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The Many Faces of Network Analysis
Psychometrist Denny Borsboom from the University of Amsterdam kicked off the program talking about networks he and his team generated using categories from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In addition to creating networks that show how symptoms from different mental disorders are connected, Borsboom has also developed symptom networks for individuals. "You can now think of people as having different network structures," says Borsboom.
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Do Parenting Styles Mirror Teaching Styles?
Douglas A. Bernstein of the University of South Florida and has over 40 years of classroom experience. He thought he had seen it all, but he continues to be surprised till this day by some of his students’ antics and excuses in the classroom. In his ‘Taxonomy of Teacher Complaints’ or TTC as he calls it, Bernstein states that a lack of motivation and respect, irresponsible learning behavior, dependency, academic dishonesty and an overdeveloped sense of entitlement in students are a teacher’s worst nightmare.
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Men’s Learning About Women’s Sexual Interest
My name is Teresa A. Treat from the University of Iowa and I presented my research at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. This study examines learning processes in young men regarding women's sexual-interest cues under probabilistic feedback conditions. The conditions established were more characteristic of "real-world" social-learning environments than deterministic feedback. 661 undergraduate males completed a category-learning task with photographs of women in an equivalent age range. Probabilistic feedback decreased sexual-interest utilization; individual differences in learning correlated with sexual-aggression risk.
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Broadband Social Cognition
The presidential symposium at the APS 23rd Annual Convention challenged four scientists to give modern scientific support to Aristotle's ancient saying: "Man is by nature a social animal." "Twenty-three hundred years later we have a science of all this," said APS President and symposium chair Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard, upon introducing the speakers.
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Rest for the Weary
Every knows the importance of sleep to daily health and performance, but very few of us practice what we preach. This conflict formed the core of the SSCP Distinguished Scientist Award address delivered by Richard Bootzin of the University of Arizona at the APS 23rd Annual Convention. Bootzin opened his talk by pointing out some of the perils of poor sleep. Research has linked sleep disturbance with later development of depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and substance abuse. These problems can affect people at all stages of life — from infancy to adulthood. "It's not the case that we adapt to our poor sleep," Bootzin said.
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What Makes a Nation Intelligent?
University of Washington psychological scientist Earl Hunt isn’t about to let anybody tell him that Sub-Saharan Africa is impoverished because its people lack the genetic potential for book-smarts. In his James McKeen Cattell Award Address, “What Makes a Nation Intelligent?” he attacks the genetic hypothesis of intelligence by demonstrating how social, cultural and environmental factors shape the cognitive abilities of a nation. The genetic hypothesis has been used since Darwin’s time to explain why people from some countries seem smarter. It’s one aspect of an outdated evolutionary psychology that envisions cognitive ability as a mostly inherited trait.
