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Happiness Increases with Age, Across Generations
Longitudinal research reveals that self-reported feelings of well-being tend to increase with age, but that a person’s overall level of well-being depends on when he or she was born.
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21 Minutes to Marital Satisfaction
Marital satisfaction generally declines over time, but a brief writing intervention that helps spouses adopt a more objective outlook on marital conflict could help prevent couples from losing that loving feeling.
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Shame About Past Alcoholism Predicts Relapse and Declining Health in Recovering Alcoholics
Feeling shame about past instances of problem drinking may increase the likelihood of relapse and other health problems, according to a new study in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of British Columbia, shows that behavioral displays of shame strongly predicted whether recovering alcoholics would relapse in the future. Public shaming has long been viewed as a way to encourage people to amend their ways and research suggests that experiences of shame can motivate people to improve their self-image and contribute to a common good.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science. Attentional-Tracking Acuity Is Modulated by Illusory Changes in Perceived Speed Welber Marinovic, Samuel L. Pearce, and Derek H. Arnold Researchers know that attentional tracking is affected by the speed of an object, but is it the actual object speed or the perceived object speed that makes the difference? In this study, after viewing either a fast or a slow adaptor (a stimulus that increases or decreases the perceived speed of a target stimulus), participants were asked to track one of 12 dots that rotated around a fixation point.
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Researchers Explore Motivation and Cognition in Addiction
Read about the latest insights on addiction from Perspectives on Psychological Science and Clinical Psychological Science. Motivation and Self-Regulation in Addiction: A Call for Convergence Cătălina E. Köpetz, Carl W. Lejuez, Reinout W. Wiers, and Arie W. Kruglanski Although motivation and motivational constructs often play a central role in theories of addiction, these theories have often examined motivation as an explanation only for initiating and maintaining addictive behavior. As a result, they have overlooked the commonalities between addiction and other motivated behavior.
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A Positive Family Climate in Adolescence Is Linked to Marriage Quality in Adulthood
Experiencing a positive family climate as a teenager may be connected to your relationships later in life, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. While research has demonstrated long-term effects of aggression and divorce across generations, the impact of a positive family climate has received less attention. Psychological scientist Robert Ackerman of the University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues wanted to examine whether positive interpersonal behaviors in families might also have long-lasting associations with future relationships.