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Frustration May Increase Attraction to Violent Video Games
Denying people the opportunity to engage in stealing, cheating, and other taboo behaviors may lead them to seek out violent video games as a way of managing their frustration.
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Neuropsychological Correlates of Emotion Regulation in Women With HIV: An ERP Study
In case you missed it, Roger C. McIntosh presented his research at the APS 24th Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois, USA. HIV-positive women are shown to demonstrate emotional deficit. The regulation of emotions is thought to require some executive function (EF) capacity. Since HIV/AIDS affects cortical areas which sub-serve EF, this study aimed to (1) use event related potentials (ERP) to determine whether HIV-positive women exhibit attenuated cortical responses while reappraising unpleasant stimuli, and (2) determine if this electrocortical activity was related to various forms of executive function.
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Reflections on Rumination: In Memory of Susan Nolen-Hoeksema
Yale psychology department chair Susan Nolen-Hoeksema passed away tragically on January 2, 2013. Through her books, public appearances, and pioneering research, Nolen-Hoeksema worked to improve mental health care and educate the public about gender differences in depression. In a special symposium at the 25th APS Annual Convention in Washington, DC, five of Nolen-Hoeksema’s collaborators and past students will discuss her influence on the study of gender differences in depression, depressive rumination, and emotional regulation. Participants will include Ed Watkins, Katie A. McLaughlin, Lori M. Hilt, Blair E. Wisco, Amelia Aldao, and James J. Gross.
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Emotion-Health Connection Not Limited to Industrialized Nations
In fact, UC Irvine study finds phenomenon more marked in developing countries Positive emotions are known to play a role in physical well-being, and stress is strongly linked to poor health, but is this strictly a “First World” phenomenon? In developing nations, is the fulfillment of basic needs more critical to health than how one feels? A new study shows that emotions do affect health around the world and may, in fact, be more important to wellness in low-income countries. The study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is the first to examine the emotion-health connection in a representative sample of 150,000 people in 142 countries.
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New Research on Aging From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research on cognitive and perceptual processes in aging published in Psychological Science. Distraction Can Reduce Age-Related Forgetting Renée K. Biss, K. W. Joan Ngo, Lynn Hasher, Karen L. Campbell, and Gillian Rowe Can distraction improve memory in older adults? Older and younger adults studied a list of words and then performed a working memory task in which half of the original words appeared as distractors. Participants were then asked to recall as many words as they could from the original word list. Older adults had better memory for words from the list that had been repeated in the working memory task.
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Do-gooder or Ne’er-do-well? Behavioral Science Explains Patterns of Moral Behavior
Does good behavior lead to more good behavior? Or do we try to balance our good and bad deeds? The answer depends on our ethical mindset, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Psychological scientist Gert Cornelissen of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and colleagues found that people who have an “ends justify the means” mindset are more likely to balance their good and bad deeds, while those who believe that what is right and wrong is a matter of principle are more likely to be consistent in their behavior, even if that behavior is bad.
