Your source for the latest psychological research.
A Seat at the Table
APS Fellows Gün Semin, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and Robert Cialdini, Arizona State University, converse at a White House workshop on behavioral science and public policy.
Youth violence. Unemployment. Heart disease. Teen pregnancy. Climate change. Practically every challenge facing modern society is fueled in part by entrenched behaviors that science can help understand and perhaps change.
Historically, the US government has relied heavily on economists to help set policies on healthcare, commerce, consumer protection, education, law enforcement, and other domains where psychological and behavioral factors play a major role. But the federal government is creating a team that will give a broader set of behavioral scientists a seat at the table in policymaking.
Federal authorities want to assemble a team of experts in behavioral science and experimental design to work in various agencies testing interventions and…
Tags: Behavioral Economics, Cognitive Psychology, Policy, President (US), Social Psychology, Well-Being | No Comments »
New Society Aims to Support Affective Science
Scientists who study affective phenomena will soon have a place to interact, collaborate, and share their science with colleagues. A new society — The Society for Affective Science (SAS) — has been organized for the purpose of encouraging basic and applied research on emotions, moods, and other motivational states.
SAS President and APS Fellow James Gross, Stanford University, says the society was founded “as a response to a widely felt desire for a scientific society that would bring together many different fields, within psychology and beyond, that are examining affective phenomena.”
Members will get their first chance to interact with fellow scientists at SAS’s Inaugural Conference to be held April 23–26, 2014, in Bethesda, Maryland. Charter members expect that the conference will attract scientists from psychology, medicine, neuroscience, computer science, law, economics, anthropology, linguistics, sociology, and business.
“The guiding premise of this society,” say Gross, “is…
Tags: Emotions, Experimental Psychology, Interdisciplinary, Motivation | 1 Comment »
Current Directions in Psychological Science
Current Directions in Psychological Science: Volume 22, Number 4Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science publishes reviews by leading experts covering all of scientific psychology and its applications.
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Myside Bias, Rational Thinking, and Intelligence Keith E. Stanovich, Richard F. West, and Maggie E. Toplak
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Does Emotion Directly Tune the Scope of Attention? Jeffrey R. Huntsinger
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Do Pigeons Gamble? I Wouldn’t Bet Against It Thomas R. Zentall and Jennifer R. Laude _______________________________________________________________________
The Common Currency of Psychological Distance Sam J. Maglio, Yaacov Trope, and Nira Liberman
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When the Mind Races: Effects of Thought Speed on Feeling and Action Emily Pronin _______________________________________________________________________
Social Projection as a Source of Cooperation Joachim I.…
Tags: APS Journals, Current Directions in Psychological Science | No Comments »
Link Between Bipolar Disorder and Circadian Rhythm
Bipolar disorder, like most psychiatric disorders, is characterized by the frequency and severity of its symptoms. Many people may exhibit characteristics of the disorder without meeting the criteria for a diagnosis, meaning they may be more likely to develop the disorder at some point.
Now, a study conducted by Ben Bullock and Greg Murray of the Swinburne University of Technology and published in Clinical Psychological Science reveals that one factor — instability in circadian rhythm — is one particularly strong predictor of vulnerability for bipolar disorder.
The researchers had over 350 participants complete a questionnaire intended to reveal vulnerability to bipolar disorder. Afterwards, the researchers then gave the top and bottom 10% — those most likely and those least likely to develop the disorder — a small…
Tags: Bipolar Disorder, Clinical Psychological Science, Mental Illness, Sleep Wake Cycle | No Comments »
What’s in a Royal Name? Psychological Researchers Explain the Significance
The royal baby has been named — George Alexander Louis. And that handle will have a significant bearing on the child’s future, psychological researchers say.
As Jason Goldman of the University of Southern California describes in The Guardian, children born in European nations are more likely to have popular, traditional names than children born in countries colonized by European explorers. Those findings were reported in a 2011 study published in Psychological Science.
And it appears the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge followed this naming norm, in effect safeguarding the child’s future public image.
Albert Mehrabian, professor emeritus of psychology at UCLA, has extensively researched the science of names, finding that unconventional names tend to elicit negative reactions from others. And unconventional spellings of common names don’t do the child any…
Tags: Child Development, Naming, Parenting, Social Perception | No Comments »
