Psychology in Action

Category: General Psychology

  • Are genetics destiny for psychiatric disorders?

    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 the human genome project, there were high hopes that single genes could be located…

  • Infants Learn to Walk by Learning to Fall

    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 before you can succeed, infants need to learn to fall…

  • Social Learning: What do children learn from screens?

    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 towards learning social cognition throughout the lifespan, but may be particularly critical in the first few years of…

  • The Psychology of Film Music

    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 with degrees in music and psychology, studies what makes a “good” match between motion…

  • Bossing stress away

    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, managers typically have to juggle more responsibilities and contend with more personalities than do their subordinates.…

  • An argument for the end of political ads?

    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 much does this effort really sway voters?

  • Engagement…in therapy!

    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 means, it’s not too strange. The noun engagement is “the act of…

  • “Psychology on the Big Screen” Panel, May 25th

    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 focus on the intersection of the science of mental illness and the art of filmmaking.  The event…

  • The Values in Sponge Bob Square Pants.

    “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” Most people easily pick up on the importance of television programming like Sesame Street and other educational shows for young children. Shows like these embed lessons about letters, manners, multiculturalism and more into their content. For adults, the lessons seem obvious, so we feel good about allowing…

  • What are online-dating sites really selling you?

    Many dating sites advertise that they will match you with a partner who is highly compatible. Those signing up for Chemistry.com, eHarmony, or similar other websites, are asked to complete prescreening information about their background and personality, and then are given matches with similar others based on this information. But how much does background and…