Category: Psychology

Just to expand on the previous post about the effect of action video games on attention, here’s a little more detail about the experiment in the paper.

In this test, a group of participants, all with little or no video game playing experience, were randomly assigned to two groups.

The first group (9 people) were asked to play Medal of Honor, for one hour per day, for 10 straight days. The second (8 people) played Tetris for the same time period. This is a good control condition, because it helps to cancel out improvements that might be made in, for instance, hand-eye coordination as opposed to actual cognitive improvements.

At the end of the training, participants were giventhe enuration, useful-field-of-view and attentional blink tests described in this post. The group who played Medal of Honor performed better than the Tetris group, and this difference was statistically significant at the .05 level.

Additionally, the researchers carried out a mediation analysis, to see if the benefits on these tasks could be accounted for by game playing skill. In other words, did the people who improved the most at Medal of Honor over these 10 days also perform the best on the cognitive tasks? The results did not reach statistical significance (0.13), altough the effect was pretty strong with an adjusted r squared of 0.43. That means 43% of the variation in cognitve performance was accounted for by improvements in playing Medal of Honor.

These results suggest that playing Medal of Honor garners improvements in the attentional processing systems of the brain. However, note the limitations I mention in the previous post on this study.

Note that the version of Medal of Honor they played was Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, from 2002 (the study was fromn 2003). However, it’s perfectly reasonable that the results apply to more recent versions of the game (both are first person shooters).

A degree in forensic psychology covers topics that link the psychological research base with the criminal justice system and other aspects of criminal behaviour.  Degrees in forensic psychology are usually taken at masters level, however they are sometimes available at bachelors level.  Of course, there are significant differences between the two.

Forensic psychologists often work in or with the courts. That’s judicial, not tennis (Photo: srqpix)

Bachelors degrees in forensic psychology

A bachelors degree is very similar to an other accredited BSc psychology degree.  You will still cover a lot of ground within the subject, from the biological basis of behaviour, abnormal psychology, cognitive approaches, research methods, to conceptual and historical issues associated with the scientific study of the brain and behaviour.  In a normal psychology degree, you are usually given several optional modules to choose from, particularly in the second and third years, of which forensic psychology might be one possible option.  In a bachelors degree in forensic psychology, several of these optional degrees will cover forensic psychology.  This allows you to get the bird’s eye view of the field that all psychology students get, as well as a more focused look at forensic psychology.  You can then get a better idea of whether forensic psychology is for you, and if you do decide to continue your studies at masters level you’ll have a better chance of getting on the course, all other things being equal.

Masters degrees in forensic psychology

To get on a masters degree in forensic psychology, you’ll usually need to have a bachelors in psychology or equivalent. The topics you’ll cover here include the psychology of criminal behaviour, research issues in forensic psychology (recording and defining crime, for example), psychology and the courts (for example, for juries reach decisions, why eye-witness testimony is unreliable), and offender profiling (which isn’t as glamorous as they make it look on TV).

You’ll learn and be graded in the usual ways – lectures, group work, essays, exams, and so on. You’ll also have a large dissertation project to do related to forensic psychology.

Forensic psychology degrees online

If your schedule makes it hard for your to show up for lectures several times a week, see if you can find a forensic psychology degree online. Distance learning would mean you get all your course material via email, and you’d hand in your work the same way. In some cases you might get video conferencing with your tutors. Although you have to motivate yourself more with an online degree than you would with an on-site degree, if you really can’t make it to campus this is an option. Always ensure you’re studying at a reputable college or university offering accredited qualifications.

Career opportunities with a masters degree in forensic psychology obviously revolve around working with the police, the courts, prisons, probation service, or research in these areas.

If you’re thinking of taking a forensic psychology degree, subscribe to this blog, and get regular updates that will help you learn psychology and get more out of student life. You might also like my psychology study skills book, which will help you get better grades on your course.

A psychology degree doesn’t have to lead to a career as a psychologist. In fact, it can lead to fame, stardom or infamy. Or at least, it preceded one or more of these things for the following people…

Hugh Hefner

The Playboy founder graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.A. in psychology. He also studied for qualifications in creative writing and women and gender studies. These seem pretty relevant, I wonder how the psychology came into play?

