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Nickola Overall
University of Auckland, New Zealand http://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/nickola-overall What does your research focus on? Intimate relationships can have immense benefits, such as when support from relationship partners protects individuals from stressful events and helps them reach their personal goals. Close relationships can also undermine psychological and physical wellbeing, such as when couples experience relationship conflict. My research investigates both the benefits and costs of intimate relationships, with a particular emphasis on the relative success of different communication strategies used when couples are trying to resolve relationship problems or support each other.
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Andrew Livingstone
University of Stirling, UK http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/staff-profiles/academic-staff/andrew-livingstone What does your research focus on? Broadly, I’m interested in social identity, group processes, and intergroup relations. I’ve also developed a particular interest in the role of emotion in these phenomena. Specific lines of research have focused on (1) the role of group norms and social identity content in intergroup relations; (2) resistance to intergroup inequality and threat by members of minority groups; and (3) emotion as a basis for social identity.
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Jaap Denissen
Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany www.psychology.hu-berlin.de/staff/1682036 What does your research focus on? I am interested in longitudinal transactions between persons and situations. How do people change their behavior in response to situational demands, both in the short term (e.g., on a day-to-day level) and in the longer term (e.g., during an important life transition)? How do people differ in these responses? What effects do these differences have on important life outcomes, such as well-being and friendship formation? What drew you to this line of research? Why is it exciting to you? People tend to underestimate how different we are from each other.
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Neuroscience Explains Why the Grinch Stole Christmas
Forbes: “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.” But why? We all know Dr. Seuss’s iconic tale of the green ogre who lives on a mountain, seething while the Whos in the village below celebrate Christmas. The happier they are, the angrier he gets, until finally he can’t take it anymore and hatches a plan to crush their joy like a glass ornament. Dr. Seuss was a brilliant intuitive psychologist and I’d have loved to chat with him about the core of the Grinch’s rage, but, alas, he left us too early. So I’m turning to another impressive thinker who has taught me a great deal about the neurobiology of emotion: Dr.
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‘Baby brain’ syndrome IS real… and it makes you a better mother
Daily Mail: Pregnant women have long complained that their condition makes them forgetful. Now a researcher has claimed there may be scientific truth in this ‘baby brain’ syndrome – and that there is a very good reason why expectant mothers develop short-term memory loss. The suggestion is that women’s brains change during pregnancy so that they will be better able to concentrate on their newborn’s needs after the birth, with the result that they become less focused on other things, such as where the car keys might be.
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Be YOUR Motivation
As you draw up your list of New Year's Resolutions for 2012, remember to set goals that are really important to you. In this video from Eco-mobilite.tv, psychological scientist Maarten Vansteenkiste explains why autonomous motivation (change that is personally important) is more effective than controlled motivation (change that results from outside pressure). Vansteenkiste's APS Rising Star profile can tell you more about his research. If you want to know even more about motivation, you can read research on effective and ineffective anti-prejudice messages from Psychological Science or watch footage from APS Fellow Elke Webber’s recent chat with the Dalai Llama.
