Providentia

Why You Should Have a Backup Goal

Goal setting theory has been studied and adopted in a wide variety of domains including game design. While goals can help people regulate and change behavior, they are less motivating when people no longer believe they can meet their goals. Previous literature suggests that having two goals–a primary goal and a backup goal–might help people continue striving even when the primary goal becomes unattainable. A new study in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies evaluated this hypothesis and found no direct relationship between two goals and performance. However, people having two goals had higher self-appraisals of their performance than those with one goal. People in the two-goal condition also played more rounds or spent more time in games. However, a high percentage of people stopped playing after achieving their backup goal. These results have the potential to enhance game experiences and may extend to other domains, such as health behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

 

Teaching Children to Accept Making Mistakes

If explorers could not accept their mistakes and keep going, they might never make any discoveries!  Does this sound like you? If you have trouble accepting mistakes, if you try to be right all the time, or if you worry about being less than the best, this book is for you! What to Do When Mistakes Make You Quake guides children and their parents through the emotions underlying a fear of making mistakes using strategies and techniques based on cognitive-behavioral principles. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to cope with mistakes—so they can explore new territory without fear!

This book is part of the entertaining and educational What to Do series joining other titles such as  What to do When It's Not Fair  and What to do When You Worry Too Much and represents a valuable resource for parents and educators to help children learn to be more confident in themselves.

How to Survive a Slasher Film

Ever since John Carpenter's horror classic film, Halloween (link is external) first premiered in 1978, the slasher film has been a familiar staple for horror movie viewers. In the decades that followed, there have been an astonishing number of slasher films though they all tend to follow the same basic formula.  

This includes scenes of graphic violence, usually featuring a (typically female) protagonist attempting to stay alive while a faceless evil stalked and killed all the other victims, often in bizarre and creative ways. Despite the gratuitous violence and  stereotypical cliches relating to sexism, slasher films have a strange popularity with movie audiences and have even made unlikely film stars out of relentless killers such as Freddy Krueger (link is external) and Jason Voorhees (link is external).

It is hardly surprising that movie producers keep coming out with new releases considering how profitable slasher films have been over the years. The original Friday the Thirteenth (link is external) movie was produced in 1980 with only a $550,000 budget but went on to become a cult classic that would spawn multiple sequels.

One recurring theme of these slasher films that has taken on a tongue-in-cheek fame all its own involves the Final Girl (link is external) (or, sometimes the Final Boy). In these films, there tends to be a double-standard involving sexuality with male characters usually being portrayed as promiscuous and sexually aggressive while female characters are often  either "good girls" or "bad girls" depending on their own sexual behaviour.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

New Program Has Expectant Fathers Experience Labour Pains

"My wife is expecting a baby in three months, and we had a row when I told [her] not to make such a fuss.  When she found out about this project, she told me had to sign up for it, so I also know what is was all about.  I must admit I was curious and if what I experienced is really what she goes through, then I have to say I have changed my attitude.  It was really incredibly painful and I only had it for a few minutes.  If it went on for hours I don't know if I'd be able to bear it."    Guang Liao in a media interview.

For 29-year-old prospective father, Guang Liao, it was a way of learning firsthand what his wife was going through as she prepared for childbirth.  He also admitted to having a fight with his wife after he told her to "not make such  a fuss" about her impending delivery.   Guang, along with dozens of other male volunteers, agreed to take part in a"Pain Experience Camp" being conducted at several hospitals across China.   Using electric shocks sent into the abdomens of the male volunteers, the volunteers underwent a simulation of what women experienced as they were giving birth.   The shocks induce abdominal contractions that the volunteers often described as "torture" even though the simulated pain is only intended to last thirty seconds.  

Last Mother's Day, twenty volunteers took part in a televised experiment in which they were hooked up to a "Pain-O-Meter" with levels ranging from 50 to 500 as the shocks became more intense.  Many of them had their pregnant wives sitting beside them (with a certain amount of glee) and were visibly reluctant to take part.   Though  most stopped after only a few minutes, only one participant made it to the highest pain level    He said afterward, ""I am the father of triplets and wanted to understand the great pain my wife experienced when she was giving birth," he said. "It was horrible. I have nothing but deep admiration for all mothers after this ordeal."

The idea for the simulated labour project apparently came from a Dutch television program last year during  which two male television show hosts agreed to experience labour pains for themselves.   After having electrodes strapped to their abdomens, they underwent contractions for two hours which they later described as "torture."   Not surprisingly, the television hosts, much like the men participating in the new "Pain Experience Camps" all reported greater sympathy for women giving birth. 

 

Are There Benefits in Playing Video Games?

In the United States alone, an estimated 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls play video games with 97 percent playing at least one hour per day.    The revenue from the video game industry topped $25 billion dollars in 2010 alone (compared to Hollywood's box office sales of $10.8 billion for the U.S. and Canada) and video games have become an important part of popular culture.

Media stories continue to warn about the potential dangers of video game playing, including potential addiction, violent behaviour, and depression, usually in the aftermath of a violent incident linked to video game use (such as the revelation that Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman, Adam Lanza, regularly played shooter games).   After decades of research into the negative effects of video games, the results remain controversial despite a rise in treatment programs intended to wean young people off excessive video game use.

But is video game playing necessarily harmful?   A new review article published in American Psychologist suggests that we need to look at the positive aspects of video game play, as well as the negative.   

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

Mars or Bust

Wanted:  man and woman for a historic voyage to Mars and back.   Married couple preferred.

