Tag "psychology"

A new study by HSE researchers has uncovered a new brain mechanism that generates cognitive dissonance – a mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs or values, or experiences difficulties in making decisions. The results of the study have been published in the paper ‘Open Access Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Dissonance (Revised): an EEG Study’in The Journal of Neuroscience. 

A comparative cross-cultural study conducted by the HSE International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation has found that Russians tend to be as open with their friends as Americans, but unlike Americans, Russians prefer to hide their happiness when talking to strangers or government officials. These findings were published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology in the paper Russians Inhibit the Expression of Happiness to Strangers: Testing a Display Rule Model.

According to Glasgow and HSE/Northumbria researchers, repetition of non-verbs as well as verbs can boost the effect of syntactic priming, i.e. the likelihood of people reproducing the structure of the utterance they have just heard.

For perfectionists, sleep quality is often far from perfect. However, perfectionism per se seems to be just part of the story; another important factor is a perfectionists' tendency to experience frequent symptoms of anxiety, sometimes for relatively minor reasons. These are the findings made by a team of Russian and UK sleep researchers, published in the January 2017 issue of Personality and Individual Differences journal.

It has been known for a long time that early risers work less efficiently at night than night owls do. But researchers from the Higher School of Economics and Oxford University have uncovered new and distinctive features between the night activities of these two types of individuals. At night, early risers demonstrate a quicker reaction time when solving unusual attention-related tasks than night owls, but these early risers make more mistakes along the way.

On November 15-16, an international symposium dedicated to childhood and adolescence took place in Moscow in honour of the 120th anniversary of Lev Vygotsky’s birth. Several participants in the symposium, entitled ‘Lev Vygotsky and Modern Childhood’, were especially interested in the unique Russian experience that flowed from the traditions established by the renowned Soviet psychologist.

It has long been known to science that women find it easier than men to switch between tasks. But how exactly their brains function differently in such situations has so far been unclear. Recent research reveals that male brains appear to consume more energy when they need to shift attention. In addition to this, in men there is greater activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal areas of the brain compared to women, as well as activation in some other areas which is not usually observed in women.

On November 15-16, an international symposium dedicated to childhood and adolescence will take place in Moscow in honour of the 120th anniversary of Lev Vygotsky’s birth. Building on the traditions established by the renowned Soviet psychologist, who made a number of contributions to psychology, pedagogy and defectology, the symposium will seek to promote analysis and discussion of the notions of childhood and reflection on how concepts of cultural-historical theory are used in contemporary studies of childhood and maturation.

The decision to get a family pet tends to be associated with children’s growing-up crises. According to the researchers, many parents adopt a cat or a dog at a time when their son or daughter is going through a major change, such as starting school or entering puberty. At such times, the child's attitudes towards themselves and the outside world can change drastically, causing anxiety in the family. Research suggests that pets can help both parents and children cope with stress. The study's findings are published in the paper 'The likelihood of getting a family pet depending on the age of children.'

Children tend to perform better at schools with a positive psychological climate, where they feel safe and comfortable, according to Tatiana Chirkina and Tatiana Khavenson's study 'Correlation between School Climate and Student Academic Achievement.' According to social scientist Renato Tagiuri, the school climate is understood as comprising several dimensions, such as student-teacher communication, student attitudes towards school, and teacher work satisfaction and expectations in terms of student academic achievement.