readings in psychology for january 23 2011

Random House is publishing Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. It’s the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who endured incredible hardships during World War II. CLICK on the picture above to read more!

Here is what I am reading today:

• the defiant ones!

“With a fringe of white hair poking out from under a University of Southern California baseball cap and blue eyes sharp behind bifocals, 93-year-old Louis Zamperini refuses to concede much to old age. He still works a couple of hours each day in the yard of his Hollywood Hills home, bagging leaves, climbing stairs and, on occasion, trimming trees with a chainsaw.”

• feeding fish Prozac??

“Around one in four Montrealers take some kind of anti-depressant, and according to new research, the drugs are passing into the waterways and affecting fish.”

• the power of first impressions

“New research by a team of psychologists from Canada, Belgium, and the United States shows there is more than a literal truth to the saying that ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’. The findings suggest that new experiences that contradict a first impression become ‘bound’ to the context in which they were made. As a result, the new experiences influence people’s reactions only in that particular context, whereas first impressions still dominate in other contexts.”

• 8 fruits and veggies a day???

“IS IT time to alter the advice to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day to a whopping eight daily doses? That’s a key question raised by an eight-year study of 300,000 Europeans in eight countries, which found that eating eight portions daily reduced the risk of heart disease by 22 per cent, compared with people who ate fewer than three portions (European Heart Journal, DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehq465).”