Mental Health & Wellbeing

Talking To A Therapist Can Literally Rewire Your Brain

If you can change the way you think, you can change your brain. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that challenging unhealthy thought patterns with the help of a therapist can lead to measurable changes in brain activity. In the study, psychologists at King’s College London show that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy strengthens certain [...]

How To Tell If Your Child’s Educational Needs Are Being Met At School

As a new school year begins, your child will most likely have a new teacher. With a new teacher comes a new opportunity for your child to learn the academic and personal skills important for school - and beyond. From an educational psychology perspective, there are lots of ways teachers greatly influence children’s outcomes. These [...]

Which Personality Traits Are Most Predictive Of Wellbeing?

We all want more well-being in our lives. But which traits are most likely to be associated with well-being? This is an important question because it can help inform our decision to cultivate some aspects of our being over others, and can even inform culture-wide interventions to increase societal levels of well-being. The 5 Personal [...]

Youngest In Class Twice As Likely To Take ADHD Medication

New research has found the youngest children in West Australian primary school classes are twice as likely as their oldest classmates to receive medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the research analysed data for 311,384 WA schoolchildren, of whom 5,937 received at least one government subsidised ADHD prescription [...]

Is There Such A Thing As An Emotional Hangover?

Emotional experiences can induce physiological and internal brain states that persist for long periods of time after the emotional events have ended, a team of New York University scientists has found. This study, which appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience, also shows that this emotional “hangover” influences how we attend to and remember future experiences. [...]

10 Reasons Some of Us Should Cut Back on Alcohol

At this time of year, alcohol promotions, sales and consumption are prominent. Many of us enjoy celebrating a year ended, work and family gatherings, a holiday and a time to kick back and relax. But it can also be a time when we experience adverse consequences of our own or someone else’s drinking. Many of [...]

Growing Up Young

Has adolescence ever been harder for girls, as they enter a world where appearance rivals achievement, and judgement is only a social media comment away? Meet some young women who are navigating this tricky moment in their lives. According to Holly, 15: If I leave the house without make-up, I don't feel as much myself. [...]

This is What A Few Hours of Gaming Does to Boys’ Mental Health

Boys who regularly play video games are more than twice as likely to have emotional and behavioural problems in childhood, but girls aren't similarly affected. This is one of the findings from the first large population-based study to show clear links between mental health and the amount of time spent using TV, video games and [...]

Children Learn Empathy Growing Up, But Can We Train Adults to Have More of It?

Some people are genetically inclined to be highly empathic or not. But, generally, we develop empathy as children, primarily through observing how others show it. We may be on the receiving end of expressions of empathy and come to value it for the emotional benefits it had for us. Then we may show empathy ourselves [...]

Listening Is Not Enough to Mitigate the Malady of Modernity

Any simple time-and-motion study in our homes, workplaces, shopping malls or transport hubs will show that the more time we spend with devices in the digital realm, the less time there is to spend with people in the human realm. At the same time, it's probable that constant online violence dulls us to real pain. [...]

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