Featured Content
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Tackling the Force of Habit
How much of our behavior is habitual? APS President Wendy Wood and her colleagues answered this question on April 16 during “Habits and Behavior Change—A Case Study of Digital Technology,” an APS Science for Society webinar. The webinar is now available for registrants and APS members.
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Student Notebook: Finding Your Path in Psychological Science
Feeling unsure or overwhelmed as an early-career psychology student? Second-year graduate student Mariel Barnett shares advice to quell uncertainties.
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Discerning Discoveries
New research shows why people often read more into a scientific finding than what the data might show.
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Science Breaks Through the Barricades to Mental Healthcare
Researchers and clinicians are attempting to break down the institutional and social factors that block marginalized populations from receiving mental health services.
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Creating a Global ‘BRIDGE’ for Brain Research Data
The Brain Research International Data Governance & Exchange (BRIDGE) project aims to create a responsible and sustainable governance system for data sharing. Learn how the group is advancing open practices, reproducibility, and psychological science as a whole.
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Matching Psychology Training to Job Market Realities
APS President Wendy Wood discusses how graduate programs can change the habit of focusing on academic-career preparation.
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Spending, Saving, and Owing: How Finances Intersect with Behavior and Emotions
In a February Science for Society webinar, a panel of experts discussed the impact of financial debt on psychological well-being, the link between spending habits and happiness, and much more.
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Practical Protections
In the era of open science, researchers encounter the challenges of preserving participant privacy when sharing data from qualitative interviews. Learn how you can balance transparency and confidentiality.
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Student Notebook: Doing Research With Your Community, for Your Community
Scientific findings can be difficult to apply to real-life scenarios. Fifth-year clinical psychology student Gabrielle Lynch gives advice on working with communities, building relationships, and overcoming research hurdles.
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Multilab Replication Challenges Long-held Theories on Cognitive Dissonance
One of the foremost models that scientists use to measure the effects of cognitive dissonance may have some deficiencies, a new multilab registered replication indicates.
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Seven Early-Career Researchers Honored With 2024 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award
The seven recipients are honored for cutting-edge research on topics ranging from self-regulation to collective emotions to multicultural experiences.
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When Things Don’t Go According to Plan
Methodologists have embraced preregistration as a way to prevent questionable research practices and add transparency to scientific studies. But many researchers end up deviating from those preregistered plans, and those deviations aren’t reported systematically, if at all.
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Being a Team Player: Opportunities and Challenges in the Era of Collaborative Science
The growing number of collaborative science teams changes the landscape of science and technology; whereas small teams disrupt science and technology by creating novel systems and ideas, large teams build on existing knowledge systems. Both will be crucial for moving science forward.
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PSPI Live: Developmental Science Research Informs Juvenile Justice Reform
In a January PSPI Live webinar, authors of a forthcoming article came together to discuss juvenile justice reform.
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AI’s Limits, Potential for Psychological Research and Practice
In the latest Science for Society webinar, psychologists came together to discuss the past and current applications of artificial intelligence from a scientific perspective. A recording of the webinar is also available for registrants and APS members.
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Does Psychology Need More Effective Suspicion Probes?
Suspicion probes are meant to inform researchers about how participants’ beliefs may have influenced the outcome of a study, but it remains unclear what these unverified probes are really measuring or how they are currently being used.
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How Science Can Reward Cooperation, Not Just Individual Achievement
Two social scientists propose a different approach to scientific recognition and rewards: shifting the focus away from individual scientists and toward the larger groups in which scientists are embedded.
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Careers Up Close: Rohan Palmer on Genetics and Substance Use
This Emory University psychological scientist is engaged in cutting-edge research on the genetic and environmental factors that leave some people vulnerable to substance dependency.
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Exploring Tech Jobs as Psychological Scientists
In this guest column, APS William James Fellow recipient James W. Pennebaker, a renowned academic and software entrepreneur, shares useful advice on pursuing careers in the technology sector.
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Chemical Communication is Nothing to Sniff At
Research is uncovering just how much our noses know about our social environments.
