readings in psychology for december 4th 2010

Has Holiday shopping got you on edge? Relax.... enjoy the season

Here is what I am reading today:

• want to improve your mood, then kick the habit!

“Quitting smoking is certainly healthy for the body, but doctors and scientists haven’t been sure whether quitting makes people happier, especially since conventional wisdom says many smokers use cigarettes to ease anxiety and depression. In a new study, researchers tracked the symptoms of depression in people who were trying to quit and found that they were never happier than when they were being successful, for however long that was.”

• killer whales mimic friends and foes!

“Just as human cliques have their own language quirks, groups of killer whales have their own dialects. But that doesn’t stop them from imitating one another. A new study of wild orcas shows that they mimic calls from other groups even when members of that group aren’t around. The whales could have multiple uses for the imitation, such as labeling outsiders or keeping tabs on their location.”

• the gene-environment enigma

“Personalized medicine centers on being able to predict the risk of disease or response to a drug based on a person’s genetic makeup. But a study by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that, for most common diseases, genes alone only tell part of the story.”

• teens less sensitive to alcohol than adults?

“Researchers have known for years that teens are less sensitive than adults to the motor-impairing effects of alcohol, but they do not know exactly what is happening in the brain that causes teens to be less sensitive than adults. But now, neuropsychologists at Baylor University have found the particular cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the age-dependent effect of alcohol in teens that may cause the reduced motor impairment.”