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Current Directions in Schizophrenia Research
It has been nearly a century since the term “schizophrenia” was first used to describe what was then considered a hopeless and incurable disorder of thought and emotion. Schizophrenia is still baffling to both scientists and the general public, but it is no longer considered hopeless. Significant advances have been made on several fronts in fathoming and combating this debilitating mental illness—from genetics to neuroscience to the psychosocial aspects of the disorder. The August issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, published by the Association for Psychological Science, is a state-of-the-art summary of the latest research on every facet of schizophrenia.
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The Psychological Science of “Inception”
For three weeks in a row, Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie “Inception” reigned at the top of the Box Office hit list. Sure, the special effects and imaginative landscapes are exciting, but did you know that the seemingly outlandish concept behind the storyline of “Inception” is really related to ideas that psychological scientists have been studying for years? According to the Association for Psychological Science, empirical research has shown that ideas can, in fact, be implanted into people’s minds and integrated into a person’s memory.
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People Who Are Angry Pay More Attention to Rewards Than Threats
Anger is a negative emotion. But, like being happy or excited, feeling angry makes people want to seek rewards, according to a new study of emotion and visual attention. The researchers found that people who are angry pay more attention to rewards than to threats—the opposite of people feeling other negative emotions like fear. Previous research has shown that emotion affects what someone pays attention to. If a fearful or anxious person is given a choice of a rewarding picture, like a sexy couple, or a threatening picture, like a person waving a knife threateningly, they'll spend more time looking at the threat than at the rewarding picture.
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Cross-Cultural Perspective Can Help Teamwork in the Workplace
In this era of globalization, many companies are expanding into numerous countries and cultures. But they should not take a "one size fits all" approach to their business and management styles. As the authors of a new article in a special section on Culture and Psychology in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, point out, people in different cultures think about work in different ways. Being aware of the cultural environment that their coworkers come from may help people work together better. For example, people have different expectations about teamwork, says Cristina B.
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People Think Immoral Behavior Is Funny–But Only if It Also Seems Benign
What makes something funny? Philosophers have been tossing that question around since Plato. Now two psychological scientists think they've come up with the formula: humor comes from a violation or threat to the way the world ought to be that is, at the same time, benign. Most older theories of humor all come up short in one way or another, says A. Peter McGraw, of the University of Colorado-Boulder, who coauthored the study with Caleb Warren. Freud thought humor came from a release of tension; another theory holds that humor comes from a sense of superiority, and still another from incongruity.
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Social Ecology: Lost and Found in Psychological Science
Various aspects of our environment—including political systems, economic systems, and even climate and geography—can affect our thinking and behavior, a field of study known as socioecological psychology. In a report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Shigehiro Oishi and Jesse Graham from the University of Virginia examine the impact of social and physical environments on human thought and behavior. A society's economic system may have long-reaching effects on its citizens’ behaviors, beyond how much money they can make.
