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We aren’t meant to be happy all the time—and that’s a good thing
Quartz: In the 1990s, a psychologist named Martin Seligman led the positive psychology movement, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the center of psychology research and theory. It continued a trend that began in the 1960s with humanistic and existential psychology, which emphasized the importance of reaching one’s innate potential and creating meaning in one’s life, respectively. Since then, thousands of studies and hundreds of books have been published with the goal of increasing well-being and helping people lead more satisfying lives. So why aren’t we happier? Why have self-reported measures of happiness stayed stagnant for over 40 years? Read the whole story: Quartz
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Metaphorically Speaking, Men Are Expected to be Struck by Genius, Women to Nurture It
The New York Times: Try searching for “top inventors of all time” on Google. Start counting the images along the top of your search page, and you’ll go through 29 photos of men before you reach Hedy Lamarr, an Austrian actress from Hollywood’s golden age. In 1942, she shared a patent for a technology to prevent enemies from detecting messages in radio signals. This “Secret Communication System” eventually led to today’s mobile phone technology and to secure military communications. ... Kristen Elmore, a developmental and social psychologist at Cornell University and lead author of the study, saw metaphors about ideas everywhere.
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How To Spark Learning Everywhere Kids Go — Starting With The Supermarket
NPR: Picture this: You're in the supermarket with your hungry preschooler in tow. As you reach into the dairy case, you spot a sign with a friendly cartoon cow. It reads: "Ask your child: Where does milk come from? What else comes from a cow?" In a small study published last year, signs like these, placed in Philadelphia-area supermarkets, sparked a one-third increase in conversations between parents and children under 8. The extra family chatter happened only in low-income neighborhoods. Research shows that's exactly the place where it's needed most: Studies have documented a "word gap" that can lead, ultimately, to poor kids starting school months behind in language development. ...
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This is what emotions look like in your brain
CNN: When you think you're letting your mind wander for a few minutes, your brain is actually lighting up with a range of emotions, according to a new study. Researchers at Duke University's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience asked study participants to rest and think about nothing in particular while inside a scanner, like patients would for an MRI. They observed the peaks and dips of spontaneous emotions passing through the brain like clouds. ...
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Emotions in "Black and White" or Shades of Gray? How We Think About Emotion Shapes Our Perception and Neural Representation of Emotion Ajay B. Satpute, Erik C. Nook, Sandhya Narayanan, Jocelyn Shu, Jochen Weber, and Kevin N. Ochsner Emotions are often thought about in a categorical manner (e.g., feeling "good" or bad"). In reality, emotional expression is constantly changing, creating a variety of gradations. It is unclear whether thinking about emotions in a categorical manner affects emotion perception.
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How The Concept Of Implicit Bias Came Into Being
NPR: Implicit bias - that term has been used a lot lately after several high-profile shootings of black men by police. DAVID GREENE, HOST: And it's also become a divisive topic in this presidential election. The term refers to how attitudes or stereotypes can affect what we say and do without a person being conscious of it. MONTAGNE: To find out more about where this concept comes from, we turn to Mahzarin Banaji. She and another psychologist, Anthony Greenwald, wrote a book called "Blindspot," outlining a theory they came up with 20 years ago known as implicit bias. And she told us about the moment she realized our decisions are guided by forces we're not even aware of.
