do just fine after a lack of sleep, while others feel drowsy and confused – almost like they had too much to drink. New research conducted at the German Aerospace Center suggests this could be because alcohol intoxication and sleep deprivation are more similar than we once thought. [ 990 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/new-findings-explain-why-if-you…/

By Christian Jarrett There's a popular idea in psychology that among the important factors shaping our honesty and generosity is our belief in the concept of free will. Believe more strongly in free will, so the theory goes, and you will be more inclined to prosocial behavior. Supporting this, studies that have momentarily undermined people's belief in free will – for instance, by giving them a text to read about genetic determinism, or about how neuroscience shows our decisions are out of conscious control – have found that this increases people's propensity for… [ 480 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/contrary-to-popular-psychologic…/

By Alex Fradera The phrase “sexual objectification” began popping up only 50 years ago, but it’s now ubiquitous, reflecting our concern that seeing someone sexually amounts to perceiving them as eye candy or a piece of meat. More recently, psychologists and neuroscientists have gathered evidence that sexualisation can literally lead us to perceive people less as whole humans and more as an assemblage of parts – the same way that the mind normally processes objects. [ 757 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/brainwave-study-suggests-sexual…/

By Emma Young Stimulants available on prescription such as Adderall improve cognitive functioning as well as attention in people with ADHD, but many students without this condition also take them, believing that they will act as “smart drugs” and boost their cognition, and so their academic performance. The limited research to date into whether this is actually the case has produced mixed results. [ 408 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/pilot-study-finds-smart-drug-ad…/

By guest blogger Jesse Singal If you wanted a poster child for the replication crisis and the controversy it has unleashed within the field of psychology, it would be hard to do much better than Fritz Strack’s findings. In 1988, the German psychologist and his colleagues published research that appeared to show that if your mouth is forced into a smile, you become a bit happier, and if it’s forced into a frown, you become a bit sadder. [ 1,282 more word ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/a-re-replication-of-a-psycholog…/

By Emma Young Juggling home and work commitments is never easy, and yet there’s been surprisingly little research into how either demands – or support – at home or work may spillover into the other context. Does a frustrating or combative workday negatively affect family life that evening, for instance? Or if your partner is emotionally supportive when you both get home, will you "pass it on", and be more supportive of colleagues the next day? [ 720 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/women-take-only-the-positive-fr…/

By Christian Jarrett The structured nature of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy/CBT and its clearly defined principles (based on the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviours) make it relatively easy to train practitioners, to ensure standardised delivery and to measure outcomes. Consequently, CBT has revolutionised mental health care, allowing psychologists to alchemize therapy from an art into a science. For many mental health conditions, there is now considerable evidence that CBT is as, or more, effective than drug treatments. [ 749 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/interviews-with-100-cbt-therapi…/

By Christian Jarrett Especially if you are in a long-term relationship your own sexual functioning is not a purely an individual matter but is bound up with your partner's. Previous research has looked at this dynamic, finding for example that people are generally happier with their sex lives when they have the perception that they and their partner are sexually compatible. [ 754 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/women-with-partners-high-in-tra…/

By guest blogger David Robson Take a moment to consider how old you feel. Not your actual, biological age – but your own subjective feelings. Abundant research during the past few decades have shown that this “subjective age” can be a powerful predictor of your health, including the risk of depression, diabetes and hypertension, dementia, and hospitalisation for illness and injury, and… [ 794 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/do-people-with-a-high-iq-age-mo…/

By Christian Jarrett When we say that our close friends have become a part of us, we're usually talking metaphorically. Yet prior research has shown there is a literal sense in which this is true. For instance, we're slower at judging whether given personality traits apply to us or our friends, compared with when judging whether traits belong to us or someone we're not close to – it's as if our friends' traits and our own have somehow become shared. [ 400 more words ]
http://digest.bps.org.uk/…/close-friends-become-absorbed-i…/