Social Media Psychology

When we’re in the Certainty Trap, we tend to view people who disagree with us as hateful, ignorant, or just plain stupid. When it comes to heated social and political issues in particular, many of us know this feeling well—a consuming state of righteous indignation and moral outrage. By committing to challenging and clarifying our thinking—by avoiding the trap certainty sets for us—we can increase social trust, reduce political polarization, and better address the world’s pressing challenges.

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we are all susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes can make us poor and unhealthy. We often make bad decisions about education, personal finance, health care, family, and the environment.

Psychology is a subject with wide and partially unexplored horizons. The psychological well-being of an individual is in fact dependent on every single influence. Starting in the womb, continuing with education, hobbies, views, knowledge, feelings and learned values. These influences provide namely for positive development or also for negative development. These opposites of the positive and negative development describe thereby roughly seen finally the psychology. This tries to explain behaviors of an individual and offers the possibility to overcome fears, for example.

The Handmaid’s Tale Psychology: Seeing Off Red delves into the psychology of the characters and events depicted in each version of Atwood’s epic, both in print and on screen. Through 18 chapters, psychologists and therapists look deeply into the fiction, analyzing it both personally and professionally to unearth its message about real human truths. Topics include oppression, resistance, power, identity, violence, post-traumatic stress versus post-traumatic growth, good versus evil, morality versus mortality, spirituality versus religion, helplessness versus hopefulness, and more.

In November 2008, John Hattie’s ground-breaking book Visible Learning synthesized the results of more than fifteen years research involving millions of students and represented the biggest ever collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning.

As Dr. JoAnne Pedro-Carroll explains with clarity and compassion in this powerful book, parents can positively alter the immediate and long-term effects of divorce on their children. The key is proven, emotionally intelligent parenting strategies that promote children's emotional health, resilience, and ability to lead satisfying lives. Over the past three decades, Pedro-Carroll has worked with families in transition, conducted research, and developed and directed award- winning, court-endorsed programs that have helped thousands of families navigate divorce and its aftermath.

A fascinating look at the evolution of behavioral science, the revolutionary way it's changing the way we live, and how nurturing environments can increase people's well-being in virtually every aspect of our society, from early childhood education to corporate practices. If you want to know how you can help create a better world, listen to this book.

Nearly everyone swears - whether it's over a few too many drinks, in reaction to a stubbed toe, or in flagrante delicto. And yet we sit idly by as words are banned from television and censored in books. We insist that people excise profanity from their vocabularies, and we punish children for yelling the very same dirty words that we'll mutter in relief seconds after they fall asleep. Swearing, it seems, is an intimate part of us that we have decided to selectively deny.

Under the new rules of social media, we are not what we eat, but rather what others believe we eat. The 21st century has marked the emergence of social media networking sites. They have become a major part of our lives: we can't imagine our lives without them, and it's unrealistic to assume that's even possible. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook haven't been around long, but they are already having far-reaching impacts on our health and wellbeing.

Leading marketing practitioner and thought leader Joe Federer draws on evolutionary biology, anthropology, neuroanatomy, and psychology, as well as more than a decade of hands-on experience, to explain why people act so differently in various online spaces and what they are seeking from participating in each one.

Critical thinking is regularly cited as an essential 21st century skill, the key to success in school and work. Given our propensity to believe fake news, draw incorrect conclusions, and make decisions based on emotion rather than reason, it might even be said that critical thinking is vital to the survival of a democratic society. But what, exactly, is critical thinking? Haber describes the term's origins in such disciplines as philosophy, psychology, and science.

An easy-to-implement collection of creative ideas and new strategies that inspire students with the power of growth mindset. Students who harness the power of growth mindset can succeed beyond their wildest imagination. The key is having a growth-mindset teacher who provides support, guidance, and encouragement.

Why do three out of four professional football players go bankrupt? How can illiterate jungle dwellers pass a test that tricks Harvard philosophers? And why do billionaires work so hard - only to give their hard-earned money away? When it comes to making decisions, the classic view is that humans are eminently rational. But growing evidence suggests instead that our choices are often irrational, biased, and occasionally even moronic. Which view is right - or is there another possibility?

Truth: A User's Guide explores how we can guard against the noise of competing truths, in business, in our personal relationships, and within ourselves, but also how we can use them to our advantage. Written with authority and humour, this is an accessible and illuminating narrative that will find a wide audience among listeners in search of understanding why the meaning of "truth" seems to have gone completely haywire.

For centuries, economics was dominated by the idea that we are rational individuals who optimize our own “utility”. Then, in the 1970s, psychologists demonstrated that the reality is a lot messier. We don’t really know what our utility is, and we care about people other than ourselves. We are susceptible to external nudges. And far from being perfectly rational, we are prone to “cognitive biases” with complex effects on decision-making, such as forgetting to prepare for retirement.

We live in an age of addiction, from compulsive gaming and shopping to binge eating and opioid abuse. Sugar can be as habit-forming as cocaine, researchers tell us, and social media apps are hooking our kids. But what can we do to resist temptations that insidiously and deliberately rewire our brains? Nothing, David Courtwright says, unless we understand the history and character of the global enterprises that create and cater to our bad habits.

Que se passe-t-il donc dans la tête d’un Homo sapiens lorsqu’une passion amoureuse l’entraîne dans la déraison et les extravagances? Ou bien lorsqu’une animosité en lui se transforme en sentiment de haine ? Les neurosciences nous éclairent maintenant très bien sur ces deux pulsions – amour, haine – qui sont, l’une et l’autre, des rouages essentiels à notre survie. Elles constituent des processus neuronaux ancestraux encore sollicités et restés très actifs.

Former big-city crime reporter Tamara Cherry calls on her award-winning skills as a journalist to examine the impact of the media on trauma survivors and the impact of trauma on members of the media. As Tamara documents the experiences of those who were forced to suffer on the public stage, she is confronted by everything she got wrong on the crime beat. Covering murders and traffic fatalities to sexual violence and mass violence, Cherry exposes a system set up to fail trauma survivors and journalists.

Tackling the complex subject of bias head on, Skewed investigates the hidden messages we absorb from birth. Looking closely at what the research can tell us, Caryn Franklin and Dr Keon West explain how our inner worlds are shaped by false information, media trends, and the brain’s preference for patterns and stereotypes. Exploring biases around gender, sexuality, race, age and appearance, Caryn and Keon explain how bias impacts all of our lives.

Heather Shumaker has sparked much discussion with her "renegade rules for raising competent and compassionate kids". In this follow-up book, she takes on new hot-button issues like banning homework, technology use, and skipping kindergarten. Shumaker offers broader guidance on how parents can control their own anger and move from an overscheduled life to one of more free play.