Natalie Portman

Photo: makoto2007

Natalie Portman enrolled at Harvard to study psychology after her career had taken off. She was involved in the Star Wars prequels at the time (1999), and graduated in 2003. “I don’t care if [college] ruins my career,” she told the New York Times, “I’d rather be smart than a movie star.” Well since a Golden Globe for best supporting actress came the year after that, it looks like she managed to have her cake and eat it too. She’s also credited in a research paper, “Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy,” under Natalie Hershlag (it’s Hebrew).

Gloria Estafan

With seven Grammy awards and over 90 million albums sold worldwide, Havana-born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan is certainly a talented and popular lady. But she’s also smart, graduating in 1979 with a B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in French, from the University of Miami. So unlike Miss Portman, Mrs Estefan completed her degree before hitting the limelight.

Jon Stewart

Best known for The Daily Show, American satirist, author, actor and comedian Jon Stewart majored in psychology at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. You can see a bit of the critical thinker in him in the video above, too.

Ted Bundy

When serial killers are shown in film and TV, they are sometimes portrayed as cool, self-aware characters with a hidden secret, maybe a little eccentric but generally fit in OK. In reality, this isn’t always the case, although Ted Bundy comes close to that model, fitting into what the FBI define as an ‘organised’ serial killer. Bundy attended Seattle’s University of Washington. Reportedly well liked by his professors, he graduated with a degree in psychology in 1972.

Looking for direction? (Photo: dr_tim_1956

One of the advantages of psychology is the wide range of topics it covers. It means you can get a wider education than other degrees because you dip your toe into a lot more topic areas, albeit from a psychological perspective. The variety is good for people who like to learn, and it gives good opportunity to draw different lines of work together in assignments (which, depending on the essay, can be a great way to pick up extra marks).

But studying such a broad subject can also be a disadvantage. Although psychology is a useful degree and teaches important thinking skills, there isn’t a definitive career path open to you when you finish, as there is with something like graphic design. If you want to be a psychologist, no problem, you just get the extra training. But some people don’t want a career in psychology. Maybe they chose it purely for interest, or because they weren’t sure what they wanted to do and psychology seemed like a good idea. For these people, the broadness of the subject can seem like a negative, however, the problem can tempered somewhat by using the dissertation as a career tool.

Say you decide in year 2 that you want to be a dietician, but you’re going to finish this degree first. You could choose a dissertation topic around diet, which will allow you to learn more about it, become familiar with the research, and have something you can talk about when you get interviewed on future courses. Or, say for some reason you want to go into HR, you’d do a dissertation around selection perhaps.

It doesn’t work for everything, linking your dissertation into accountancy, or music production might be a challenge, for instance. But even if you can get close to the subject it will help. You could do some research on the employees of the profession you want, and interview them. This might at least get you close to that field — in that environment, talking to people in it, networking. It gives you something to put on your CV and talk about in job interviews, and most of all it hopefully helps you feel like you have some direction.

This is a guest article by Kamila Wita, who is soon to become an MSc student in Developmental Psychopathology at Durham University.  This is a very comprehensive, well-written and up to date account of the cognitive influence of alcohol and MDMA.  Note the critical comments throughout; it’s a great example of how to be critical in essays.  This is what you need to do in order to get the big marks – just describing the studies is not enough, you must critique them.   Thanks Kamila!

Have you ever wondered what effects alcohol and ecstasy have on those people (or perhaps yourself) who do it for fun, treat is as some sort of a sport or perfectly normal part of student life? You know it’s bad for you but just how bad is it? This article is not going to tell you how embarrassing waking up naked next to somebody you don’t remember is, or how confused you can be if you find pictures of yourself wearing a traffic cone. It is serious (I would know, I got a first class mark for this paper) it compares and contrasts the effects of ecstasy and alcohol on mood and cognition in recreational users (note: the below is not exactly what I submitted).

Recreational use of MDMA and alcohol has become increasingly widespread worldwide (Morgan, 2000). However, until recently, little was known about the psychological effects of these drugs. Recent research shows the possible acute and chronic psychological effects of extensive recreational use of these drugs (Boha et al. 2009; Harrison & Fillmore, 2005; Heffernan et al. 2002; Dauman et al. 2003; Morgan, 2000; Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, 2000; Parrot and Lasky, 1998; Davison and Parrot, 1997).

