Psychology in Action

Category: Health Psychology and …

  • Awe: Why It’s Important, and How to Feel It

    Awe: Why It’s Important, and How to Feel It

    Jason Silva – Shots of Awe Have you ever gazed up at the starry sky and felt amazed by its vastness? Or have you looked over the abyss of the Grand Canyon and found your breath catch in your throat? If so, you probably felt awe, a “feeling of wonder and astonishment experienced in the presence of…

  • Hot off the press: Yoga and inflammation randomized trial

    Yoga can make you feel good emotionally, but can it also help your immune system? Our research group recently completed a randomized controlled trial looking at the effects of a yoga intervention on inflammation.

  • Weighing in on Weight Stigma: Obesity Stigma Symposium at UCLA

    The prevalence of adult obesity in the United States has nearly doubled since 1980, and over two-thirds of American adults are currently overweight or obese. Weight bias (stereotyping or discrimination directed at an individual related to his/her weight) is prevalent in modern American society, and overweight individuals experience weight bias from a range of sources,…

  • A Day in the Life of a Grad Student

    It is probably a cliché to say that no two days are alike for a graduate student. For me, this variety makesthe hard work and long hours of graduate student life worth it. What makes up those long hours? It varies from student to student and as your program progresses. In the first few years,…

  • Outreach Event: Mindfulness Meditation!

    Jenna introduced the idea of stress management to the youth – and they were ready to hear more! If you were asked to do nothing for a minute, could you do it? What about being asked to smell a Hershey’s chocolate kiss but wait to eat it? Well, after this quarter’s Psychology in Action’s Outreach Program event children and…

  • Feeling the Love [Hormone]: the Oxytocin Receptor

    Feeling the Love [Hormone]: the Oxytocin Receptor

    Oxytocin has gotten a lot of hype as the biological basis of our favorite human emotion, Love. Oxytocin is a hormone produced by the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary gland. The oxytocin system is involved in HPA axis and autonomic nervous system functions as well as reproductive functions and social behaviors.  We are coming…

  • The anti-inflammatory effects of music

    Can music help us heal? The first piece of research evidence that turned me on to my field was a finding presented in a Health Psychology course as an undergraduate.  Researchers found that after surgery, patients healed faster, and were released from the hospital sooner, if they had a window that looked out on to…

  • What is Sleep Health?

    We all know what poor sleep looks like (see: zombie apocalypse), but do we have a good understanding of what healthy sleep is? Most psychological and medical research on sleep has been focused on sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea, but healthy sleep is not necessarily the absence of these disorders. Since 1948, the…

  • Family Life for Working Parents: Is the home a haven or a source of stress?

    Family Life for Working Parents: Is the home a haven or a source of stress?

    Human beings are social by nature, and it is fascinating that the way we interact with each other has a profound impact on both psychological and physical health. Stephen Lepore & Tracey Revenson captured this sentiment well by stating that “social relationships are often a complicated brew of interactions that are at turns pleasant and…

  • Acute vs. Chronic Stress: Can it ever be both?

    In the field of health psychology, there is still much debate as to what constitutes an acute stressor versus a chronic stressor. The importance of this clarification is crucial for researchers in this field, because stress is a key factor in many areas of research including coping processes, health behavior, disease progression, and psychoneuroimmunology among…