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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.
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Conflicting Cultural Identities May Foster Political Radicalism
New research suggests that dual-identity immigrants -- first-generation immigrants and their descendants who identify with both their cultural minority group and the society they now live in -- may be more prone to political radicalism if they perceive their two cultural identities to be incompatible. The new research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Psychological scientist Bernd Simon from Kiel University in Germany and colleagues hypothesized that perceived incompatibility between the two cultural identities may pave the way for controversial or even destructive forms of politicization, such as political radicalism.
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Power Helps You Live the Good Life by Bringing You Closer to Your True Self
How does being in a position of power at work, with friends, or in a romantic relationship influence well-being? While we might like to believe the stereotype that power leads to unhappiness or loneliness, new research indicates that this stereotype is largely untrue: Being in a position of power may actually make people happier. Drawing on personality and power research, Yona Kifer of Tel Aviv University in Israel and colleagues hypothesized that holding a position of authority might enhance subjective well-being through an increased feeling of authenticity.
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Diet, Parental Behavior, and Preschool Can Boost Children’s IQ
Supplementing children’s diets with fish oil, enrolling them in quality preschool, and engaging them in interactive reading all turn out to be effective ways to raise a young child’s intelligence, according to a new report published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Using a technique called meta-analysis, a team led by John Protzko, a doctoral student at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, combined the findings from existing studies to evaluate the overall effectiveness of each type of intervention.
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Learning and Memory May Play a Central Role in Synesthesia
People with color-grapheme synesthesia experience color when viewing written letters or numerals, usually with a particular color evoked by each grapheme (i.e., the letter ‘A’ evokes the color red). In a new study, researchers Nathan Witthoft and Jonathan Winawer of Stanford University present data from 11 color grapheme synesthetes who had startlingly similar color-letter pairings that were traceable to childhood toys containing magnetic colored letters. Their findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