For those of you who know drug actions, just skip this section.

MDMA

MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, ”Ecstasy”) an amphetamine derivative, is a popular recreational drug that has been shown to exhibit a psychoactive profile. It has been assigned to the ‘entactogens’ class as its characteristic psychoactive profile distinguishes it from other hallucinogens and stimulants (Liechti et al. 2000; Morgan, 2000). MDMA is a potent monoaminergic agonist producing both carrier-mediated release and reuptake inhibitor 5-HT and to a lesser extent dopamine (Morgan, 2000; Liechti et al. 2000) and other neurotransmitters (McDowell & Kleber, 1994). Most popular alcohol found in alcoholic beverages is ethanol.

Ethanol

Ethanol is also considered a psychoactive drug. Ethanol acts in the central nervous system by binding to the GABAA receptor, increasing the effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. As inhibitory neurotransmitter alcohol reduces signal flow in the brain. This explains how alcohol depresses both a person’s mental and physical activities. Therefore chronic alcohol consumption produces structural and functional alterations of the central nervous system (CNS), which can explain the behavioural impairments associated with chronic alcohol ingestion (Santi et al. 2000).

Humans synthesize GABA from glutamate using the enzyme L-glutamic acid decarboxylase and pyridoxal phosphate as a cofactor. This process converts glutamate, the principal excitatory neurotransmitter, into the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter (Petroff, 2002). In contrast, serotonin is synthesised from the L-tryptophan, found in most of protein-based foods, i.e. meats, dairy products, nuts etc. (Wurtman et al. 1980).

Acute and chronic effects of MDMA and alcohol on mood.

After hitting the big time, Mr Potato head changed. Sources reveal he is now in drug rehab. (Paparazzi: Kevin Briody)

Study of university students by Peroutka et al. (1988) revealed subjective effects of MDMA on mood as reported by the users themselves. The reported acute effects of MDMA were pleasant, with strong feelings of closeness, elevation and intimacy toward other people. However, these were accompanied by negative physical effects, including headaches, jaw clenching and twitches. Followed, 24-hours later, by depression, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, worry and irritability (Peroutka, 1988). The study is disadvantaged by using self-report measures and the fact that the purity of the drugs ingested by the participants cannot be known. Additionally the study failed to control for poly-drug use and to investigate chronic effects of MDMA.

Davison and Parrot (1997) report that MDMA causes feelings of elation, alertness, and happiness. In comparison, acute effects of alcohol also can be pleasant and positive with increased cheerfulness, sociability, and self-confidence. Low doses of alcohol increase total sleep time and reduce awakening during the night. The sleep-promoting benefits of alcohol disappear at moderate and higher doses of alcohol (Stone, 1980). MDMA on the other hand is often ‘accused’ of causing insomnia and sleep distortion.

Given the putative role of serotonin in sleep, it has been hypothesised that one manifestation of serotonin neurotoxicity in humans might be disturbances of sleep (Allen et al., 1993). To determine whether MDMA use has effects on sleep, all-night polysomnograms of 23 MDMA users were compared to those of 22 age- and sex-matched controls. On average, MDMA users had 19 minutes less total sleep and 23.2 minutes less non-REM (NREM) sleep than controls. These statistically significant differences in NREM sleep were due primarily to an average of 37 minutes less stage 2 sleep, with no significant differences noted in stages 1, 3 or 4. Although it is not known whether the alterations in sleep observed in MDMA users are due to serotonin neurotoxicity (Allen et al., 1993).

Curran and Travill (1997) compared results from weekend use of ecstasy or alcohol. The study focused on cognitive function and mood, as deficits in serotonin in humans can be associated with both mood disturbance and detriments in cognition. MDMA users rated elevated mood on day 1 but significantly low mood on day 5, at which point some participants scored within the range for mild or moderate clinical depression, on Beck Depression Inventory. In contrast, the alcohol group showed less pronounced changes, which followed a U-shaped curve over days with the lowest point being day 2 (presumed to be related to hangover effects) (Curran and Travill, 1997).

