Women of Psychology

The “History of Women in Psychology” symposium provided a very interesting glimpse into the history and challenges women psychologists have faced. Ann Johnson began the program by talking about the “classic history” of women in psychology: “That’s the ‘classic history’ – they are left out and excluded,” she observed. (more…)

On the Road

With the rise of driver distraction, much effort has been made towards the development of warning signals to prevent collisions. Arizona State University psychologist Robert Gray discussed possible auditory, tactile, and visual solutions to warn drivers of possible collisions. “Designing Effective Collision Warnings for Drivers” could have been attended by psychologists and non-psychologists alike. Any person with a driver’s license would have benefited from the innovative research currently underway to decrease the number of accidents caused by driver error.

Dr. Gray recognizes that humans make errors. While talking on a cell phone when driving is not safe, it is normal behavior. “The problem is not the driver, but the roadway/vehicle/driver system,” he said.A wide range of solutions were offered to correct the driver system and studies showing the benefits of collision warning signals were presented. Still, Dr. Gray’s closing picture of a man talking widely on a cell phone during a near fender bender reminded us all “not to be that guy.”

-Christina Smith

Better Leaders Through Science

“I don’t know if I’m impressed there are so many people here at 9am, or disturbed there are so many people here at 9am.” That was Michigan State psychologist Fred Morgenson’s wry comment at this morning’s session on leadership, chaired by Purdue’s Deidra Schleicher. Bruce Avolio of the University of Washington led off, describing a life-span approach to leader development and raising the question: How important is serendipity (“happy accidents”) in the creation of effective leaders? His answer: Life develops leaders, but we should throw in some training to help it along. Leadership trainers need to examine and develop leadership at the individual level–everyone has a different pattern of development. He referred to this as the “Pandora effect”–as in, one thing builds on another on another.

Morgenson focused on the nature of the team leader. Events challenge teams and leaders by creating uncertainty and disrupting routines. He discussed how events and challenges affect teams, and noted the difficulty in knowing when and how leaders should intervene. 

-Bob Nolan

Productive Aging

Turns out getting older can be good for your emotional health. In a National Institute on Aging (NIA)-sponsored symposium on emotion regulation in older adults, James Gross, Derek Isaacowitz, Mara Mather, and Heather Urry argued that these individuals pay more attention and are more responsive to  positive stimuli (such as happy faces) than do young adults. (more…)

The Neurons of Social Life

Humans are social animals, but what’s going on in the neurons when people interact in groups? Several researchers gathered this morning to offer partial answers to this big question.

Ralph Adolphs of the California Institute of Technology presented evidence that people with amygdala lesions use different facial areas to determine whether an expression is threatening than do healthy controls. Healthy controls focus on the eyes, where people with amygdala damage focus on the mouth. Interestingly, people with autism perform equally well as controls despite using the mouth region. Eye-tracking studies indicate that autistics look at both the mouth and eyes, perhaps because of two competing processes: a natural tendency to look at the mouth area and social training to make eye contact. (more…)

How do we measure pleasure?

Pleasure is at the core of our lives, yet comparisons of pleasure across groups is still very primitive. Do obese or thin individuals experience more pleasure from food? Do addicts get more pleasure from cocaine than an undergraduate gets from a Big Mac? Does happiness vary in different parts of the world? Although hedonic comparisons like these are made with abandon, they are trickier than they look and current methods can lead to devastating errors. Psychologists have an important role in showing the rest of the world how to measure pleasure.

The purpose of this lecture is twofold: (1) to describe an error in the way we currently make comparisons of sensory and hedonic experiences across individuals and (2) to suggest a way to correct that error.

The purpose of this post is both to discuss the pros and cons of the arguments presented, and (if you agree with the arguments) to discuss how to persuade our colleagues to mend their ways. Please contribute your thoughts in the comments to start the discussion.

The Gospel of Lamarck

Back in the day, when you learned about genetics and evolution in school (well, grad school), it was all about Mendel and Darwin, or more recent refinements of their basic ideas. As a bit of historical amusement, they also taught you about that other guy, Lamarck, who had oh-so-foolishly believed that traits acquired during an individual’s lifetime could be passed on to offspring. They led you to think that that silly notion was at the bottom of the dustbin of old, discredited science, right down there with the theory of bodily humours or an Earth-centered cosmos.
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Lonely on Facebook

Many of the jewels of the APS convention can be found in the several Poster Sessions–often the work of graduate students and their mentors. One Sunday morning poster was unique in its collaboration–a mother-daughter effort. Cal Poly psychology professor Laura Freberg and daughter Karen Freberg, a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, presented data from an exploratory study of loneliness and social networking. The Frebergs (together with Ben Ainley, Rebecca Adams and Cristina Enrique of Caly Poly) compared lonely college students with not-so-lonely students, and found that those who were lonely in “real life” also had fewer “friends” on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

This finding runs contrary to the theory that lonely students use social networks to compensate for their lonely lives–or that they put on a happy face online. The lonely students also viewed social networkers more negatively than the less lonely students did: “Like children picked last for a softball team,” the researchers conclude, “lonely students might be devaluing an activity in which they feel rejection or exclusion.” The mother-daughter researchers are both enthusiastic Facebook networkers.

-Wray Herbert

Presidential Symposium and Reception