Psychology in Action

Category: General Psychology

  • China – Education and Parenting — How does it differ from US?

    This is the last piece in a four part series on sociocultural forces that influence academic achievement in India, Japan and China first posted on Parenting in the Digital Age. The last article talked about Japan. China: Educational Promise Out of the three countries of comparison, China holds the most promise to overtake the US…

  • Who Should Get Your Charity Money? Scientific Perspectives on Giving

    In the past, my partner and I have mostly haphazardly divvied up our good intentions to whichever charities are most easily accessible to us because of advertisements or a person standing in a grocery store parking lot. Lately, we are rethinking that (lack of) strategy. As Yale economists Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel wrote in…

  • Is There Truth in What We See? Motivation and Visual Perception

    I’m going to come out right now as a deconstructionist – I believe that everything we experience is shaped at least in part by our historical time and our social, physical, and psychological context. In other words, I don’t believe that when you and I look at the same object, we are actually seeing exactly…

  • To Bilingual or Not to Bilingual? – That is the Question

    Raising a child is no easy task (or so I’ve heard from my own mother). With many decisions to make regarding your child, where do you even begin? Well, let’s take it one question at a time. Have you ever thought of or are currently considering raising your child as a bilingual? There has been…

  • Are the mind and body separate? They may be in perception

    In the history of thought, the idea that the mind and body are separate has been hotly debated. Probably the most famous statement of mind/body dualism is from the philosopher René Descartes, who in the 17th century argued that there are two different kinds of stuff in the world: stuff extended in space (such as…

  • Human Intelligence and Beyond: Ray Kurzweil on the future of technology and humanity

    For those of you who enjoy a little futurism or secretly wish that science fiction would become a reality, have a look at Lev Grossman’s interview with Ray Kurzweil in the latest edition of TIME magazine. Author, inventor, entrepreneur and futurist Ray Kurzweil discusses his predictions for the future with Grossman, most of which center…

  • Child development outcomes with same-sex parents

    In November 2010, the Pew Research Center released results of a poll that showed that 43% of people agreed with the statement that gay or lesbian couples raising children are bad for society, 41% believe that it doesn’t make a difference, and only 12% saying that they believed it was good for society. The authors…

  • Synesthesia: When Ordinary Activities Trigger Extraordinary Sensations

    Many of us have had the experience of unusual associations between our senses and our memories.  Perhaps a certain smell unexpectedly reminds you of a grandparent, or certain foods evoke memories of old friends.  Associations between memories and sensory experience are normal, but about 4% of the population experiences a condition called synesthesia in which…

  • Feel better by practicing gratitude

    Gratitude is defined as feeling thankful and appreciative of other people or aspects of life such as nature. It comes from the Latin root gratia, meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. Actively being grateful on a daily basis has been shown to have benefits not just for the person you’re thankful for, but for you! Research…

  • I got chills, they’re multiplying

    Many of us have experienced chills when listening to music, those weird, almost indescribable sensations sometimes likened to shivers down the spine. If you’re very meta, the line serving as this post’s title might even do it for you (but probably not—chills don’t tend to occur until later on in a song). Despite our inability…