The researchers linked the low mood of MDMA users with serotonergic depletion which follows the elevation of serotonin levels by MDMA. Curran and Travill (1997) therefore concluded that complete recovery of mood may not occur due to the neurotoxicity of MDMA. The researchers implied that the ‘day after’ effects of both of the drugs are similar in some respects (Curran and Travill, 1997). There is little evidence that light Ecstasy use is associated with long-term depression and lowered mood. However there is some evidence that heavy consumption is associated with persistent depression and psychological disturbances (Morgan 1988). Morgan (2000) reports a plethora of studies in his review that shows that ecstasy use can be associated with depression, dependant on dosage.

There’s logic in there somewhere. Credit: antoinedemorris

In comparison, Ferguson et al. (2009) report that high rates of major depression can occur in heavy drinkers and in those who abuse alcohol. Controversy has previously surrounded whether those who abused alcohol who developed major depressive disorder were self medicating (which may be true in some cases) but recent research has now concluded that chronic excessive alcohol intake itself directly causes the development of major depressive disorder in a number of alcohol abusers (Ferguson et al. 2009). In terms of anxiety, research shows that persistent heavy ecstasy use can cause anxiety elevation, as well as phobic-anxiety, somatisation and obsessionality in MDMA users in comparison to non-drug controls as tested on the Symptom Checklist-90 (SLC-90) (Parrot et al. 2000). However, in this study only heavy users and non-users comparison achieved statistical significance. In comparison, many individuals drink because they are feeling anxious or stressed, and moderate, low-doses help them unwind and relax. Anxiety disorders and alcohol consumption have a complex bi-directional relationship. (Brady et al. 2007; Kushner et al. 2006).

In terms of impulsiveness, research results are somewhat inconclusive, with Parrot et al. (2000) reporting elevated scores of heavy MDMA users compared to non-drug controls, while others report non significant results (Morgan, 1998). In comparison, studies of alcohol intoxication yield mixed results, with some studies claiming that moderate amounts lower impulsivity and make decision-making more cautious under some circumstances (Ortner et al. 2003), while some finding, however partial, support for their claims of alcohol increasing impulsivity (Dougherty, 2008). Finally, Morgan (1998) reported no differences between MDMA users, non-users, and polydrug users who never used MDMA, in levels of hostility. The participants were tested on State/Trait Anger Expression Inventory.

Their findings were supported by Parrot et al. (2000) reporting that light MDMA users and non-drug controls showed no significant differences on SCL-90 in terms of hostility. However, Parrot et al. (2000) further reports that heavy Ecstasy users had significantly higher scores on the hostility trait in comparison to non-drug controls. This notion has been supported by study by Gerra et al. (1998) in which heavy, MDMA-exclusive users scored as aggressive, even after 3 weeks of abstinence; follow up study revealed decreased scores after 12 months. In comparison, findings by White et al. (1993) indicate that early aggressive behaviour leads to increases in alcohol use and alcohol-related aggression, but that levels of alcohol use are not significantly related to later aggressive behaviour.

Therefore they suggest that alcohol-related aggression is engaged in by aggressive people who drink (White et al. 1993). Interestingly, study by Lang et al. (1975) revealed that participants who believed they had consumed an alcoholic beverage were more aggressive than those who actually did but were let to believe they did not. However, the study only assessed males and did not include females at all.

Acute and chronic effects of MDMA and alcohol on cognition.

Previously mentioned study by Curran and Travill (1997) reported that the MDMA group showed significant impairments on an attentional/working memory task, compared with alcohol users. The disadvantage of this study is that it only compared MDMA with alcohol users and did not compare those results with drug-free individuals. However, it has been explained that it was simply due to the lack of drug-free individuals at the club where the testing took place (Curran and Travill, 1997).

A significant flaw of the methodology is the fact that the researchers opted out taking blood samples as they did not want to pose a risk and intimidate potential volunteers. The study only revealed that MDMA users have performed worse than alcohol users. It is of interest to compare drug-users with drugs-free individuals to fully research the observed effects.

