A genome-wide association study (GWAS) tests whether each of several million sites in the human genome is correlated with a trait of interest. For a number of reasons, including replication of GWAS results within families, we can be confident that significant correlations reflect in part the causal effects of DNA-level variation on the studied trait. This level of causal inference, much stronger than

Vaccines are an important tool for preventing serious illness and avoiding deaths. Vaccine hesitancy, the delay or refusal of vaccines when available or offered, is one of the top 10 threats to global public health. The acceptance and uptake, delay, or refusal of vaccines has direct health implications for individuals, their close contacts, and indirectly for others in their environment and wider social

Grief is a reaction to loss that is observed across human cultures and even in other species. While the particular expressions of grief vary significantly, universal aspects include experiences of emotional pain and frequent remembering of what was lost. Despite its prevalence, and its obvious nature, considering grief from a functional perspective is puzzling: Why do we grieve? Why is it painful?

Globally, the rate of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) experienced by the female prison population is estimated to be high. This review explored the evidence on interventions for women with experience of DVA in prison and post-release during the resettlement period. The databases Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest (Social Sciences Premium Collection) and several secondary databases were searched and

The behavioral sciences have made a great deal of progress over the last century. They remain stymied, however, by the persistence of the fallacious "evolved vs. learned" dichotomy, in which researchers and students are encouraged to think of evolution and learning as contrasting, conflicting explanations for behavior. This article shows why the evolved versus learned dichotomy is false, suggests a

Studying the reliability of a measurement instrument is essential. Despite the recognition of the importance of reliability in psychology and medicine and the various reliability coefficients that have been proposed, research on reliability for nested or multilevel data, ubiquitously in observational studies, remains limited. Two recent articles (Schönbrodt et al., 2022; ten Hove et al., 2022) address

Night gaps are inherent to data obtained with the experience sampling method (ESM). When such data are used to study lagged relations between variables-such as autoregression within the same variable, and cross-lagged regressions between different variables-the actual role of night gaps is typically not investigated. However, there are various methods to handle them in analyses. Common solutions involve

Hearing a single word can initiate a sequence of activation that spreads from the representation of the word (e.g., “candy”) to words that share auditory and visual form (e.g., “candle”) and the concepts those words reference (e.g., the idea of a “candle”). In bilinguals, this coactivation spreads both within and across languages to words that share form or meaning in either or both languages. This

Positive affect is a fundamental component of well-being, influencing multiple domains of psychological and physical functioning. This article synthesizes empirical research on positive affect dynamics in naturalistic contexts, emphasizing their associations with mental- and physical-health outcomes. Although a substantial amount of research has investigated positive emotional experiences through trait-based

We adopt and expand McDonald's (2011) regression framework for measurement precision, integrating two key perspectives: (a) reliability of observed scores and (b) optimal prediction of latent scores. Reliability arises from a measurement decomposition of an observed score into its true score and measurement error. In contrast, proportional reduction in mean squared error (PRMSE) arises from a prediction

Daily diary data of emotional experiences are typically modeled with a first-order autoregressive model to account for possible day-to-day dynamics. However, our emotional experiences are likely influenced by the weekly rhythm of our activities, which may be reflected by (a) day-of-the-week effects (DOWEs), where different weekdays are characterized by different means; and (b) week-to-week dynamics

Intensive longitudinal data have been increasingly used to examine dynamic bidirectional relations between variables. However, the problem of timescale mismatch between variables faced by applied researchers remains understudied. Under the dynamic structural equation modeling framework, previous studies used the partial-path model and the average-score model, respectively, to explore the dynamic interaction

Manipulation plays a critical role in working memory, wherein understanding how items are represented during manipulation is a fundamental question. Previous studies on manipulation have primarily assumed independent representations by default (independent hypothesis). Here, we propose the ensemble hypothesis to challenge this conventional notion, suggesting that items are represented as ensembles

Causal explanations are a key component of human cognition. While we possess certain causal models of the world that offer satisfactory explanations for a range of phenomena, our cognitive capacities have their limits when dealing with the complexities of the world, leaving the causes of many events elusive. In this article, I integrate ethnographic and historical evidence to show that, despite our