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Substance-Use Stigma Impedes Treatment in Various Ways, Scientists Say
Addiction is one of society’s most misunderstood and rebuked health conditions. That stigma discourages many people from seeking treatment for substance dependence, according to a new report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
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Teaching: Wearable Cognitive Assistants
Learn how research on augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets and other advanced devices can be incorporated into classroom instruction.
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Teaching: Parenting by Lying
Parents and other guardians lie to their children for a host of reasons, research confirms. Students have an opportunity to explore why parents evade the truth.
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Science in Service: Shaping Federal Support of Scientific Research
Social psychologist Elizabeth Necka shares her experiences as a program officer at the National Institute on Aging.
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Student Notebook: Tips for Navigating the Demands of Graduate School
Understanding the science of stress can help graduate students manage the uncertainties and demands they face, says PhD student Kyle LaFollette.
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Vazire Outlines Goals for Transparency, Diversity in Psychological Science
The new Editor-in-Chief of APS’s flagship journal plans new steps to promote continued rigor and transparency in the publication’s content.
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A Tribute to APS Fellows Lost in 2023
The Observer honors the APS Fellows who passed away over the past year and left an indelible mark on scientific psychology. Their groundbreaking studies and theories have advanced fields ranging from clinical psychology to neuroscience.
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Professional Development Workshop: The Keys to a Successful Mentoring Relationship
What’s the best way to establish a productive mentoring bond? An APS Professional Development Webinar offers some answers.
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Trauma and Resilience in Disaster’s Wake: A Scientific Perspective
In a November 15 Science for Society webinar, scientists and advocates shared their expertise and perspectives on well-being in collectively traumatic situations.
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Seven Tips for Conducting Research With Low-Income Participants
Psychological researchers face a number of methodological and practical challenges when collecting data on low socio-economic communities. A team of scientists offer suggestions on overcoming those obstacles.
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PSPI Live: Understanding the Stigma Associated With Substance Dependence
In an October 25 APS PSPI Live webinar, experts in the field discussed substance abuse and dependence from a nuanced perspective that goes beyond common misconceptions. A recording of the symposium is now available for registrants and APS members.
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2024 APS Lifetime Achievement Awards Honor 15 Psychological Scientists
Scientists who have pioneered our understanding of language, vision, theory of mind, racial/ethnic identity, and much more are among the 15 recipients of APS’s highest honors.
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Science for Society: How Research Can Foster Social Equity
To create lasting social change, psychological scientists are not just studying marginalized communities, but partnering with them.
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Doing Time: “Unfair” Delays Lead to Harsher Sentences
Most people agree that the punishment should fit the crime, but procedural delays outside of defendants’ control may cause judges, case review boards, and other third parties to support more severe sentences.
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Teaching: Ethical Research to Help Romania’s Abandoned Children
An early intervention experiment in Bucharest can introduce students to the importance of responsive caregiving during human development.
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Teaching: Understanding Our Inner Darkness May Shed Light into Humanity’s Common Good
A group activity can help students reflect on different kinds of dehumanization and brainstorm a more prosocial path forward.
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Making Science Clear in Court
A psychological researcher uncovers how judges and juries evaluate expert scientific testimony.
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Finding Opportunities in Research Administration
In a conversation with APS President Wendy Wood, clinical scientist Christine Hunter shares how she’s applied skills learned in graduate school to her role as a government research director.
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Student Notebook: Mastering the Classroom
Fifth-year graduate student Serena Zadoorian provides a list of essential information and advice for new associate instructors.
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How Owning a Gun Raises Anxiety
In the first webinar of APS’s Science for Society series on September 20, 2023, scientists and advocates shared their expertise and perspectives on the relationship between gun violence and anxiety.
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Up-and-Coming Voices: Bringing Science to Justice
Two researchers share their research related to criminal justice.
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Cattell Fund Projects Include Research on Children’s Executive Function, Empathy Choice, and More
The James McKeen Cattell Fund has recognized APS Fellow Stephanie M. Carlson, C. Daryl Cameron, Robert Hampton, and Kevin Holmes as recipients of its Sabbatical Fund Fellowship for 2023–2024.
