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Jumping for joy on four paws: Neurological evidence of emotion in dogs
Bri’s dog Rainey Running with Rainey is simultaneously the best thing and the worst thing. As a joint new year’s resolution to get in better shape, we’ve been trying to run together several times a week. Yesterday, as we started out in the warm afternoon sunshine, my iPod jamming away to White Panda’s mashup of…
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Surrendering to Creativity: The Psychology of Remembering to Breathe (Part 3 of 3)
Up until graduate school, I often indulged the myth that good writing was a sacred thing to be done under the most precise conditions. Akin to knowing without a timer when the soufflee has finished (sorry, I have holidays sweets on the mind), the creativity dedicated to a well-written piece had to be carefully cultured…
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Serial: the Case of Memory
Serial has quickly become an international obsession. From the master storytellers of This American Life, the focal story of the inaugural season is about details surrounding the 1999 conviction of then high-school student Adnan Syed for the murder of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. A new episode is released every Thursday (this week will be the…
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Outreach Event: Explore Your Universe!
What was the first science experiment you ever conducted? When did you first think about thinking? Were you in awe the first time you saw an illusion? Well, this past Sunday, Psychology in Action participated in UCLA’s annual Explore Your Universe Event – a scientific expo for the community to come and learn about the brain,…
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Obscurantism: Lame explanations to the lame questions
“Indeed, the quantum theory implies that consciousness must exist, and that the content of the mind is the ultimate reality.” Your intuition can fail you on what is genius and what is asinine. Good thinking strives, almost as its prime directive, to clarify. It doesn’t mean a discussion you have with someone else on a…
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“Criminally Minded: The Psychology and Law of Culpability” Symposium – May 16, 4pm
Criminally Minded: The Psychology and Law of Culpability Psychology in Action is proud to announce the third annual Psychology Interdisciplinary Events symposium, Criminally Minded: The Psychology and Law of Culpability, to be held Friday, May 16th, 2014, from 4 to 6pm in UCLA’s CNSI Auditorium. The discussion will focus on legal and psychological issues regarding mens rea. The…
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Feeling the Love [Hormone]: the Oxytocin Receptor
![Feeling the Love [Hormone]: the Oxytocin Receptor](https://www.psychologyinaction.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/290/2014/04/Oxytocin3d-300x240-1.png)
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…
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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…