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2008 in review, part 2
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Since I’ve been writing the column for only a month, this mental health review of 2008 will only cover that time frame. This column will report on two items that surfaced on cnn.com.
Brain fitness remains a hot topic. CNN reports that, “Worldwide revenue surged to $850 million last year, up from $250 million in 2005, according to SharpBrains, a company that tracks the mental fitness industry.
There’s evidence that, just like our bodies, if we exercise our brain it will become more fit.
Other studies show that, although brain fitness is important, it’s also important to keep physically fit and have as many social contacts as possible. No matter what you believe, there’s a lot of money being made in the mental fitness industry.
CNN also reports on the psychology of evil. “In the early 1960s, a young psychologist at Yale began what became one of the most widely recognized experiments in his field. In the first series, he found that about two-thirds of subjects were willing to inflict what they believed were increasingly painful shocks on an innocent person when the experimenter told them to do so, even when the victim screamed and pleaded.”
This experiment, created before we had stringent rules on using human subjects, has frightening results. It appears that if we are told to do something, by someone we view as an authority, we do it.
A new study to be published in January 2009 shows that the results still hold true. Since the researchers were under the current guidelines for using human subjects, the two studies can’t be totally compared. Yet, the results are interesting.
I’ll look for the new study and will report on it in January.
There were a lot of interesting mental health reports and articles in December, 2008. I’ll continue with Part 3 in a few days.
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