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Communicating Psychological Science: Global Threat Without a Global Consensus
Özge Gürcanlı Fischer-Baum discusses the need for supportive policies to elevate the power of science and to educate the public about climate change.
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Psychological Research on Breastfeeding and Eating Disorders Earn Two Scientists Federal Award at APS Annual Convention
The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded two poster presenters at the 2023 APS Annual Convention with the Building Bridges Award.
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Psychological Science and Public Health: A Perspective from Psychological Scientist Leaders in Federal Government
Two psychological scientists explore methods to improve uptake of public health interventions and invite other researchers to consider how their work can help address public health issues.
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Careers Up Close: Ryan Fitzgerald Eyes Eyewitness Identification
Associate professor and researcher Ryan Fitzgerald discusses his research into eyewitness identification, mentoring students, and lessons he’s learned along the way.
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Science for Society: Insights from Psychological Science on Gun Violence and Anxiety
In the first webinar of APS’s Science for Society series on September 20, 2023, scientists and advocates shared their expertise and perspectives on the relationship between gun-violence and anxiety.
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How Climate Shaped Our Minds—and How It Might Still Save Us from Climate Change
Over generations, cultures including those in Yazd, Iran, develop customs, habits, and values that are adapted to water scarcity.
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Global Science Requires Greater Equity, Diversity, and Cultural Precision
Three authors discuss the discrepancy between espoused ideals for a global science and implicit biases that perpetuate unequal visibility and representation in psychological science.
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The Limitless Applications of Psychological Science
“I think there’s never been greater interest in and relevance and importance of translating rigorous research and academic scholarship for practitioners,” said Michael Fenlon of PricewaterhouseCoopers in this exclusive interview with APS President Wendy Wood.
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Unleashing the Power of Emotional Responses for Pro-Environmental Action
Engaging in pro-environmental behavior can trigger spillover effects, creating a ripple of positive changes in individuals and their communities.
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Scientific Storytelling for the Current Climate
Achieving almost any of the world’s major climate interventions will require collective action. Stories are among the most universal, scalable approaches to convincing others to embrace these collective efforts.
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Up-and-Coming Voices: Behavior and Climate
Four researchers share their research related to behavior and climate.
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Careers Up Close: Kimin Eom on Keeping the Faith in Sustainability Research
Assistant professor at Singapore Management University Kimin Eom discusses his research into prosociality, maintaining morale, and helping others build on their successes.
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Teaching: Why the Bias Blind Spot Matters and How to Reduce It
We often recognize bias in others but rarely in ourselves. Teaching students about the bias blind spot can help them increase their self-knowledge and reduce interpersonal conflicts.
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Teaching: The Perils of Post-Event Identification
Eyewitness memory is susceptible to distortions that can lead a witness to mistakenly identify an innocent suspect as a perpetrator. Teach students about the challenges inherent in identifying a face from a video image.
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Student Notebook: Tips and Tricks for International Students’ Survival in a Foreign Land
“The good news is that most international students have an ultimately positive experience, just as I have,” says Doroteja Rubez in this column. “Here are my suggestions for other international students—as well as their allies.”
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Back Page: Bringing Climate Change Home
Norman D Henderson Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies at Oberlin College Cindy Frantz discusses her research into humans’ relationship with the natural world, promoting sustainability, and developing strategies that can help generate support to addressing climate change.
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APS Teaching Fund Showcase: Psychological Detective Activity Boxes
With the help of a $5,000 grant from the APS Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science, John Marazita and Maryam Elmajadoubi, an undergraduate honors student, created Psychological Detective Activity Boxes to promote a new generation of psychological scientists.
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Exploring the Future of Clinical Science Training
APS Fellow Ann Kring provides a breakdown of the Clinical Science Summit, where psychological scientists gathered to discuss methods to strengthen and improve clinical science for the generations to come.
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Bringing Greater Rigor to Behavior-Change Research: NIH Best Practices
In a workshop at the 2023 APS Annual Convention, researchers from the Science of Behavior Change Research Network discussed the importance of adopting a framework that seeks to better understand and respond to the underlying mechanisms driving forms of behavior change.
