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Perspectives on Psychological Science is a publication of the Association for Psychological Science.
Editor
Barbara A. Spellman
University of Virginia
School of Law
Associate Editors
David A. Sbarra
University of Arizona
Bethany A. Teachman
University of Virginia
Special Associate Editors
Alex O. Holcombe
University of Sydney
Alison Ledgerwood
University of California, Davis
Kristina R. Olson
University of Washington
Daniel J. Simons
University of Illinois
Advisory Editors
John T. Cacioppo
University of Chicago
Robert W. Levenson
University of California, Berkeley
Elizabeth F. Loftus
University of California, Irvine
Walter Mischel
Columbia University
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Perspectives on Psychological Science
Volume 10, Number 6
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The links below take you to the journal via the APS website. If not already logged in, you will be redirected to log-in using your last name (Garcia) and Member ID (81665).
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Gideon Nave, Colin Camerer, and Michael McCullough
Oxytocin (OT) -- a neuropeptide synthesized in the hypothalamus -- has been shown to be related to differences in trust. A common method researchers use to study the impact of OT on trust is to administer intranasal doses of OT to participants and ask them complete trust-based activities, such as economic games. However, researchers are still unsure of the extent to which oxytocin crosses the blood-brain barrier, causing concerns that OT manipulation is not effective. Although researchers often test the amount of OT in bodily fluids, these measures can be inaccurate. These concerns, as well as inconsistent replication of OT/trust studies, indicate that the relationship between the two may not be robust, and increased rigor in this research will be needed going forward.
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Mark D. Alicke, David R. Mandel, Denis J. Hilton, Tobias Gerstenberg, and David A. Lagnado
When looking at the past conceptualizations of causal inference, one can point to four main epochs, each characterized by a different way of thinking about the causes of human behavior. The first epoch examined people's behavioral tendencies to determine whether behavior results from internal or situational factors, while the second epoch sought to determine whether people's behavior was abnormal or harmful and was focused more on assigning blame for actions. The third epoch slightly altered this train of thought by examining whether alternatives to the performed behavior would lead to more normal actions, and the final epoch examined the ways causal attributions and blame are influenced by people's moral and emotional reactions to events. Examining these four epochs helps link past and future conceptualizations of blame and moral behavior.
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Lamei Wang and Judi Mesman
The mass migration that has occurred during the past 30 years in China has had a large impact on the children of the transitioning families. When children follow their parents to the cities, they face potential problems with acculturation, poverty, and discrimination, but those who are left behind in the care of relatives or by themselves also suffer challenges. A recent meta-analysis of studies written in either English or Chinese that examined social, emotional, and educational development found that migrant children who moved to urban settings did more poorly in all domains compared with local urban children and that left-behind children did worse than rural children who were not left behind. These findings indicate a need for a more supportive and inclusive approach for assisting migrant families.
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Madeleine J. George and Candice L. Odgers
The increase in media use among adolescents has led to a variety of concerns about how mobile technologies influence their development. Some of the main concerns expressed by parents and the media include whether children are overexposing themselves online and making themselves targets of bullies and sexual predators. Parents also worry that media use hinders offline socialization and development of strong parent-child relationships. The influence of multitasking and the loss of sleep caused by media use are also concerns. Research examining these topics indicates that, in general, behaviors online seem to mirror behaviors offline. Adolescents who have strong relationships offline have strong positive relationships online. Although media use does lead to lack of sleep -- and multitasking to poorer academic performance -- media use does not affect all children similarly, indicating a need for continued research in this area.
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Tamer M. Soliman, Kathryn A. Johnson, and Hyunjin Song
Psychologists who seek to understand religion often focus on the cognitive aspects of religion -- viewing it as a purely mental process. An embodied-cognitive approach to religion, where religion is seen to rely not only on cognitive processes but also on our bodily experiences and our place in the environment, can extend our understanding of the psychological foundations of religion. Research suggests that people use knowledge of their own bodies to form their understanding of the divine, that links are formed between physical cleanliness and morality, and that synchronous religious behavior can promote bonding, feelings of similarity, and prosocial behavior. Many questions remain to be answered about how embodied mechanisms shape the individualities and similarities found across religions, leading to the need for future research.
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Jessica K. Witt
The action-specific account of perception posits that spatial perception is influenced by intended and recently performed actions. This account explains why hills may appear steeper when one is wearing a heavy backpack and baseballs appear larger to those who are batting better. In 2013, Firestone published an article arguing that action-specific effects are not perceptual. He stated that people should be aware of these changes in perception, and because they are generally not, the effect could not be perceptual in nature. However, studies of well-established perceptual phenomena, such as change blindness and the Ebbinghaus illusion, have found that people are not always aware of perceptual changes. Although these and other studies support the perceptual nature of action-specific effects, for them to be truly accepted as perceptual in nature, the underlying mechanism must be specified -- something that has yet to occur.
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Forward Thinking Articles
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Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut
The loss of a loved one affects both individuals and the larger families they are a part of. Despite this, there has been a marked divide between research investigating individual and family bereavement; however, researchers are beginning to understand the importance of examining individual and family grief in a unified manner. The dual-process model of coping and bereavement identifies two main stressors associated with bereavement: stressors related to aspects of the loss experience and stressors related to reorienting oneself to a new reality without the loved one. Although this model has generally been applied to individual bereavement, these two stressors can also be identified at the family level. Understanding the interaction between these individual and family experiences can help researchers and clinicians gain a better understanding of the processes behind -- and the treatments for -- bereavement.
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Richard J. Tunney and Fenja V. Ziegler
People are often required to make decisions on the behalf of others, such as when parents make decisions for their children or when children make decisions for aging parents. Research seems to show that these surrogate decision makers often make choices that are different from the recipient's wishes. A new unified account of surrogate decision making suggests that when making a decision for another, people construct possible outcomes from four different perspectives: egocentric (what is best for me?), projected (what would I do if I were in the recipient's position?), benevolent (what is best for the recipient?), and simulated (what would the recipient want done?). Biasing factors such as the decision maker's level of empathy and the amount of distance in the relationship between the decision maker and the recipient determine how heavily each perspective is weighted in the decision-making process.
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Barbara A. Spellman
A revolution of sorts has been occurring within psychological science, characterized by calls for stronger and more transparent research practices. But this is not the first time such a revolution has occurred. So what makes Revolution 2.0 different from past efforts to revise our science? Other disciplines are facing the same problems with data methodology and analysis as the field of psychology, leading more scientists within and outside of our discipline to call for changes to scientific practices. Growing technological resources to gather, analyze, and share large amounts of data are making it easier to see the scope of the replication issues and are providing increased outlets for preregistering, detailing, and publishing studies. While there is much left still to be done, those involved in Revolution 2.0 are making progress in revising psychological science in the present and for the future.
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Click here to read the Special Section: Council of Psychological Science Advisers
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Perspectives on Psychological Science is a publication of the Association for Psychological Science. Please contact APS by email or by telephone at +1 202.293.9300 with questions or comments. Visit APS on the Web
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