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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on the role of situation in psychological science, neuroscience and moral behavior, learning to write, stress, and the role of emotions on attention and work performance.
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‘I’m Extremely Controversial’: the Psychologist Rethinking Human Emotion
In early March, as the world began to realise that coronavirus wasn’t going to go quietly, psychology professor Lisa Feldman Barrett was thousands of miles away from home. “I went to New Zealand because I was getting an honorary degree,” she tells me over the phone from lockdown in Newton, a leafy suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, where she runs a lab devoted to the study of emotions. She had arranged the trip to coincide with spring break so her college-age daughter could join her and see the sights. But as countries around the world began to impose restrictions, she started having second thoughts. “I was asking myself, should she really be coming, or should we be going home?
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We Can Help Shape How Our Children Remember the Pandemic — and Foster Their Future Happiness
APS Member/Author: Daniel Willingham My kids won’t be in school full-time this fall, so, like most parents, I will be thinking about how to keep them occupied and content. But I’m also a memory researcher, and that makes me wonder how they will recall these odd times decades from now. Naturally, I hope those memories will be more pleasant than miserable. That goal sounds uncomplicated — happy kids should grow into adults with happy memories. But reminiscences aren’t a simple averaging of experience. I’m not out to manipulate my kids, but knowing how memory works helps me shape what my children will recall of 2020. What’s a desirable “normal” of the pandemic?
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Laughter May Be Effective Medicine for These Trying Times
Some enlightened doctors, nurses and therapists have a prescription for helping all of us to get through this seemingly never-ending pandemic: Try a little laughter. Humor is not just a distraction from the grim reality of the crisis, said Dr. Michael Miller, a cardiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. It’s a winning strategy to stay healthy in the face of it. “Heightened stress magnifies the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes,” Dr. Miller said.
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The Debate On Power Posing Continues: Here’s Where We Stand
Power posing or postural feedback is a technique that suggests how you hold your body influences how you feel and how you behave. Over the last decade, naysayers labeled power posing a pseudoscience, and the intense debate over the validity of power posing research culminated in death threats and bullying. Now, more research has confirmed the effects are real, and a new generation of researchers is honing in on exactly how our posture and stance impacts our thoughts and behavior.
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The Best Live Animal Feeds From Around the World
If you spend hours scrolling through cat videos online, there’s a scientific explanation for why that’s a hard habit to kick: A new study has found that watching footage of cute animals can reduce your anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate.
