“What do they think this is, high school????” If you have taught first-year college students, you may have felt such exasperation. Especially in the fall semester, first-year college students are truly like strangers in a strange land (Chaskes, 1996).  Everything about the college setting is unfamiliar, from your campus acronyms More

The concept of social justice is taught in many college courses across numerous disciplines, including social work, political philosophy, education, and psychology. According to Rawls (1999), social justice is “the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties More

Our friend, colleague, and extraordinary scholar, Edward E. Smith, passed away August 17, 2012, at the age of 72. Most recently, he was the William B. Ransford Professor of Psychology and the William B. Ransford Professor of Psychology (in psychiatry) at Columbia University, as well as the Director of the More

“I’m facing the challenge of a one-session section of Intro, evenings from 6:30 to 9:20…I have a sense of the sort of suggestions I might hear, but I am interested in any insights on how to keep folks engaged until 9:30 at night.” Great question! Teaching a night class can More

In February 2013, love (of psychological science) was in the air. More than 125 articles about research published in APS journals appeared in major media outlets, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with discussion of the research. Among the highlights were four studies published in Psychological More

In March, APS Began a multi-part series profiling Rising Stars in psychological science. This month, we highlight more young luminaries poised to revolutionize the field. In upcoming issues we will continue to profile these outstanding stars. Andy Baron Marc Berman Raphael Bernier Philipp Kanske Sangeet Khemlani Edward Lemay Kristen Lindquist More

It may be obvious that effort and stamina are required to accomplish anything worthwhile in life. But how easy is it to forget this fact in moments when we feel tortoise-like relative to our seemingly hare-like peers? More

President’s Note: In my first column for the Observer, I wrote briefly about the great value that psychology departments have in institutions of higher education in the areas of teaching, research, and service. In this month’s column, Ruth V. Watkins, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at More

As part of APS’s 25th Anniversary celebration, the Board of Directors is honoring 25 distinguished scientists who have had a profound impact on the field of psychological science over the past quarter century. Eight individuals have been selected to receive the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award, honoring a lifetime of More

This article is part of a series commemorating APS’s 25th anniversary in 2013. Remember those days back in grade school when you wrote an essay entitled something along the lines of, “How I spent my summer vacation?” It was a chore back then, but now, all these decades later, I More

“We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone…and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.” -Justice Sandra Day O’Connor As graduate students, the guidance that we receive from mentors can meaningfully More

A multitude of environmental scientists, among others, worry that future generations will look back at the present era as one in which the human race could have — and should have —taken decisive action to prevent (or at least mitigate) the most menacing costs associated with global climate change. According More

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health & Society Scholars (HSS) program is designed to build the nation’s capacity for research, leadership, and policy change in health. The program seeks to improve the nation’s health by addressing the full spectrum of factors that affect health and inform policy. Up to More

Two years from now, in the spring of 2015, a new Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will be released. This will be the fifth time the MCAT has undergone a major revision since it was first administered in 1928. Each revision of the MCAT provides a window into what is More

Mitt Romney hit the proverbial nail on the head when he proclaimed in a presidential debate that “we cannot kill our way out of this mess.” He was undoubtedly referring to the global war on terror that the United States has been waging for the last 12 years. The question More

C. Nathan DeWall, University of Kentucky, and renowned textbook author and APS Fellow David G. Myers, Hope College, have teamed up to create a new series of Observer columns aimed at integrating cutting-edge psychological science into the classroom. Each column will offer advice and how-to guidance about teaching a particular More

Procrastination is complex in its causes and the ways it affects the lives of those who wait; the consequences can be taxing on your well-being More

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day, recognized by the United Nations General Assembly for the purpose of improving the lives of people living with autism. According to the organization Autism Speaks, autism affects 1 in 88 children; however, scientists are still working to understand the causes of autism-spectrum conditions More

Map users are often given the option to choose their own displays, but that doesn’t mean they always choose the map that suits their needs. In a new article, Mary Hegarty from the University of California, Santa Barbara reviews recent research suggesting that, when given the choice, both lay-people and More

Widely considered to be one of the fathers of the field of cognitive neuroscience, APS Past President Michael Gazzaniga will give the keynote address at the 25th APS Annual Convention in Washington, DC, on “Unity in a Modular World.” Gazzaniga is credited with being the first researcher to examine split More

Research published in APS’s newest journal, Clinical Psychological Science, is getting big attention — potentially from millions of people — on social media. The study, conducted by Jessica Tracy and Daniel Randles of the University of British Columbia, focused on whether the distinction between shame and guilt might play an More