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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …