pakliterature: psychological

Psychological benefits for inmates doing yoga: Study

Yoga can improve the mood and mental well-being of

prisoners‚ and may also have an effect on impulsive behavior‚

an Oxford University study suggested.

Reported their findings

in the Journal of

Psychiatric Research‚

researchers said prisons

see rates of mental health

problems that are many

times higher than the

general population‚Xinhua

news agency reported.

Inmates from a range of

ages were randomly assigned

to either a course of ten weekly

yoga sessions of 90 minutes‚ or

to a control group.

"We found that the group that did the yoga course showed an improvement in positive

mood‚ a decrease in stress and greater accuracy in a computer test of impulsivity and

attention‚" said Dr Amy Bilderbeck‚ who led the study.

If yoga is associated with improving behavior control‚ as suggested by the results of

the computer test‚ there may be implications for managing aggression‚ antisocial or

problem behavior in prisons and on return to society‚ researchers noted.

Corporal punishment have worse effects on children's mind

Children in a school that uses corporal punishment performed
significantly worse.

Children in a school that uses corporal punishment performed significantly worse in tasks involving

"executive functioning" psychological processes such as planning‚ abstract thinking‚ and delaying

gratification than those in a school relying on milder disciplinary measures such as time-outs.

According to a new study involving two private schools in a West African country‚ suggest that a

harshly punitive environment may have long-term detrimental effects on children's verbal

intelligence and their executive- functioning ability‚ Science Daily Reported.

As a result‚ children exposed to a harshly punitive environment may be at risk for behavioral

problems related to deficits in executive- functioning‚ the study indicates.

The study by Prof. Victoria Talwar of McGill University‚ Prof. Stephanie M. Carlson of the University

of Minnesota‚ and Prof. Kang Lee of the University of Toronto‚ involved 63 children in kindergarten

or first grade at two West African private schools.