One such study has been conducted by Weissenborn and Duka (2003). The study benefited from employing a placebo condition as well as controlling for alcohol, illicit drug and food intake prior to testing. Research revealed the acute alcohol effects on cognitive function on a range of cognitive deficits, for example, deficits in attention, explicit memory paradigms, and executive-type functions (Weissenborn and Duka, 2003). In the planning task, alcohol decreased the number of solutions with the minimum moves. Alcohol also decreased the thinking time before initiating a response, while it increased the subsequent thinking time in the same task. Under alcohol, participants recognised fewer items in the spatial recognition task; however no effect of alcohol was found in a spatial working memory task and in a pattern recognition task. Among the participants with moderate to heavy use of alcohol, those who were ‘bingers’ performed worse in the spatial working memory and in the pattern recognition task than ‘non-bingers’ (Wiessenborn and Duka, 2003).

To compare, regular MDMA users also have been shown to have memory deficits, as tested by word recall tasks (Parrot et al. 1998). Interestingly, even ‘novice’ MDMA users, who used ecstasy less than 10 times have preformed better than drug-free control. Again, the weakness of the study is the unknown drug purity and strength.

Additionally, a study by Heffernan et al. (2002) found that social drinkers who drink over 30 units (on average) a week for minimum of 5 years reported significantly greater number of impairments compared to low-dose/non-user group, in terms of long-term episodic prospective memory impairments. In comparison, ecstasy users, when tested on PMQ showed the same trend for impaired prospective memory (Heffernan et al. 2001).

These deficits in MDMA users have been attributed to the frontal lobe and hippocampus damage associated to ecstasy toxicity. The study however, does not assign the drug users into conditions, and therefore individuals who had taken the drug twice were assigned in the same group as individuals who had taken it 30 times or over. The researchers mention that the participants have been drug-free for period of 24 hours. When previous research on MDMA is considered 24 hours is not long enough, as the participants still would be experiencing the drug effects (Peroutka et al. 1988).

In terms of alcohol, dosage is crucial. Previous studies have shown dosage-dependant effects of alcohol on skills impairment and on cognitive processes such as memory and attention (Little 1999; Kerr et al. 2004; Koob and Moal, 2006). Boha et al. (2009) researched the effects of low-dose alcohol, that is below 0.2g/kg, as well as in other conditions: (control, task, placebo-task, low-dose task [0.2 g/kg alcohol], high-dose task [0.4 g/kg alcohol]). The study used mental arithmetic task, which required addition and working memory effort. EEG spectra with an emphasis on the theta band, error rate and reaction time were analysed (Boha et al. 2009). The study results showed no effect of alcohol on behavioural indices of task performance. However, the ethanol-induced moderate reduction of the task-related frontally dominant theta increase, probably corresponding to working memory demand, this has been considered a modest but clear electrophysiological sign of alcohol effect in this low-dose range (Boha et al. 2009).

The study, however, has only tested male participants and would benefit from testing female data as gender plays a role, and therefore males and females are affected differently by alcoholic beverages. This difference is mainly due to a smaller gastric metabolism in females-because of a significantly lesser activity of glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase (x-ADH) (Baraona et al. 2006).

Critique and methodological problems.

The studies of alcohol and ecstasy users are prone to methodological problems which in turn affect and create interpretative difficulties. These include problems with verifying users histories of drug use and lack of baseline data of cognitive functioning, as well as lack of bodily samples, i.e. blood or urine to test concentration of MDMA or alcohol in participants prior and during testing. Problems arise with representativeness of the samples in particular studies, which vary greatly in amounts of drugs ingested and frequency of use.

A few additional problems arise with the above studies, firstly, the use of self-report measures, especially when testing memory. If it is believed that participants’ memory is impaired it is illogical to ask those participants to self-report their memory function. Therefore validating the data by proxy reports (through significant others and friends) would be beneficial, yet not perfect, due to possible bias (Wagmiller, 2009). Self-reporting amounts of alcohol consumed is also problematic, especially as individuals may simply be ‘giving a wild guess’ rather than actually know how many alcoholic beverages they consumed. This is especially problematic, when no individuals simply had not paid attention to how much they drunk or simply forgot. The issue of defining ‘binge’ also arises. Studies attribute different names to different amounts consumed, i.e. low/high or binge etc. The problem is that there is no clear definition, therefore interpretation poses a difficulty.