When millionaire space pioneer Dennis Tito makes plans, they are definitely big ones.   The 72-year old Tito has already made history by becoming the first commercial space tourist in 2001 when he paid the Russian government $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station.   Now he has unveiled an even more grandiose scheme by announcing a planned trip to Mars in 2018 when planetary alignment is favourable.    “We have not sent humans beyond the moon in more than 40 years,” Mr Tito said in a press conference announcing the planned mission.    “I’ve been waiting, and a lot of people my age, have been waiting. And I think it’s time to put an end to that lapse."

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post. 

Learning to be Funny

A friend once asked me what comedy was. That floored me. What is comedy? I don`t know. Does anybody? Can you define it? All I know is that I learned how to get laughs, and that`s all I know about it. You have to learn what people will laugh at, then proceed accordingly.  Stan Laurel

Is there a psychology of humour?  And is it even possible to develop a scientific understanding of what is “funny”?   Much like Stan Laurel’s famous quote above, humour is often seen as purely intuitive with comics “feeling out” their audience to see what will make them laugh.   Those brave academics who dared study humour serious are typically accused of missing the point completely.   According to E.B. White in his 1941 book, “humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.”    Essays on the psychology of humour tend to be long and serious with no trace of the humour they are supposedly explaining.   You’re certainly not likely to see Stephen Colbert or Jerry Seinfeld consulting then for helpful tips on entertaining people (then again, who knows?).  

Bridging the gap between comedy and psychology takes a very special sort of psychologist.   One much like Mitch Earlywine, in fact.     Not only is he an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany with specialties in addictions and drug use, but he is also a successful stand-up comedian which makes him a unique sort of ambassador between serious science and the not-so-serious world of comedy.   In his recent book, Humour 101, released in 2011 by Springer Publishing Company, Earlywine carefully counterbalances existing research with his own experiences as a stand-up comedian.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

Apocalypse Not

Yet another prediction of doom has come and gone without the promised Earth-shattering kaboom taking place.   Many of the same New Agers that had claimed that the end of the 13^th b’ak’tun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar would mark the beginning of a global catastrophe are now backtracking and saying that it actually marks the beginning of a new era of peace and love (Age of Aquarius, anyone?)

Though end-of-the-world cruises and gatherings took place around the world, one of the chief focal points for the 2012 craze was the small town of Bugarach, France (though it was an honour the city could have done without).   Located at the foot of the Pic de Bugarach, the highest peak in  the Corbieres mountains in southwestern France, the tiny town of Bugarach has an official population of 200 with an economy based on agriculture.   Since the Corbieres mountains are world-renowned for their breathtaking beauty, Bugarach also had a brisk tourist trade with hikers and backpackers stopping through while touring the region.   Bugarach is not connected to any of France’s main highways, visitors to Bugarach need to travel there using narrow, winding roads that often overlook treacherous ravines below.   All in all, not a place likely to attract much of a tourist crowd. 

Except…

Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, Bugarach also became popular with New Age and counterculture movements who believed in the “mystical powers” of the Pic de Bugarach (which was also known as the “upside down mountain” due to its unique geological features).    According to cult believers, the mountain is the home of a hidden colony of extraterrestrials  waiting for the fateful date of December 21, 2012 to make their presence on Earth known.    The alien spaceships hidden in the mountain are believed to be meant as space Arks that would deliver the faithful to safety in the coming apocalypse.

In the years leading up to 2012, thousands of  “UFOlogists” and other New Agers have purchased property around Bugarach and offered courses on  spiritual enlightenment to the visiting believers (at 800 euros a week).    Bugarach locals complained about their picturesque town being taken over by the  influx of alien-watchers in the surrounding mountains .   As December 2012 grew closer, that problem grew steadily  worse and the town’s mayor even went so far as to give a public statement pleading  with tourists to stay away.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post here. 

Do You Read Those Click-Through Agreements?

How often do you read every word of those click-through agreements (CTA) when you are registering new software or completing other online contracts?  A recent issue of Law and Human Behavior presented the results of two studies aimed aimed at empirically measuring the extent of non-readership of click-through agreements (CTAs), identifying the dominant beliefs about CTAs contributing to non-readership, and experimentally manipulating these beliefs to decrease automatic non-reading behavior and enhance contract efficiency.  In the initial questionnaire study (Study 1), as predicted, the vast majority of participants reported not reading CTAs and the most prevalent beliefs about CTAs contributing to nonreadership included: they are too long and time-consuming, they are all the same, they give one no choice but to agree, they are irrelevant, and vendors are generally reputable. Manipulating these beliefs on a simulated music website (Study 2) revealed an increase in readership. In addition, CTA comprehension and CTA rejection rates were both increased significantly by manipulating the length of the CTA. These results demonstrate support for the influence of widely held beliefs about CTAs on contract readership, provide evidence against the common “limited cognition” perspective on non-readership, and suggest that presenting CTAs in a short, readable format can increase CTA read-ership and comprehension as well as shopping of CTA terms.

For the abstract.

Off to Australia

I will be away for the next two weeks attending a conference in Melbourne, Australia.  I also plan to visit Sydney afterward and I'm looking forward to seeing both since I've never been to Australia before (I'm not looking forward to the 24-hour flight though).  Any readers out there with suggestions of where to visit are welcome to post them.    I'll be maintaining this blog as best I can (and a lot of my planned posts have already been scheduled to run while I'm away).