What is Reverse Psychology?

reverse psychology pic“Technically, you are using ‘Reverse Psychology’ when you intentionally and strongly argue in favor of a decision or behavior while secretly wanting the receiver of your argument to endorse the opposite decision or behavior” (Pantalon, 2011). Continue reading

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Beliefs about Beliefs: Theory of Mind Development

four year old boy

An important aspect of a child’s cognitive development is the emergence of a representational theory of mind. Having a theory of mind means that one is able to impute mental states – such as beliefs, intentions, knowledge and desires – to oneself and others.  In simple terms, it involves knowing that other people have minds of their own and that their thoughts and knowledge can differ from one’s own. Continue reading

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Social Conformity – The Elevator Experiment

A few days ago, the staff at WIP released an article on the power of group pressure and social conformity on the decisions we make on a daily basis. Today we examine the principles of the classic Asch conformity experiments in a new setting…inside an elevator.

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Why Do Women Love the Drama? A “Psycho” Analysis

women and dramaA new study published by Psychological Science, a journal for the Association for Psychological Science, found that a woman becomes more attracted to a man if she is completely uncertain whether or not he likes her. Continue reading

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The Asch Conformity Experiments

Conformity refers to the practice of going along with prevailing social standards or attitudes. In the 1950’s, Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments in which he studied the willingness of individual subjects to conform to group answers, even when those answers were obviously wrong. Continue reading

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