Speaking of nature and nurture, there is a three part series starting this week on BBC 1, called The Making of Me. It looks at three well known people – the hurdler Colin Jackson, the violin virtuoso Vanessa Mae and the gay star of Torchwood, John Barrowman – and asks ‘What made these people, was it their genes or was it events during their childhood which determined their unusual skills and attributes’? The first programme is on Thursday 25 July. If you are reading this in September you might still be able to pick the programmes up on BBCi or try psychclips.
Posts published during July, 2008
Nature – the great outdoors, trees, sky, flowers, water – has a psychological and physiological effect which can help lower stress levels; at least that is what researchers at the University of Washington have demonstrated. They had student participants who completed quite difficult mental tests. During these tests some had a view of trees and grass through the window, whilst others had the same view but on a huge plasma screen. The students were also linked up to heart monitors. All the students glanced up at the real life or televised view, but those with the real view through windows lowered their heart rates, which relate to their stress levels, the most.
So why don’t we all try and get a glimpse of the natural world, especially if we are working hard, anxious or worried, generally stressed, and see if this can help us manage our stress better?
As you are probably aware, there’s always been a debate concerning whether or not psychology is a science – indeed this has been a topic on second year essay papers for years – but a while back the QCA messed up everyone’s chances of getting any discussion points on that question, by making a declaration that yes, psychology was a proper science after all …..
I got quite excited about this for a while – at last I could look at ’hard’ scientists in the chemistry department with my head held high… but being a real scientist has got a bit boring lately. It turned out all it meant was a new A03 skill on the exam papers :- criticising research methods, which was something we’d all been doing for years anyway.
However, I cheered up when a few days back I got an email about this site, which has everything I need to kit myself out with a proper psychological scientific research lab: sinister one-way mirrors, lie-detectors, goggles that make your perception go all wonky, weird little roller things that measure your sensitivity to pain and…. best of all…. a bobo doll:
No fake electric shock generators yet…. but I’m sure they’ll get some back in stock soon…