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COVID-19 Has Taught Us What Intelligence Really Is
COVID-19 has taught us something important about intelligence. It’s not just that we can get by without IQ-test proxies like the SAT and ACT that go by a number of different names to avoid being called IQ tests. (Research by Douglas K. Detterman, professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University, and others shows that these tests are essentially disguised tests of general intelligence.) It’s not that such tests administered online at home will almost certainly be invalid. Rather, it’s that the tests never measured what’s important in the first place, and we should have known better. Actually, we did know better.
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You 2.0: WOOP, WOOP!
Growing up in Germany, psychologist Gabriele Oettingen was not surrounded by people who spoke explicitly about their dreams and ambitions. "When I came to America, it was wonderful because people always said, 'Yes, do it. Yes, that's possible. Yeah, OK, this is a good idea. Why don't you do it?' Whereas back in Europe, people were more cautious and said, 'You know, are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure this is possible?' So I was really happy to come to America because people were just sort of encouraging whatever idea you had." But Oettingen's research has found downsides to this mentality.
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The Psychology Behind Why Some College Students Break COVID-19 Rules
NN spoke with the following experts about the drivers behind these risky decisions: Hannah Schacter, an assistant professor and developmental psychologist at Wayne State UniversityBen Locke, the senior director for Counseling & Psychological Services at Pennsylvania State UniversityMary Karapetian Alvord, director of the private practice Alvord, Baker & Associates who mostly counsels children, teens and young adults. All three experts know college students well.
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Can You Control Your Happiness? New Study Gives A Scientific Backed Answer
Many would agree that happiness is difficult to define and challenging to measure—partly due to its subjective nature. Is it possible to get a scientific handle on such a slippery concept? In happiness surveys, over 80% of people rate their overall life satisfaction as “pretty to very happy,” and comparably 80% also rate their current mood as positive (for example, positive 6–7 on a 10 point scale, where 5 is neutral). A lucky few may even live consistently around a point of 8—although excessively higher scores may actually impede attainment of life success, as measured by wealth, education, or political participation.
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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on intolerance, social-structure learning, personality change, learned preferences, effects of teachers’ instructional language, and collective emotions.
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All That Performative Environmentalism Adds Up
My newly adopted home state is on fire again: Scorching heat and lightning strikes have sparked dozens of fires across California, burning an area the size of Rhode Island. Iowa is reeling from a deadly derecho. The Mountain West is suffering through a severe drought. Towns and cities all over are experiencing one of the hottest summers on record, if not the hottest. And a hurricane just tore through the Gulf Coast. With climate change making extreme weather events more intense and more common, and Congress continuing to ignore this existential threat, I have tried to do my part. After moving to California, I went on a no-buy streak.
