psychologist news stories on Newser

9/11 Shows Psychology's Shortcomings

Tim Karan — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:45:13 CDT

Psychologists rushing to Ground Zero on September 11 might have done more harm than good. Experts overestimated how many people—including firefighters and police who responded—would experience stress for a prolonged period following the disaster, according to a report coming out in American Psychologist . Many also might have been...

CIA Promised to Cover $5M in Legal Fees for Waterboarders

Matt Cantor — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:56:11 CST

The CIA secretly agreed to pay at least $5 million in legal fees for two contractors who designed interrogations and repeatedly waterboarded detainees, say former US officials. Whereas CIA agents generally receive agency-paid insurance for potential legal bills, psychologists Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the first individuals to have been...

Psychologist Explains Why Your Boss Is a Jerk

Rob Quinn — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 04:44:00 CDT

People plagued by tyrant bosses or troublesome co-workers can blame their families, says leadership coach and psychologist Sylvia Lafair. Lafair has identified 13 patterns of annoying office behavior and the family dynamics behind each. They include the abusive, micro-managing "persecutor," who likely comes from a background of neglect, and the...

'Papa Joe' Simpson Scores Sitcom Deal

Harry Kimball — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:30:00 CST

Joe Simpson, father of Jessica and Ashlee, will star in a Nickelodeon comedy loosely based on his experience raising his singer/actress daughters. Joe, who is a psychologist in addition to being his daughters’ manager and a TV producer, and will portray a Texas psychologist raising two daughters. The twist? One...

Speed Shrinking Offers Quicker Fixes

Mary Papenfuss — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:35:33 CST

Freud must be shuddering in his grave, but that doesn't bother Susan Shapiro, the author of Speed Shrinking and the cheerful organizer of speed-dating-style therapy sessions for New Yorkers. On a recent evening, 200 talk-therapy-seekers stood in line at a lecture hall for their turn to spill their problems and...

Study: Talking to Pretty Women Makes Men Stupid

Rob Quinn — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:20:45 CDT

Men literally lose their minds when talking to women they find attractive, a new study finds. A group of Dutch psychologists—inspired to carry out the experiment after one of them forgot his address while talking to a pretty woman—tested the memory skills of 40 heterosexual volunteers before and...

Jaycee May Never Recover

Nick McMaster — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:57:56 CDT

It will be a struggle for Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two daughters to recover from the years they spent in captivity, writes Karen Kaplan in the LA Times . Psychologists have few comparable cases to draw from, and those that exist are not encouraging. Kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch, of Vienna,...

First US Internet Addiction Rehab Center Opens

Nick McMaster — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:00:01 CDT

The first US Internet addiction clinic has opened in Fall City, Wash. The Heavensfield Retreat Center offers “reStart,” a 45-day in-patient rehab program for Internet, video game, and texting addictions, LiveScience reports. Clients undergo talk therapy and social skills training, as well as feeding goats, raising chickens, and learning home...

Shrinks Fume Over Wiki's 'Rorschach Cheat Sheet'

Rob Quinn — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:12:21 CDT

Psychologists are seeing red in a row over Rorschach's famous inkblots, the New York Times reports. The original series of 10 inkblot images, whose interpretations are used to gain insight into a viewer's mind, have been posted on Wikipedia along with the most common responses. Psychologists fear that some people...