First Psychology blog

As discussed in our previous blog, it seems that animals have a therapeutic effect on us. So much so that the International Journal of Workplace Health Management has recently published a study which suggests taking your pet dog to work can actually reduce stress and make your job, and those of your colleagues, more satisfying. Research conducted by a team at Virginia Commonwealth University compared staff at a manufacturing company who had dogs, to those who had no pets, and differentiated between those who brought these dogs to work and those who left them at home. Overall, they found employees with access to dogs were less stressed as the day progressed than those without access. However, stress levels of owners who left their dogs at home compared to those who brought them to work rose significantly during the day. It has been suggested having dogs in the workplace may boost morale and contribute to employee performance. Other benefits suggested (regardless of whether indivi...

Pet owners often comment how happy their furry friends make them, so in honour of National Pet month this April, it seems appropriate to examine the idea that owning a pet can be beneficial to our health. Animals have been used in medical settings for over a century and a half, but it is only in the last three decades that this bond between man and mammal has been studied scientifically. Indeed, an early study from 1980 revealed patients who suffered a heart attack, and also had a pet, lived longer than patients who didn't own one. Other research has also found that petting your own dog can reduce blood pressure. A more recent study, by the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, discovered an individual’s level of oxytocin increased when they interacted with animals. This hormone makes us happy and trusting and may explain this bonding feeling we get. Oxytocin allows our bodies to grow new cells, preparing us to heal, so we are more likely to be healthy. Findings su...

Many of us like to treat ourselves when we feel down in a bid to make ourselves happy. As discussed in the previous blog however, people in Costa Rica are shown to be happy on far fewer resources than most of us consume. In the current climate with unemployment rising and anti-depressants at an all-time high, it is no wonder we struggle to be happy. But are our expectations of happiness too high? According to Greek mythology, ancient Egypt and cultures throughout the Mediterranean before and after Christ, happiness is, in fact, a miracle. Indeed, this is reflected in Indo-European languages in which the words ‘luck’ and ‘fate’ are equivalent to that of ‘happiness’. In English, the root of happiness derives from the Middle English and Old Norse ‘happ’, which means chance and fortune and appears in words such as ‘perhaps’ and ‘happens.’ In Spanish and Portuguese the words ‘felicidad’ and ’felicidade’ stem from the latin word ‘felix’, which means luck, and fate. Furthermore, the word ...

With many of us feeling the pinch, it can be easy to confuse being better off financially with greater well-being. However, an innovative measure known as the Happy Planet Index (HPI) questions this idea by examining how each country converts the planet’s natural resources into longevity and happiness for its citizens. Surprisingly, the country with the highest level of well-being amongst its citizens and the highest HPI, is Costa Rica. Costa Rica is by no means the richest country in monetary terms but uses only a quarter of the resources most countries use, and was ranked the 6th happiest nation on Earth by a recent Gallup poll (2010). In contrast, the USA, which uses triple the resources of the average person and whose citizens’ well-being has remained the same over the last 50 years in spite of this, has a HPI of 114 only one place above Nigeria. So why is this? Perhaps it’s because countries like America measure success in terms of money and material possessions which are not ...

With upsetting life events from bereavement and unemployment to marriage breakdown, it is no wonder many people become depressed, yet, despite what life throws at them, others don’t. So are some people more prone to depression than others? Recent research at the University of Pittsburgh has confirmed teenagers are more prone to depression than adults. Women are also twice as likely than men to suffer from depression, according to the World Health Organisation. More specifically, research in Canada has suggested older mothers are more prone to depression than younger women and another study at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, has surprisingly linked depression in women to a lack of red meat in their diet. Researchers at Manchester University however believe it is all to do with resilience and have been studying the brain to figure out the nature and origin of resilience. Participants were divided into four groups based on whether they had experienced high or low stress liv...

Depression Awareness Week, held this year from 22-28 April, aims to raise awareness of depression and to end the stigma attached to it. For the estimated one in five people in the UK and 120 million people worldwide who suffer from depression it can be a very isolating and debilitating condition. However, a controversial new theory has suggested depression actually offers an evolutionary advantage. Although most people who suffer from depression would disagree, a number of evolutionary psychologists have suggested depression assisted our ancestors in fighting infection and may also help us re-evaluate our lives and decisions that lead to our depression. The former proposal outlined in the journal Molecular Psychiatry highlights the finding that people who are depressed tend to have higher levels of inflammation or an overactivated immune system regardless of whether they are fighting infection or not. Depression has therefore developed as an adaptive response bound with physiologi...

Following on from our previous blogs on the topic of spending, here are some final hints on how to be a happier shopper. Get more pleasure for your money  It's good to have things to look forward to in life and the same applies to spending. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we can 'buy now pay later' and so the pleasure we gain from the anticipation and uncertainty of delaying purchases is lost. You'd think that getting what we want, when we want would more than make up for this loss of anticipation but the ability to wait actually increases the pleasure we derive from our money and improves our ability to make informed decisions for the future, rather than impulsive ones in the present. Ask others for advice  We like to think we know best and spending money is no exception but we can learn to spend money more wisely by heeding the advice of others. Research has shown other people can work out what we'll enjoy simply by watching our faces and when making p...

Following on from our previous blog, here are some more ways to be wise with your money. Spend on others  Contrary to what we might think, if we’re going to spend money, research has shown that spending money on others makes us happier than spending it on ourselves. Individuals who give a greater percentage of their income to others or charity are happier than those who spend it on themselves (Dunn et al. 2008). Giving to others makes us feel good about ourselves and also helps strengthen our relationships both of which make us happy. We assume spending money on ourselves will make us happier but the mere mention of money has a negative effect, making us less likely to help or spend time with others and less likely to donate to charity. Ironically, doing less of these things makes us less happy so we must fight our instinct to indulge ourselves and spoil others instead. Buy less insurance  We hate loss more than we love gain and insurance providers play on this risk aversi...