Psychology in Action

Tag: self-regulation

  • What’s the Deal with Replication?

    What’s the Deal with Replication?

    Wondering what the fun and fascinating stories were in the world of Psychology on Twitter this week? Let me tell you! The Psychology Twittersphere has been full of thoughts about a very important topic lately: Replication. If you remember back to your first science classes, replication is a key part of the scientific method! In…

  • Finding the motivation to stick with goals

    Most of us have gotten loyalty cards at one point or another that treated us to a free item after a certain amount of purchases at that particular establishment. Most of us have also tossed more than one of those cards after realizing they weren’t worth the space in our wallets for the amount of…

  • Stress Affects Risk Taking Differently for Men and Women

    by Andrew Sanders and Kate Humphreys Making decisions can be a difficult task. How do we choose to get from point A to point B? Does our decision change whether we are running late for an important engagement? Does stress facilitate our decision making, and if so, does it matter whether we are trying to…

  • How We See Food

    I’m not a great cook, but I know what I like. Or do I? Research from Brian Wansink and colleagues may challenge our ideas about how we think of food. How do we behave at buffets? Can a clever name really encourage us to eat something ordinary? Will placement of food at a cafeteria really…

  • How Self-Regulation Works

    Self-regulation is an extremely important skill to develop.  In fact, as I am writing this post, with no outside person or institution forcing me to do, on a vacation day when it is sunny outside, I am demonstrating formidable self-regulation.  I believe that teaching children, and adults, how to self-regulate is one of the best…

  • How much self-control do you really have?

    At this time of year many of us kick back, anticipating that we will reassert self-control in January with New Year’s resolutions. In November, you may have read the post “It’s the season of eating, should we be concerned?” which discussed binge eating. It made me think about the process of making healthy decisions at…

  • Emotional Control: Strategies we use for regulating our emotions

    Emotions are a central component of the human experience.  They facilitate social interactions, allow us to both appreciate and create powerful works in arts and literature, and guide us in achieving personal goals.  These are only a few of the myriad ways that demonstrate the important role emotions play in our lives.  In a letter…

  • Self-Control is important, and teachable to some extent

    Self-control or behavioral disinhibition has been implicated in a number of psychiatric disorders, including Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It may be a mediating factor responsible for the lowered academic performance found among many children with ADHD. The ability to inhibit responses may predict academic performance even better than IQ. This New Yorker article reviews studies of…

  • Schoolchildren, self-regulation, and addiction

    It’s no secret that diagnoses like ADD and ADHD have been seen with much greater frequency in the last decade or so. Slight variations on the same theme, both of these disorders have to do with a person’s (usually a child) inability to appropriately control their impulses and behave appropriately. The debate about the sources…