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Why Dogs Look Like Their Owners
Fast Company: If you spend enough time strolling along sidewalks or into public parks, eventually you'll see a dog that bears an eerie resemblance to its owner. The experience is common enough for art to imitate it: recall the famous montage in the movie 101 Dalmatians with those uncanny human-canine couplets. And if for some reason these encounters have escaped you, just take a look at the following pairs of photos showing people and their twin-like pets: The similarity is--well, pick whatever description you're most comfortable with, but it's certainly evident. And it's evidence-backed, too.
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Personality Traits Linked to Specific Diseases
Pacific Standard: How likely are you to suffer a stroke? How about a heart condition? Or arthritis? New research suggests the answer depends, in part, on your personality. “Personality traits are not merely predictors of general health,” writes a research team led by psychologist Sara Weston of Washington University in St. Louis, “but also serve as risk factors for the development of a number of diseases.” Analyzing data from a large sample of senior citizens, the researchers found a link between personality types and the likelihood of suffering from a number of late-life medical problems, including a stroke, lung disease, and high blood pressure. Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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Quality of Words, Not Quantity, Is Crucial to Language Skills, Study Finds
The New York Times: It has been nearly 20 years since a landmark education study found that by age 3, children from low-income families have heard 30 million fewer words than more affluent children, putting them at an educational disadvantage before they even began school. The findings led to increased calls for publicly funded prekindergarten programs and dozens of campaigns urging parents to get chatty with their children. Now, a growing body of research is challenging the notion that merely exposing poor children to more language is enough to overcome the deficits they face.
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The Flow of Happiness
Whether in the creative arts, athletics, work, or spiritual practice, happiness lies in working to expand one’s skill level. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has devoted his career to studying what makes people happy. Building on years of detailed research, Csikszentmihalyi created the term “flow” to describe the experience of being completely immersed in an activity for its own sake. When someone is in a state of flow, self-consciousness disappears and sense of time becomes distorted, according to Csikszentmihalyi’s research.
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Noba Psychology: 2015 Student Video Award
The 2015 Student Video Award gives college students a chance to engage in active, creative learning by making short videos about important concepts in psychology. The most outstanding entries will become part of the Noba digital textbook to be viewed by other psychology students around the world. The focus in 2015 is Social Influence. We challenge students to choose a central concept from one of the online modules below and bring it to life in engaging and memorable ways. Noba will award $6,000 for the top honor and $3,000 and $1,000 awards for the second and third place submissions, respectively.
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Better Teamwork Comes From Facing Challenges
From basketball to brain surgery, people can accomplish more working together as a team than they ever could by themselves. As Aristotle famously put it, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” In an article recently published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, psychological scientist Jamie C. Gorman of Texas Tech University outlined new research that is improving our understanding of the cognitive and environmental factors that allow people to work together effectively in teams. Previous studies have shown that shared knowledge between individuals enhances coordination within a team. These improvements in coordination, in turn, boost the team’s performance.
