Psychology in Action

Category: Health Psychology and …

  • Psychology Classics: James Pennebaker’s Expressive Writing Paradigm

    Psychology Classics: James Pennebaker’s Expressive Writing Paradigm

    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.

  • 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…

  • Happy Hearts

    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 personality is characterized by time urgency, strong competitive drive, and hostility. Though some of these characteristics are related to…

  • 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.…

  • 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 Adderall Assistance: the study drug

    By: Diana Elihu http://www.streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/adderall-doesnt-work/   At universities across America, students are becoming increasingly addicted to a popular prescription drugs, not because they’re trying to get high, but because they hope to get smarter. The prescription drugs Adderall and Ritalin, which are normally prescribed for children with ADHD (formerly known as ADD), are under heavy abuse by…

  • Your Brain on Ads: Ground breaking research by UCLA researchers

    Dr. Matt Lieberman and former Psych in Action blogger Dr. Emily Falk are getting a lot of attention for their paper in Psychological Science that found that the specific brain regions that were activated while viewing health related advertisements predicted the ad’s success in the population at large — even though the viewers were not aware…

  • Is all risk taking bad?

    He that is over-cautious will accomplish little.Friedrich Von Schiller German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright Individuals who psychologists describe as “risk takers” are generally identified as being at-risk for a number of dangerous or maladaptive behaviors, including high risk sex, gambling, substance use disorders. However, frequent or high risk takers may be a heterogeneous group,…

  • The Politics of Eating and Exercising: Are We Getting It Right?

    Eat healthier. Exercise. Our culture is currently full of messages telling us to change our habits, to turn us into a leaner, healthier society. While these messages are easier said than done, they’re perfectly warranted: The Centers for Disease Control reports that childhood obesity has tripled since the 1970s. So what can we do to…