Additionally, the phenomena known as ‘stereotype threat’ should be accounted for in all of the studies. Stereotype threat occurs when individuals, believed to be intellectually inferior, perform badly on cognitive tests they perceive to confirm stereotypes about them (Cole et al. 2006). Study by (Cole et al. 2006) tested ecstasy and non-ecstasy using polysubstance misusers on a variety of cognitive tests after they had been exposed to stereotype threat. The participants were given information about the long-term effects of ecstasy which either stated that ecstasy caused memory loss or that it did not. Ecstasy users that had been primed that ecstasy did not cause cognitive deficits performed better than the other three groups. There were no other statistically significant differences between any of the groups on any of the other cognitive tests used. This suggests that stereotype threat exists in ecstasy users and may be influencing their performance in experiments designed to identify cognitive deficits (Cole et al. 2006). In further support, see previously mentioned study by Lang et al. (1975).

Furthermore, as alcohol is considered a legal drug studies involving it can control for the amount and volume ingested by the participants, in turn ecstasy studies are prohibited to do so due to the fact that MDMA is considered a class A drug and giving it to participants would be illegal. Therefore ecstasy studies have to rely on participants’ report of amounts taken, and as previously mentioned the purity and strength may be questionable. Therefore the participants may actually have experienced MDMA related compounds: 3,4-methylenedioxyethamphetamine (MDEA) or 3,4 – methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) (Morgan, 2000).

Therefore the effects described in above studies can only by attributed to tablets that were believed by the user to be MDMA (Parrot et al. 1998), Additionally, as previously mentioned the street-available MDMA may in fact be MDEA or MDA, it can also be contaminated with other drugs such as ketamine, LSD, caffeine, ephedrine, seligiline and cocaine (Morgan, 2000). In fact another problem with drug studies, including the ones discussed above, is that often there is no control over what other drugs had been taken other than the drug of interest. Many MDMA and alcohol users also regularly use other illicit drugs including cannabis, amphetamine, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, benzodiazepines, barbiturates and ketamine (Morhan 2000; Morgan, 1999).

Therefore it is not possible to firmly attribute the self-reported affects to MDMA or alcohol itself (Davison and Parrot, 1997). Some studies focused on one gender only, as previously mentioned, it is crucial to test both genders separately due tot he differences smaller gastric metabolism in females-because of a significantly lesser activity of glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase (x-ADH) (Baraona et al. 2006).
Summary and conclusions.

The psychological effects of MDMA and alcohol (in moderate doses) can be seen as similar in that, while on drug both produce positive and relaxing feelings; I.e cheerfulness, increased sociability, and self-confidence. The difference is MDMA users feel elated while alcohol users feel sedated. Both drugs produce negative physiological effects while on drug, i.e. lethargy, respiratory problems, seizures etc. In some cases both drugs can lead to coma and death (Schifano, 2004).

Both drugs cause damage to the human brain, however the areas affected differ. Ecstasy in believed to damage hippocampus and frontal lobe (Puerta et al. 2001; Heffernan et al. 2001; Morgan, 2000). There is some evidence from neuroimaging studies that shows occipito-parietal region of the cortex may be affected by exposure to ecstasy (Reneman et al. 2000). By comparison persistent misuse of alcohol can result in damage to a range of cortical and sub-cortical structures of the brain, can lead to brain shrinkage, neurotransmitter impairments, inhibition of frontal cortex functioning and reduced hippocampal function (Heffernan, 2008).

Additionally, chronic high doses of alcohol can cause damage to vital organs, such as liver (cirrhosis, pancreatitis), pancreas (inflamation), heart (irregularities and weakening of the muscle) and stomach (stomach cancer) (Chao et al. 2003). The main difference is that the more alcohol is consumed the worse effect it has. Therefore an individual can start a night with low doses and have a good time and as the amount of drinks increases, end up confused, vomiting and unconscious at the end of the night. While, taking consecutive doses of MDMA does not prelong the ‘high’ (Downing, 1986).