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Complexities and Lessons in Researching Culture-Specific Experiences
Gheirat exemplifies a complex, culture-specific experience that requires using culturally sensitive research practices to investigate. Explore these case-specific ideas and solutions for researching phenomena from little-understood and/or studied phenomena.
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Diversity, Trust, and Informed Consent: Making Genetics Research Effective for All
Research on genetic risk factors is paving the way for precision mental healthcare, but the field needs more racially diverse participants and perspectives for all people to benefit equally.
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The Bad-Behavior Blend
“The one gene, one disease idea is a thing of the past.” Scientists aren’t simply trying to identify people who are innately predisposed to incivility, immorality, or lawlessness. They’re examining how parenting, education, and other life experiences trigger those biological leanings.
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Communicating Psychological Science: Neurodiversity in the Workplace
Özge Gürcanlı Fischer-Baum explores how greater awareness of neurodiversity has influenced great (but not enough) change in research, advocacy, and cultural expectations.
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Student Notebook: Applying Lessons From Sports to Academics
Third-year doctoral student Teona Velehorschi provides tips to help students manage the demands associated with the world of academia.
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Teaching: Applying a Growth Mindset to Mental Disorders
Although genetic profiling can provide useful information that can enhance personalized treatment plans for individuals, Ahn and Perricone (2023) argue that learning more about one’s genetic risk for mental disorders can have unintended and potentially negative consequences.
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Teaching: Are Romantic Relationships Actually Good for Mental Health?
Few psychologists realize that a potent risk factor for psychological disorders has been hiding in plain sight: people’s dissatisfaction with their current romantic relationship. Teach critical thinking about risk factors and relying on scientific evidence rather than intuition.
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Up-and-Coming Voices: Genetics Research in Psychological Science
Previews of relevant research by students and early-career scientists.
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Research Briefs
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Careers Up Close: Katie Ehrlich on Studying Intergenerational Health Disparities, Finding Your Footing, and Helping Others Succeed
An associate professor at the University of Georgia, Katie Ehrlich researches how social experiences as a child can shape mental and physical health across the lifespan.
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It’s Time We Trained Students for Diverse Careers in Psychological Science
The variety of positions held by psychologists is not a new development, writes APS President Wendy Wood in her debut column. So why has psychology graduate training largely retained the classic model of a direct path to an academic job?
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Peak Science: At 35, the APS Annual Convention Hits Its Stride
The 2023 APS Annual Convention began with a keynote by Catherine Alexandra Hartley (New York University) examining the causes and consequences of exploration across the lifespan.
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Decades at the Helm: APS 2023 Convention Honors APS Founding Executive Director Alan G. Kraut
APS Founding Executive Director Alan G. Kraut received a special proclamation for his contributions to APS and the field more broadly.
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More Effective Policymaking Keeps the Audience in Mind. Here’s the Science Behind Storytelling
Stories may complement established policy tools. Walsh and colleagues define the elements of storytelling and discuss stories’ key features and functions, providing design principles for policymakers interested in building stories.
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Silver Linings in the Demographic Revolution
Podcast: In her final column as APS President, Alison Gopnik makes the case for more effectively and creatively caring for vulnerable humans at either end of life.
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Behavioral Insights in the Global South
Seven authors provide case studies that illustrate both the potential of behavioral science to improve people’s lives and some of the unique challenges of applying it in Global South settings.
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Teaching: Big Smile—Distant Diversity Drives Emotion Culture
Why do people from some regions tend to be more extroverted and agreeable than those from other regions? Teaching about the ancestral diversity theory of culture and human emotion.
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Teaching: Phenomenological Control—What Is Reality, Really?
Phenomenological control refers to the ability to construct subjective experiences that distort objective reality. Teaching tips and guidelines for this fascinating area of research.
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The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Psychological Science Timeline
COVID-19 remains a reality around the world, but the pandemic itself has largely receded. We’ve created a timeline of some of the ways in which APS and psychological science more broadly have responded to COVID-19.
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Research Briefs
Recent highlights from APS journals articles on the link between self-esteem and eating disorders, how to be liked in first encounters, the effects of stress on rigid learning, and much more.
