Psychologists aim to better understand the link between internal and external states, that is, between cognitions and behaviors. Behaviors are often clear enough to measure, but accurately capturing the essence of a cognition can be a much fuzzier task …
The following article contains spoilers. If you have not seen the film and do not wish to have key plot points and character dynamics revealed, do not proceed further
In the late 1980s, a university committee at the University of Michigan called for psychology professor Dr. Claude Steele to tackle the problem of academic achievement among minority students at the university. His subsequent research resulted in the discovery and identification of one of the most far-reaching and influential phenomena in social psychology
ames Pennebaker’s writing paradigm was an important contribution to the young field of health psychology at the time and continues to be used today to explore connections between disclosure and physical and mental health and to generate hypotheses about other psychological phenomena.
Are genetics destiny? Simplistic thinkers may say so, but what scientists are learning is that, though many traits are heritable (e.g., height, extraversion, IQ), it is difficult to find a “gene” for the vast majority of traits. At the completion of th …
When a baby starts to fall, our natural instincts tell us to protect them and quickly catch them. In general, parents’ instincts are to catch their children before they “fall” in many aspects in life. But, as with many things that require you to fail …
Beginning early in development, children learn from watching others and through social interaction. Do children learn about the social world when they watch screens, and can that compare with real life? Social interaction is an important pathway …
Have you ever seen a movie which has a great musical score? Wondered how film composers and music directors write and choose music to enhance the images and make the whole experience more powerful? Dr. Roger Kendall, a UCLA Ethnomusicology professor wi …
An article was published today in the Huffington Post, titled “Romney: ‘Some Gays Are Actually Having Children. It’s Not Right on Paper. It’s Not Right in Fact.’”The article reviews a Boston Globe piece from yesterday in which some of Romney’s actions …
Earlier today, I read an article published on Washington’s Blog titled “Fear of Terror Makes People Stupid.” The central claim of the post was that the government purposefully induces fear of a terrorist attack in order to get Americans to relinq …
There is a long history and a strong literature linking psychological aspects of peoples’ lives and coronary heart disease. Early research found a connection between coronary heart disease and a personality characteristic called Type A. Type A per …
Imagining the stereotypical executive doesn’t exactly conjure up the image of a zen-like state. Instead, we tend to associate leadership roles with too many demands and not enough time to meet them—in essence, a pretty stressful lifestyle. After all, m …
No matter how compelling their arguments are, attempts to legitimize “sex addiction” as bona fide psychopathology are most often met with dismissive eye rolls at best and sheer outrage at worst.
This post is the first of three on the Wason selection task (Part II), and part of our ongoing series exploring classic experiments and theories in the history of psychological research.
With election season coming up, the presidential candidates have invested heavily—recruiting top ad executives, media researchers, producers, etc.—in creating the perfect ads to highlight their own strengths and their opponents’ shortcomings. But how m …
Stereotype threat is the experience of anxiety or concern when someone believes they are in a position to confirm a stereotype about their social group. For example, girls who are primed with information that women tend to do worse on math tests right …
Based on the 1993 nonfiction book by John Kerr entitled A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabrina Spielrein, the film chronicles the early days of psychoanalysis.
Most people have heard terms like depression, anxiety, even schizophrenia; diagnoses that seem to receive a lot of attention in the general public. But little public awareness seems to exist about one of the most lethal forms of child abuse, known as F …
Most people think of the word engagement and automatically start imagining a tiny box, a diamond ring, and someone down on one knee. I think of engagement and start thinking about therapy. Strange, huh? Well, if you think of what the word actually mean …
Psychology in Action is proud to announce a panel discussion in collaboration with the UCLA Theater, Film, and Television Department to take place on Friday, May 25th, 2012, from 4 to 6pm in UCLA’s Bridges Theater (Melnitz 1409). The discussion will f …
The pressure to publish positive findings (instead of null results) is present across scientific discipline, but several researchers have argued that the field of Psychology is the most biased offender. An article posted last week in Nature.com discus …