Alcohol in moderate or low doses is commonly assumed to be beneficial to health. The results of study conducted by Ruitenberg et al. (2002) suggest that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced risk of dementia individuals aged 55 years or older. MDMA displays a weak potential for addictiveness and therefore dependence (Davison and Parrot, 1997), while alcohol is highly addictive. Alcohol dependence is a chronic disorder with genetic, psychosocial and environmental factors influencing its development (Parrot et al. 2005).

To summarise MDMA, evidence shows that acute psychological effects of MDMA include feelings of elevation, euphoria, elevated self-awareness, agreeableness, and confidence. The adverse physiological effects of MDMA intoxication include cardiac arrhythmias, hypertension, lethargy, insomnia, hyperthermia, serotonin (5-HT) syndrome, hyponatremia, liver complications, seizures, coma and, in rare cases, death (Schifano, 2004; Davison and Parrot, 1997). Chronic psychological effects in recreational users include depression, lethargy, moodiness, cognitive impairment (mostly memory), insomnia, paranoia, irritability, and other physical and psychological effects (Parrot et al. 2004; Morgan 1998; Davison and Parrot, 1997).

There is an increasing body of research evidence for neurotoxic damage, which in regular MDMA users may cause depression, impulsiveness, phobic anxiety, hostility, reduced appetite, sleep disorder, and selective impairment of episodic memory, working memory, prospective memory and attention (Parrot et al. 2004; Hefferenan et al. 2001; Morgan 2000). Experimental data shows that the cognitive deficits persist for at least 6 months after abstinence, whereas anxiety and hostility diminishes after a year of abstinence (Morgan, 2000). Some of these problems may diminish over time of abstinence, however, the residual neurotoxicity and decline of serotonergic function with age may result in recurrent psychopathology and premature cognitive decline due to damage to hippocampus and frontal lobe (Puerta et al. 2001; Heffernan et al. 2001; Morgan, 2000).

In comparison, evidence shows that acute effects of alcohol depend on the dosage. Low to moderate amounts can, result in pleasant and positive effects with increased cheerfulness, sociability, and self-confidence. As the dosage increases the acute effects worsen and impair (i.e. cause confusion, ataxia etc.). Chronic effects of alcohol involve cognitive deficits and impairments, i.e. in many aspects of memory, judgement, planning, information processing etc. (Boha et al. 2009; Heffernan 2008; Wiessenborn and Duka, 2003; Heffernan et al. 2002; Parrot and Lasky, 1998)

As discusses above, as drug research increases, the understanding of the effects increases. However, as shown above, such research should not be taken for granted, even though published in peer reviewed scientific journal, as research, even though insightful, still may be flawed.

Research into nurtigenomics shows how genetic make up (phenotype) can be influenced by nutrition, it is of interest to find out if ingesting drugs such as alcohol, MDMA and others affect it. Certain polymorphisms affect how individuals react to caffeine, perhaps MDMA and alcohol should also be considered (Trujillo et al. 2006).

References:

Allen, R. P., Mccann, U. D., and Ricaurte, G. A. (1993). Persistent effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA, ‘ecstasy’) on human sleep. Sleep, 16, 560-564.

Baraona, E., Abittan, C. S., Dohmen, K., Moretti, M., Pozzato, G., Shayes, Z. W., Schaefer, C. and Lieber, C. S. (2006). Gender differences in pharmacokinetics of alcohol. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 25, 502-507.

Boha, R., Molnar, M., Gaal, Z. A., Czigler, B., Rona, K., Kass, K., and Klausz, G. (2009). The acute effects of low-dose alcohol on working memory during mental arithmetic I. Behavioural measures and EEG theta band spectral characteristics. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 73, 133-137.

Brady, K. T., Tolliver, B. K., Verduin, M. L. (2007). Alcohol use and anxiety: diagnostic and management issues. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 217-221.

Chao, Y., young, T., Tang, H., and Hsu, C. (2003). Alcoholism and alcoholic organ damage and genetic polymorphism of alcohol metabolising enzymes in Chinese patients. Hepatology, 25, 112-117.

Cole, J. C., Michailidou, K., Jerome, L., and Sumnall, H. R. (2006). The effects of stereotype threat on cognitive function in ecstasy users. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 20, 518-525.

