Interesting research topics Psychology

I have never regretted choosing to spend my career as a psychologist. There’s the very obvious fact that psychology underlies all of behavior and thus, in my opinion, is the most important scientific discipline of all. However, there’s more to it than the love of science. When you come right down to it, psychology is just very cool.

Psychologists, like many other scientists, enjoy inventing new terms to describe what they study. Sure, we get accused now and then of being too “jargon-y” (itself a jargon-y term). Once you understand what the jargon means, though, most of it not only makes sense, but expands your understanding of behavior. Narrowing down the thousands of great ideas in psychology to a mere 13 is a bit of a challenge. Therefore, I’ve decided to limit myself to those that are coolest according to these criteria: (a) relatively new (which technically makes them “hot”); (b) not overly commonsensical; (c) based on research; and (d) having applicability to everyday life. See if you agree with this top 13 list (the references for each are listed by number, below).

1. Mood freezing

We’ve come to believe that by expressing our emotions we’ll feel better. The idea of “catharsis” also implies that by releasing our anger, we’ll rid ourselves of all hostile feelings. In research on “mood freezing, ” participants are made to believe that a pill can alter their moods when, in fact, the pill is a placebo. When these participants are artificially riled up in an experimental situation, and then given the fake pill, they both reduce their angry outbursts and – importantly- say that the feel better. You don’t have to give yourself an actual, fake, mood freezing pill to reduce your own angry outbursts the next time you get mad. If you tell yourself you don’t need to express that anger, though, you can derive the same positive benefit.

2. Facial feedback

According to one theory of emotions, known as the facial feedback model, the expression on your face helps to control the way you feel inside. This theory was put to the test in a study of people who had received Botox treatments, a cosmetic injection that numbs the muscles of the face. The Botoxed participants were less able to empathize with the emotions of others because, presumably, they were unable to flex their facial muscles. The results weren’t accounted for, either, by a selection bias because people getting Botox don’t show unusual patterns of emotion detection prior to their injections.

3. Self-affirmations

The value of self-affirmations was made famous by SNL character Stuart Smalley (now Senator Al Franken): “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh-darn it, people like me.” Often, a self-affirmation can boost your inner strength and make you more likely to succeed. However, this strategy may come with a risk. A recent study showed that people who utter self-affirmations may be less inclined to pursue a goal after they experience failure. To the extent that you internalize your failure, you may then feel that you actually have less, rather than more of a chance at succeeding in your future efforts.

4. Hindsight bias

One of our most common human tendencies is to think that we were right about predicting an event’s outcome even in actuality we were wrong. Hindsight bias takes the common form of “I knew it all along.” Psychologists have long known about hindsight bias, but a recent study shows that you can be prevented from the lure of hindsight (and the possible negative consequences it can create) by relatively simple reality-testing interventions before you commit this cognitive faux pas.

5. Mind-wandering

The term mind-wandering isn’t particularly knew to 2013, but recent studies show that it can actually benefit your thinking. We tend to believe that it’s bad for our daily performance, but these studies are showing that you can make better plans for yourself and solve problems more creatively by occasionally letting your mind drift far and wide.

6. Double foot-in-the-door

The foot-in-the-door is a well-known strategy to manipulate people into fulfilling a large request by first presenting them with a small one. However, we hear less about the double-foot-in-the-door. In a recent study, researchers found that they could convince participants to engage in energy-saving activities more effectively using the double-foot-the-door. In this process, you make your request in three phases- small, medium, and large- rather than just going from small to large. That staging of your request makes it seem less intimidating, and even if you have to stretch it out over a week or two, in the long run, it will pay off more for you.