A fundamental question in the psychological sciences is the degree to which culture shapes core cognitive processes-perhaps none more foundational than how we perceive the world around us. A dramatic and oft-cited "case study" of culture's power in this regard is the Müller-Lyer illusion, which depicts two lines of equal length but with arrowheads pointing either inward or outward, creating the illusion

The self had a central role in early theories of psychopathology and has long been of interest to mental health practitioners. However, these early theories typically made what we consider to be two key errors: they conceptualized mental ill-health as constituting discrete categories of illness, and they conceptualized the self as inherently individualized and stable. There is a growing recognition

In this review of personality and intimate relationships, we note that when people rank the traits of ideal partners, kindness and dependability are considered desirable. Romantic partners tend to show positive but weak similarity correlations for personality traits. In terms of the Big Five factors, low Neuroticism, and high Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion are associated with greater

People appear to excel at generalization: They require little experience to generalize their knowledge to new situations. But can we confidently make such a conclusion? To make progress toward a better understanding, we characterize human generalization by introducing three proposed cognitive mechanisms allowing people to generalize: applying simple rules, judging new objects by considering their similarity

Models of personality and health emphasize the role of Five-Factor Model personality traits (particularly neuroticism and conscientiousness) in cognitive health outcomes. A complementary literature on lifecourse models of cognitive aging indicate that earlier life factors (socioeconomic status, adverse childhood experiences, childhood health) are critical for later life cognitive function and dementia

Human concept learning is known to be impaired by conceptual complexity: Simpler concepts are easier to learn, and more complex ones are more difficult. However, the simplicity bias has been studied almost exclusively in the context of deterministic concepts defined over Boolean features and is comparatively unexplored in the more general case of probabilistic concepts defined over continuous features

The link between intimate partner abuse (IPA) and violent extremism has become an area of media and policy interest – sparked both by newly emerging extremes (e.g., Involuntary Celibates; incels) and high-profile attacks where the offender had previously perpetrated IPA. These developments blur the boundaries between forms of violence traditionally treated in silos of public and private (domestic)

The study of mechanisms is vital for validating theories on which psychosocial chronic pain treatments are founded, can help distinguish active ingredients from inert or redundant ones, and can justify people devoting time, energy and resources needed to participate in treatment procedures. Evidence for links between putative mechanisms and outcomes is reviewed following criteria of association, temporal

When people feel bad, how much effort should they invest to make themselves feel better? Should they try harder, or might this even make matters worse? In other domains of self-regulation, effort contributes to goal-related behaviors and success. However, it is unclear whether, when, or for whom effort is beneficial, irrelevant, or harmful for emotion regulation success and psychological health. In

Using a detailed transcription, obtained from body-camera, CCTV, and smartphone footage of the murder of George Floyd, we examine the behavior of bystanders as events unfolded. Analysis reveals 205 direct verbal bystander interventions comprised of five forms (declaratives, assessments, interrogatives, imperatives, insults). We also describe the key physical intervention strategies deployed by the

Affect dynamics are often studied by means of first-order autoregressive (AR) modeling applied to intensive longitudinal data. A key target in these studies is the AR parameter, which is often tied conceptually to regulatory behavior in the affective process. The data are typically gathered using experience sampling methods, which are designed to pick up on fluctuations in affective variables as they

Healthcare facilities and hospitals are environments where stress and anxiety are commonly experienced. Empirical evidence highlights the positive impact of incorporating natural elements in these settings on health and well-being for individuals and communities. This article reviews recent literature on the application of biophilic design in healthcare environments, examining its beneficial effects

According to chunking theories, children discover their first words by extracting subsequences embedded in their continuous input. However, the mechanisms proposed in these accounts are often incompatible with data from other areas of language development. We present a new theory to connect the chunking accounts of word discovery with the broader developmental literature. We argue that (a) children

Nature is a profound developmental setting across life, and the youth development field has a critical role in leveraging affordances and maximizing the potential of nature. Youth programs are uniquely situated to advance youth connection with nature while also promoting prosocial outcomes that position youth to thrive. Framed by Hamilton's tripartite model of positive youth development, we highlight

Climate change and resource depletion threaten both humanity and ecosystems. Reduction in meat consumption is a key sustainable action, and identifying its determinants can play a crucial role in shaping effective climate change strategies. This review explores how community connectedness can influence sustainable eating and identifies potential factors shaping this relationship. Research on sustainable