Curran, H. V. and Travill, R. A. (1997). Mood and cognitive effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA, ‘Ecstasy’): week-end ‘high’ followed by mid-week low. Addiction, 92, 821-831.

Davison, D. and Parrot, A. C. (1997). Ecstasy (MDMA) in recreational users: self-reported psychological and physiological effects. Human Psychopharmacology, 12, 221-226.

Dauman, J., Fimm, B., Willmes, K., Thron, A., Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, E. (2003). Cerebral activation in abstinent ecstasy (MDMA) users during a working memory task: a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Cognitive Brain Research, 16, 479-487.

Dougherty, D. M., Marsh-Richards, D. M., Hatzis, E.S., Nouvion, S. O., and Mathias, C. W. (2008). A test of alcohol dose effects on multiple behavioural measures of impulsivity. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 96, 111-120.

Downing, J. ( 1986). The psychological and physiological effects of MDMA on normal volunteers. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 18, 335-340.

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Here are the best blogs in each of the following respective areas, according to me.

There are some sub-fields I know nothing about (clinical topics mainly), so this list is not comprehensive in that regard.

I’ll update this as time goes by. Feel free to repost this on your own website to spread the word about these excellent resources.

General Psychology Blogs

PsyBlog – Jeremy Dean at the top of the list, as it should be.

Research Digest – The BPS Research Digest is a superb resource, for students, researchers and people with a general interest in psychology. Christian Jarrett has done a great job with this.

GenerallyThinking.com – A great psychology blog written by a handsome, accomplished, and modest psychology student (i.e., me).

PsychFutures Blog – By psych students, for psych students. You can sign up and make a contribution yourself!

Social Psychology

Social Psychology Eye – Blog of the Social & Personality Psychology Compass; some brilliant articles in here.

Situationist – How “the situation” influences our behaviour.

What Makes Them Click by Susan Weinschenk – A blog about understanding people. The ‘100 things you should know about people’ series is fantastic, I wish I’d thought of it first!

Exercise Psychology

Physical Exercise and Psychology Blog – Not that well known, and has been quiet for a while, but Sean Webster has some good posts and links on here about the cross-over between psych and physical exercise.

Neuroscience / Cognitive Science

Neurocritic – A pleasingly critical look at Neuroscience and related fields

Neuronarrative – No list of psych blogs is complete without David DiSalvo’s Neuronarrative.

Neurophilosophy – Good stuff here on all aspects of neuroscience.

Neuroconscience – Brain plasticity particularly in relation to media and technology use.

The Mouse Trap – Great stuff from Sandy, you’ll find some general posts on psychology with a preference towards neuroscience, and a recent interest in positive psychology too!

Mind Hacks – Big, popular, successful, long-lasting, accessible – it’s Mind Hacks!

Cognitive Daily – Sadly, Cognitive couple Greta and Dave closed shop in Jan 2010, but the archives are still up and valuable.

Psychiatry

Frontier psychiatrist – Mental illness for the masses!

Psychotherapy Brown Bag – Absolutely fantastic blog, even if psychotherapy isn’t your bag. Lot’s in here on the right way to think as a scientific psychologist, critical thinking etc. Well worth reading if you’re a psych student.

Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology News Daily – The best positive psychology site on the web, written mostly by current and former MAPP students.

Curious – Todd Kashdan’s interesting blog. Check it out if you’re curious.

The Good Life – The Psychology Today blog of Christopher Peterson, sports fan and VIA strengths co-founder.

The Meaning in Life – Michael Steger’s blog, more focus on meaning, as you might have guessed.

Persuasion

Influence PEOPLE – Brian Ahern’s excellent ethical persuasion blog. Also his podcasts are here.

Persuasion Theory – Matt Fox’s blog focuses the science of persuasion into various applications, mainly marketing. Lot’s of practical tips here.

Sex

Jena Pincott – Author Jena Pincott’s interesting and sometimes cheeky blog.

Dr Petra – More focus on sex education and policy issues here. Thoughtful stuff.

Critical Thinking

Bad Science – Ben Goldacre’s site. Not a psychology site actually, but if you’re a psychology student you should immediately subscribe to Ben’s blog and let his critical attitude rub off on you through the power of web-osmosis.