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Our Mood Doesn’t Affect Our Behavior as Much as Our Habits Do, Says New Research
A new study published in Psychological Science reveals that we often blame our mood for our behavior even though it is, in many cases, prompted by habit. According to the study, this bias frequently leads us to misattribute the real cause of our behavior. “A study by my co-author, Dr. Wendy Wood, found that more than 40% of people’s daily behavior was habitual,” says psychologist Asaf Mazar of the University of Southern California.
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Science Shows How to Protect Kids’ Mental Health, but It’s Being Ignored
Young people in the United States are experiencing a mental health crisis. Warnings from the surgeon general, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and other prominent organizations, as well as regular news reports, highlight the catastrophe, with parents struggling to help their children, and students lined up in school halls to get even a few minutes with counselors, psychologists or social workers who are overwhelmed with young patients seeking services. Has the current crisis been caused by the pandemic? No. Those of us who have been monitoring the health and well-being of youth know this storm began years ago.
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Mindfulness Hurts. That’s Why It Works.
Some years ago, a friend told me that his marriage was suffering because he was on the road so much for work. I started counseling him on how to fix things—to move more meetings online, to make do with less money. But no matter what I suggested, he always had a counterargument for why it was impossible. Finally, it dawned on me: His issue wasn’t a logistics or work-management problem. It was a home problem. As he ultimately acknowledged, he didn’t like being there, but he was unwilling to confront the real source of his troubles. Many of us, even if we don’t travel for work, do something similar by avoiding spending time in the home of our own mind.
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On the Phone, Alone
Many measures of adolescent mental health began to deteriorate sometime around 2009. It is true of the number of U.S. high-school students who say they feel persistently sad or hopeless. It’s also true of reported loneliness. And it is true of emergency room visits for self-harm among Americans ages 10 to 19. This timing is suspicious because internet use among adolescents was also starting to soar during the same period. Apple began selling the iPhone in 2007. Facebook opened itself for general use in late 2006, and one-third of Americans were using it by 2009.
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Virtual News Briefings at APS 2022 Convention
Journalists are invited to attend two virtual media briefings during the 2022 APS Annual Convention.
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New Content From Perspectives on Psychological Science
A sample of articles on behavior genetics, methods beyond experimentation, women and sex, clinical research, kinds of replication, ideology, COVID-19 as an opportunity to reimagine psychological science, and the measurement of consciousness.
