Research Spotlights March 2016

Cultural influences on psychosis

Cultural influences on psychosis

What do hearing the voice of God, experiencing hallucinations, hearing voices, and suddenly feeling motivated to pray have in common? According to anthropologist Tanya Marie Luhrmann, Ph.D., they are all shaped by ...


 

OBSSR at the Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting and More

OBSSR at the Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting and more

By Isabel M. Estrada Portales, Ph.D., M.S. If you are attending the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) this week, make sure to catch one of the sessions and presentations by ...


 

Some of the 79 million reasons to use Health and Retirement Study genomics data

Some of the 79 million reasons to use Health and Retirement Study genomics data

By Jonathan W. King, Ph.D. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) received $275 million in funding over two years through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) ...


 

The evolution of skin pigmentation

The evolution of skin pigmentation

By Nina Jablonski, Ph.D. I love evolution. I've been interested in studying evolution almost all of my life. I started collecting fossils when I was a tiny child, and I've always been interested in what life on Earth ...


 

Using a Health Equity Model to Promote Environmental Approaches to Violence, Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention

Using a health equity model to promote environmental approaches to violence, alcohol and other drug prevention

What do place and the built environment have to do with alcohol and drug addictions? According to Debra Furr-Holden, Ph.D., quite a bit. Behavioral and mental health studies ...


 

Mindless eating: Why we eat more than we think

Mindless eating: Why we eat more than we think

By Brian Wansink, Ph.D. I grew up in Iowa, which is total farm country, and all anybody does there is work with food and sell vegetables. Growing up as a little boy, I was always amazed at why one house would buy ...


 

Databrary: Enabling more research through sharing rich video data

Databrary: Enabling more research through sharing rich video data

Human behavior is infinitely rich, and video is a great method for capturing it. But after the initial behavior of interest is scored, the analysis completed, and the paper published, video data is often relegated ...


 

New OppNet FOA: Because life is a series of chronic conditions

New OppNet FOA: Because life is a series of chronic conditions

By William Elwood, Ph.D. Over the last few years, it seems that almost every ad I encounter includes at least one product or prescription related to a chronic mental or physical condition. Often both, as they insist ...


 

Call for Abstracts: The Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Honors. Because Researchers Grow Up and Old in Changing Societies

Call for abstracts: The Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Honors. Because researchers grow up and old in changing societies

By William Elwood, Ph.D. In the summer of 1912, a toddler took her uncle’s place in Bowdoin College’s graduation line. That uncle died along with the toddler’s grandfather in the sinking of the RMS Titanic ...