Trying to make a big decision while you’re also preparing for a scary presentation? You might want to hold off on that. Feeling stressed changes how people weigh risk and reward. A new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reviews how, under stress, people pay more attention to the upside of a possible outcome.

It’s a bit surprising that stress makes people focus on the way things could go right, says Mara Mather of the University of Southern California, who cowrote the new review paper with Nichole R. Lighthall. “This is sort of not what people would think right off the bat,” Mather says. “Stress is usually associated with negative experiences, so you’d think, maybe I’m going to be more focused on the negative outcomes.”

But researchers have found that when people are put under stress—by being told to hold their hand in ice water for a few minutes, for example, or give a speech—they start paying more attention to positive information and discounting negative information. “Stress seems to help people learn from positive feedback and impairs their learning from negative feedback,” Mather says. [continue reading…]

Do antidepressants work? Since the introduction of Prozac in the 1980s, prescriptions for antidepressants have soared 400 percent, with 17 million Americans currently taking some form of the drug. But how much good is the medication itself doing? “The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people,” says Harvard scientist Irving Kirsch. Will Kirsch’s research, and the work of others, change the $11.3 billion antidepressant industry? Lesley Stahl investigates. Read Story: Treating Depression: Is there a placebo effect?

Caution If you are depressed you should see your doctor. If you are already on Anti-depressants you should not stop taking them

Source: CBS News

Nearly two in three youngsters underestimated the unit content of their drinks
Image: istockphoto

Anew University of Sussex-led study reveals that many young people do not have the knowledge or skills to keep their drinking within guidelines on sensible consumption.

According to research led by Dr Richard de Visser, a senior lecturer in psychology at Sussex, young people are highly likely to underestimate their own consumption of alcohol units, even if they have some knowledge of government guidelines.

The study, which is published in Drug and Alcohol Review, involved surveying 18 to 25-year-olds about their knowledge and beliefs about safe drinking. The participants were then asked to pour their “usual” measure of a drink (wine, beer or vodka), followed by what they believed to be a “unit” of that particular drink.

The researchers found that the “usual” drinks were substantially larger than one unit, as set by government guidelines, with nearly two thirds of participants underestimating the unit content of the drinks they had poured.

In the survey, which tested knowledge of the government’s guidelines about alcohol consumption, fewer than half the respondents gave correct responses to five of the seven questions, although most were able to correctly state the recommended daily units for men and women.

“Our results indicate that young people tend not to possess the knowledge and or skills required to drink alcohol in accordance with government guidelines,” says Dr De Visser. “Using drink-pouring tasks as part of this education could promote better understanding of alcohol units and more accurate reporting of alcohol consumption.”

However, he acknowledges that the success of getting the message across to young drinkers depends on how motivated they are to take in the information.

“Many other studies have shown that young people are less concerned about the health issues of drinking and more interested in the pleasure it gives them. Moderation and restraint runs counter to the contemporary cultural emphasis of excessive and conspicuous consumption.”

Source: University of Sussex
Further reading: The UK government’s guideline for “sensible drinking”