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Careers Up Close: Joel Anderson on Gender and Sexual Prejudices, the Freedoms of Academic Research, and the Importance of Collaboration
Joel Anderson, a senior research fellow at both Australian Catholic University and La Trobe University, researches group processes, with a specific interest on prejudice, stigma, and stereotypes.
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Up-and-Coming Voices: Informing Public Health Through Psychological Science
Previews of relevant research by students and early-career scientists.
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Friend and Foe: How Inflammation Fights Disease and Fuels Depression
Our immune system uses inflammation to fend off infection and heal injuries, but when this system is overburdened, inflammation can also fuel mental health conditions.
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The Value of Values in Poverty Reduction
Anti-poverty programs in the developing world often sputter because they clash with local culture and values. But researchers are finding success with programs that align with the tenets of the communities they’re trying to help.
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Back Page: Singular Sensation
Clinical psychologist Dominika Ochnik discusses her research into singlehood and well-being, mental health risks among young people, and her plans to study associations between urbanization and mental health.
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Truth, Lies, and the Consequences of Science Denial
What accounts for resistance to science-backed evidence and vulnerability to misinformation and conspiracy theories? Takeaways from an integrative science symposium at APS’s 2023 International Convention of Psychological Science.
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Productive Failure and the New Frontiers of Psychology Education
During the Teaching Institute at APS’s 2023 international convention in Brussels, teachers of psychology from around the world learned from experts and peers how novel empirical approaches might strengthen their own teaching.
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Exploration vs. Exploitation: Adults Are Learning (Once Again) From Children
Podcast: Why should kids have all the fun? Alison Gopnik on how science and business, too, can resolve the tension between the lure of the crazy new thing and the safe haven of the tried and true.
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Myth: The Lightbulb Moment, Innovation’s Most Misleading Meme
Edward Wasserman explores the origin of the famous “lightbulb moment,” how the popular cliché originated, and what can be learned from it.
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Deconstructing Entrepreneurial Discovery
An adaption of a 2022 preprint article published in Technovation, this article explores how alertness might be related to entrepreneurial discovery and whether positivity or negativity are more associated with alertness.
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The Science of Starting Up
A burgeoning assortment of psychological scientists is studying the factors that distinguish successful entrepreneurs from those that falter. Their work is particularly salient amid today’s challenging economic climate.
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Latin American Psychological Science: Will the Global North Make Room?
Seven authors outline factors that influence scientific advancements in Latin America and identify potential avenues for reframing research conducted in the region, especially by Latin American researchers, in the global scientific landscape.
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Sword From the Stone: Developing Leadership Across the Ages
Other than a handful of modern monarchs and heirs to proverbial corporate thrones, most leaders aren’t born, they’re developed. Researchers are just beginning to investigate how individuals of all ages learn to take the reins.
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Artificial Intelligence: Your Thoughts and Concerns
APS members weigh in on the biggest opportunities and/or ethical challenges involving AI within the field of psychological science. Will we witness vast and constructive cross-fertilization—or “a dystopian cyberpunk corporation-led hellscape”?
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Smooth Operator: The Editor Who Keeps the APS Journals Machine Flowing
Michele Nathan, the longest-tenured managing editor in the history of APS’s journals, is stepping away from this work in 2023. Two of her many longtime colleagues pay tribute to some of the ways in which her contributions have been so important to the science of psychology.
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A Very Human Answer to One of AI’s Deepest Dilemmas
Imagine that we designed a fully intelligent, autonomous robot that acted on the world to accomplish its goals. How could we make sure that it would want the same things we do? Alison Gopnik explores. Read or listen!
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How Machine Learning Is Transforming Psychological Science
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are providing insights that will soon transcend scientists’ observational capabilities, potentially leading to revolutionary advances in understanding human psychology.
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Religion and the Development of a More Contextually Responsive Discipline: The Case of Indonesian Psychology
Growing interest in studying the transformative aspects of local religions and religiosity is not only important for the development of psychological science in Indonesia but also sociologically meaningful.
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I, Psychologist: Exploring the Ethical Hurdles and Clinical Advantages of AI in Healthcare
Patients are often resistant to the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. But AI-assisted care could usher in a new era of personalized medicine.