Autistic meltdowns are fits of intense frustration and often physical violence elicited by sensory and cognitive stressors. Despite the high prevalence of meltdowns among autistic individuals, the neural mechanisms that underlie this response are not yet well understood. This has thus far hampered progress toward a dedicated therapeutic intervention-beyond traditional medications-that limits their

This rapid review examines the existing, published research on the demographic and health characteristics, and the offending behaviours and histories of perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse against adults aged 60 and over. Using a systematic methodology, searches were conducted in five databases: MEDLINE Complete, APA PsychInfo, CINAHL Complete, SociINDEX with Full Text, Criminal Justice Abstracts

Technology-facilitated coercive control (TFCC) refers to (ex-)partner abuse enabled by digital technology. While the role of technology in dating violence has been extensively studied, the understanding of young people's attitudes and perceptions of TFCC remains limited. Considering the role of technology in young people's lives and their increasing recognition as agents of change for the primary prevention

Framed against the long-standing dominance of quantitative methods in psychological science, this study examined contemporary publishing patterns for qualitative inquiry in American Psychological Association (APA) and Association for Psychological Science (APS) journals. We examined 19,012 publications across 95 APA and APS journals across four time points (2005, 2012, 2019, and 2022). The percentage

People employ artificial intelligence (AI) tools to perform tasks that otherwise would require human intelligence. This review seeks to advance the understanding of adverse psychosocial outcomes of AI while acknowledging its benefits. Specifically, does AI employment pose unfavorable consequences such as the denial of its users' humanity in certain situations? Based on the theoretical distinction between

The science-practice gap is a barrier to evidence-based health care. We sought to examine the match between the kinds of studies done by clinical psychology researchers and the kinds of evidence practicing clinicians find useful. We reviewed the prevalence of research questions on how people differ from one another (between-person) and how people differ from their own averages across time (within-person)

This article describes seven potential benefits of incorporating agent-based modeling (ABM) as a core research methodology for psychological research on social phenomena: building formal theories of complex social systems, validating multilevel causation, understanding temporal and nonlinear dynamics, demonstrating the completeness of theories, balancing consideration of people with their environments

Manapat et al. (2023) investigated different sources of heterogeneity in exploratory factor analysis in their paper "Evaluating Avoidable Heterogeneity in Exploratory Factor Analysis Results." Their study is an important step toward understanding the volatility of factor analysis results that potentially impair replication attempts in psychology. In this short commentary, we want to address the question

We propose that a state of psychological predeath precedes death by suicide, and that this phenomenon results from the undermining of subjectively experienced contingency and thus of agency (i.e., the death of agency). A consequence of the death of agency is not the dulling of awareness overall, but rather, specifically of one's subjective sense of existence (i.e., the feeling of subjective existence)

People's subjective sense of their relationship with nature – or nature connectedness – is consistently found to relate to both well-being and pro-environmental values and behaviors. Yet human perceptions of their relationships with the rest of nature are complex and, in many cases, reflect cultural beliefs and historical legacies. In this paper we identify a tension within the research literature

There is a need to find solutions to the current environmental crises, some of which require behavioral change. Psychological research is increasingly needed to understand the relationship between human communities and nature. The present review aims to gain insights into the current and emerging research trends on community and nature to understand the different approaches psychologists use to address

Verbal working memory is supported by semantic knowledge. One manifestation of this is the rich pattern of semantic similarity effects found in immediate serial recall tasks. These effects differ from the effects of similarity on other dimensions (e.g., phonological similarity), which renders them difficult to explain. We propose a comprehensive mechanistic explanation of semantic similarity effects

Drawing on the ability, motivation, and opportunity framework ( Boxall & Purcell, 2011 ), we describe individuals’ emotionally intelligent behavior (EIB) in organizations as emerging from the interaction of emotional intelligence (EI) ability, motivation for EIB, and the opportunity to engage in such behavior at work. EI ability encompasses the capacity to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions

In this article, we advance the thesis, called the cultural continuity hypothesis, which states that heritage culture retention represents an important psychological motivation that underlies a wide array of human behaviors and that is important for positive psychosocial functioning. Cultural continuity entails the purposeful preservation of salient features of one's heritage culture across time and

