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In war zones and refugee camps, researchers are putting resilience interventions to the test
n 2015, in the name of science, more than 800 teenage boys and girls in northern Jordan each allowed 100 strands of hair to be snipped from the crowns of their heads. Roughly half the teens were Syrian refugees, the other half Jordanians living in the area. The hair, molecular biologist Rana Dajani explained to the youngsters, would act as a biological diary. Chemicals embedded inside would document the teens' stress levels before and after a program designed to increase psychological resilience. It was a unique experiment. And it was one that suited Dajani, who's based at The Hashemite University in Az-Zarqa, Jordan.
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The data show that how we connect with romantic partners changes as we age
If you’re in your 20s or 30s and feel insecure in your relationship, you’re not alone. The good news: it’s likely that things will get better, according to data gathered about people’s attachment styles in romantic relationships. The adult attachment theory, developed in the 1980s by American ecologist Cindy Hazan and psychologist Phillip Shaver, sorts individuals into four categories by scoring them on just two traits: “avoidance” and “anxiety.” Avoidance refers to how willing you are to be vulnerable with your partner; anxiety refers to how much you worry about your partner paying attention to you.
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How Rooting for a Rival Could Help Your Team
If the NFL team you hate the most is in the Super Bowl, take heart. Psychological science suggests that a rival team’s win may improve your team’s motivation and performance next season.
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Ratings Rise Over Time Because They Feel Easier to Make
People new to a ratings task are more critical than those who have been doing the evaluation task for longer period of time, a new study suggests.
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Duckworth, Feldman Barrett Among Speakers in Webinar Series
APS Fellow Angela Duckworth will present “Grit: The Power of Persuasion and Perseverance” in a March 27 “Grand Rounds” webinar hosted by the Science of Behavior Change (SOBC), a program at the National Institutes of Health. Duckworth, a psychological scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, studies how factors other than intelligence predict achievement. She focuses specifically on the demonstrated role of grit and self-control. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2013 and was an APS Rising Star in 2011. The 1-hour Grand Rounds webinar begins at 2 p.m. The SOBC webinars are held bi-monthly and are designed to engage the public.
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Newport, Kahana Honored by the Society of Experimental Psychologists
APS William James Fellow Elissa Newport of Georgetown University and APS Fellow Michael Kahana of the University of Pennsylvania both received special awards at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP), held March 2-3 at the University of Arizona. APS Fellow Mary Peterson of UA served as chair of the event. Newport received the Norman Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award for her lifetime of profound theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of language acquisition and its relation to constraints on learning. Newport studies both normal language acquisition and creolization using miniature languages presented to participants in lab studies.
