Description: When you buy a gift for a friend how accurately are you able to predict how well they like the gift once they open it or receive it? When you think about possible trips, merchandise purchases or watching a movie or a play how do you think your experiences of those things would compare… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Social Perception
What Kind of Emotional Actor Are You and Why Does it Matter?
Description: Ok, at work or any formal group setting (a class, a club, a team, etc.) how do you manage your emotions and your expression of your emotions as they arise? Do you let them show and express them? Do you cover or hide them and ‘show’ and even calm exterior or one that is… Read more »
Nonverbal Emotional Expression: IT is Not All in The Face
Description: Did you watch the recent Golden Globe Awards (January 2020)? The MC was Ricky Gervais, well known for his caustic sharp comedic lines and he did not hold back. Because the audience was full of VERY recognizable people (film, TV, and music mega-stars) cameras cut many times to their reactions to things that Gervais… Read more »
Problems With Listening and Empathy: Psychology needs Philosophical Friends
Description: Empathy is a very challenging concept for Psychology and being empathic is a very challenging thing for many people to figure out how to do. Empathy is challenging Western Psychology because Western Psychology focusses best and most intently on individuals and on their self-understandings and self-management practices. This means that when Psychology trys to… Read more »
Social Media and Self-Esteem: A BIG picture Perspective
Description: You have most certainly heard more than a few concerns offered or even alarms raised regarding the potentially negative effects arising from social media use particularly among teams. Many have arisen from population level observations of correlations between rates of social media use and anxiety or depression or other negative outcomes, but such studies… Read more »
Racism and the Everyday Psychology of Urban Indigenous Women
Description: One of the challenges involved in trying to Indigenize Psychology is tied to fact that western Psychology is rather deeply grounded in the same a-cultural, individualistic perspective that defines the western or settler perspective. What this can mean is that while Psychology as a discipline CAN consider issues of culture, stigma and social stereotypes… Read more »
False Beliefs, Fake News and Social Influence: Critical Understanding
Description: The internet provides us with access to vast arrays of information and research. Given this shouldn’t our beliefs be much more research based than they used to be? Weeelll, what about anti-vaxers? What about climate change deniers? Think about what the access to information provided by search engines like Google might do for us… Read more »
Psychology and Socialization: The Individual and (versus) the Social
Description: Psychology has a recurrent problem. Well, perhaps, it may be better to say that western (North American) Psychology, despite its commitment to empiricism and scientific objectivity, is a product of its culture. Try this thought on for size: Western Psychology strongly prefers to see the individual (singular person) as its unit of analysis. One… Read more »
Mindfulness and Social Exclusion: Overcoming the Impact of Being Banish’d
Description: Think back (perhaps back to your grade school days) and think of a time or situation where you got left out by your peers, where you did not get invited to a birthday party or asked to play in a recess game. How did that make you feel? Does that sort of thing not… Read more »
Texting Research: Way Beyond Good versus Evil
Description: Quick! Answer this question off the top of your head: Is texting good or bad? Well, assuming your mind did not leap to issues arising from presidential tweets your yes or no answer likely reflected your personal preferences regarding texts or perhaps the Psychological researcher in you suggested that the question was too simplistic… Read more »
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