Psych Research

I. Young People's Personality Disorders
This study looked into the minds of 5000 people between the ages of 19 and 25, and found that 1 in 5 young people have a personality disorder, like anti-social behavior and obsessive/compulsive tendencies. 25% of these people go without treatment, and that half of young people have a psychiatric condition (when you include substance abuse). Researchers believe young people are particularly susceptible because they deal with furthering their education and choosing a career and other important issues, which increases stress and leads to personality disorders. While the sample is large, the age group may be inappropriate; there can be huge differences between a 19 year old and a 25 year old. It's important to look at whether the person is in college, working a job, has a family, etc, before coming to a general conclusion about the disorders of all young people. It's also important to know the background of the subjects; some could have come from unstable environments which would certainly explain their disorders better than their youthfulness.

http://www.psycport.com/showArticle.cfm?xmlFile=ap_2008_12_02_ap.online.all_D94QIUHO0_news_ap_org.anpa.xml&provider=

II. Body-swap Illusion
This study had 87 subjects (weird number, by the way) wear a virtual reality helmet and first watch a mannequin be stimulated at the same time and in the same manner as the subject was being stimulated. Next the researchers would stimulate only the mannequin, yet the subject felt they were being stimulated as well (that they were the mannequin). 80% of the subjects responded to the stimulation of the mannequin. First of all, the test pool is rather limited. Second of all, the subjects were able to see the kitchen knives and other devices used to stimulate before putting the helmet on; the subjects would then get nervous or anticipate what the researcher would do, leading them to respond in the way the researchers wanted them to.

http://www.psycport.com/showArticle.cfm?xmlFile=ap_2008_12_02_ap.online.all_D94QKD880_news_ap_org.anpa.xml&provider=

III. Soldiers Who Have Killed Defend the War
In a study of 68 Iraq War veterans, researchers determined that the soldiers didn't feel more animosity toward Iraqis than soldiers who hadn't been directly involved in an Iraqi fatality, like predicted, but that they felt more animosity toward Americans who didn't support the war. The cause, they claim, is that the soldiers need to justify their killing, so they use the war as an excuse; when someone takes that excuse away, it leads to guilt and all the fun things that come along with murder. Ok. So, the pool is again rather small, making the findings less significant. The information about what sorts of questions and other details are withheld, again making the findings less significant. Because of post traumatic stress disorder and other common psychological ramifications of war, it's hard to get a group of subjects that don't have other traumas; this again makes the study much less credible.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=soldiers-who-have-taken-a-life