Relationships are central to human life and had in our evolutionary past—and still have today—a crucial importance for reproductive success. Yet, relationships incur considerable maintenance costs, considering that social networks consist of a large number of ties that serve a variety of different functions. English psychologists from Chester and Oxford recently investigated how entire active (weiterlesen …)
Most frequent stuttering treatments in Germany of little effectiveness
Persons treated for stuttering typically have a history of various therapies. In a retrospective client evaluation of the five most popular German stuttering treatments, two kinds of therapies, namely fluency shaping and stuttering modification, showed good effectiveness. The three other treatments, however (breathing regulation, individual unspecified logopedic treatment, hypnosis), were of unsatisfactory long-term effectiveness (Euler (weiterlesen …)
Nesting behavior during human pregnancy
What the popular press occasionally reports could be confirmed by scientific studies at McMaster University (Canada): Pregnant women show behaviors which can be understood as nesting behavior, comparable to behaviors in mice, rats, and hamsters (Anderson, M. A. & Rutherford, M. D. Evidence of a nesting psychology during human pregnancy. Evolution and Human Behavior, 2013, (weiterlesen …)
The behavioral immune system and conservative attitudes
The behavioral immune system is the first line of defense against potentially contagious diseases, before the physiological immune system. A cluster of psychological mechanisms avoids contact with contaminants: disgusting taste (e. g. sour milk), foul smell (garbage), aversive sounds (clearing throat), ugly sights (vomit), and sticky substance on fingers. This cluster was formed in our (weiterlesen …)
Paternity discrepancy 10 %?
It has been reported for a long time that about 10% of all putative fathers are not the biological fathers. I have had my doubts that such a high prevalence is general. However, no good data has been available in Germany. However, researchers from the University of Duesseldorf (M. Wolf et al. (2012) Estimating the (weiterlesen …)