In adults, cortical regions in the fusiform face area (FFA), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) respond selectively to faces but underlie distinct perceptual and social processes. When do each of these regions, and their distinctive functions, develop? We reviewed recent studies of awake human infants’ cortical responses to faces using functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Personality traits such as openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness predict important life outcomes, and fostering them is therefore a major policy goal. A key modifiable factor that is thought to influence personality is the parenting individuals receive when they are young. However, there is little empirical evidence on the potential impact of parenting on personality traits beyond early adolescence

What is the motivational force of the sense of obligation that drives us to intrinsically comply with social norms even in the absence of external incentives? To integrate recent theoretical and empirical research aiming to illuminate the motivational power of psychological obligations, we combine the theory of basic psychological needs with recent work in intrinsically motivated reinforcement learning

Exchanges of help in childhood produce many positive consequences, such as increasing academic success, promoting happiness, and fostering positive peer relations. For this reason, caretakers encourage helping behavior early in life, and schools implement intervention programs to nurture children’s prosociality. An often overlooked issue, however, is that providing and receiving help do not always

Social interactions are a ubiquitous part of human life. They are also complex and dynamic, posing a challenge for traditional psychology methods. This article provides an overview of a dynamic systems approach to the study of social interactions that manages this complexity and enables the quantification of interdependence between people. We also discuss key empirical findings that demonstrate how

Theories of individual differences are foundational to psychological and brain sciences, yet they are traditionally developed and tested using superficial summaries of data (e.g., mean response times) that are disconnected from our otherwise rich conceptual theories of behavior. To resolve this theory-description gap, we review the generative modeling approach, which involves formally specifying how

Self-regulation is a goal-directed behavior involving adaptive decision making. It consists of multiple cognitive and motor skills, is shaped by complex sociocultural environments, and has short- and long-term consequences for child outcomes. However, most of what we know about the development of self-regulation comes from research conducted among communities that are unrepresentative of most of the

Cognition is a complex system of interacting components. Late-life cognitive decline is often explained as a degradation of the interconnectivity among these components. Evidence from the aging mental lexicon corroborates this interpretation, as older adults produce higher entropy responses in free association tasks, appear to have sparser free association networks, and judge objects to be less similar

Nearly 30 years ago, Steele and Aronson (1995) proposed the concept of stereotype threat. Despite the rich literature on the topic, the robustness and significance of stereotype threat effects face scrutiny due to unsuccessful replications and meta-analyses. This article moves beyond methodological issues to address potential conceptual challenges that may underlie these difficulties in assessing stereotype

European-derived perspectives that position humanity as having dominion over Nature drive ecological crises and erode interrelatedness between human communities and natural ecosystems. In contrast, Indigenous worldviews recognize kincentric ecology, emphasizing reciprocal relationships between people and the Natural World. By centering these worldviews, we illuminate gaps in scientific literature on

As people come together in romantic relationships, they tend to merge —to integrate aspects of each other and even create a new unit or entity. This phenomenon has inspired several robust literatures within the field of relationship science, but they have developed within relative isolation of one another. In this article, we put four of those literatures into conversation: merging in the context of

Situation models—mental representations formed during comprehension—have evolved significantly beyond their origin in text-based research. Situation models are now used in accounts of comprehension across various media, including films, comics, and even real-world events. This article reviews four key developments in comprehension research over the past 25 years: grounded cognition, multitext comprehension

Autism has influenced social-cognitive neuroscience in important ways. It has provided the impetus to look for the brain basis of mentalizing and encouraged the search for the brain bases of other social abilities. A fundamental aspect of social interaction is the ability to predict what other agents are going to do. We propose a hierarchy of three worlds—the world of objects, the world of agents,

The significant relationship between cyberbullying and depression has attracted research attention; however, most previous meta-analyses have been cross-sectional and focused on youth. This study used a meta-analytic framework to examine the longitudinal effects between cyberbullying and depression in the general population (including children, adolescents, and adults). The moderating factors that

This study addresses the challenge of analyzing intensive longitudinal data (ILD) with zero-inflated autoregressive processes. ILD, characterized by intensive longitudinal measurements, often exhibit excessive zeros and temporal dependencies. Neglecting zero inflation or mishandling it can lead to biased parameter estimates and inaccurate conclusions. To overcome this issue, we propose a novel zero-inflated