Skip to Content Skip to Content

Psychology

A penny for your squats?
The New York Times

A penny for your squats?

Katy Milkman of the Wharton School and Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences designed a megastudy to assess the effects of interventions on exercise behavior. The most successful motivator they found was money.

A self-help guide to treating IBD
Image of a book cover, with a purple ribbon placed on top of a hand. The title reads," Coping with Crohn's and colitis: A patient and clinician's guide to CBT for IBD," by "Melissa G. Hunt, Foreword by Aaron T. Beck" next to a photo of a person standing up, wearing a black blazer and a black and gold dress.

A self-help guide to treating IBD

In her new book, clinical psychologist Melissa Hunt offers a cognitive behavioral therapy approach to helping people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis improve their quality of life.

Michele W. Berger

Managing ADHD is hard. These coaches want to help
The New York Times

Managing ADHD is hard. These coaches want to help

Lisa Joy Tutttle of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about Penn’s Adult A.D.H.D. Treatment and Research Program, which provides clients with coaching and other support. “We’re really trying to help people develop their own insights and solutions,” she said.

Guided mastery: The scaffolding you need to grow stronger
Philadelphia Inquirer

Guided mastery: The scaffolding you need to grow stronger

Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences wrote about the importance of imbuing young people with a sense of personal agency. “Don’t tell anyone they have complete control of their destiny. That’s not true,” she said. “And yet each of us, no matter our circumstances, has some control, particularly over our own thoughts and actions.”

‘The passionate pursuit of social justice’
dennis culhane teaching in a classroom

Homepage image: “The mission of the School of Social Policy & Practice is the passionate pursuit of social justice,” says Dean Sara Bachman. Indeed, in their work, the established faculty at SP2 address the issues of homelessness, substance use, the carceral system, data and quantification, guaranteed income and universal basic income, the foster care system, and how to maximize philanthropic impact.

‘The passionate pursuit of social justice’

The School of Social Policy & Practice addresses social inequities through research.

Kristina García

Trump true believers have their reasons
The New York Times

Trump true believers have their reasons

Clifford Workman, a postdoctoral fellow in the Perelman School of Medicine, co-authored research about the neuroscience of morality. “People are motivated by shared social values that, when held with moral conviction, can serve as compelling mandates capable of facilitating support for ideological violence,” Workman and colleagues wrote.

Sports psychologist talks athletes and mental health
On a wooden bench outside of the Palestra, Andrea Wieland sits while wearing a blue vest with the works Penn on it.

Sports psychologist talks athletes and mental health

Andrea Wieland, the associate athletic director for sports performance at Penn Athletics, discusses athletes and mental health, Simone Biles, Ben Simmons, the yips, and the importance of seeing athletes as whole people.
Mapping words to color
fanned out color sample sheets depicting a rainbow of shades

A Penn study has looked at the communicative needs that drive similarities and differences in how languages develop vocabularies for color. 

Mapping words to color

Researchers led by postdoc Colin Twomey and professor Joshua Plotkin developed an algorithm that can infer the communicative needs different linguistic communities place on colors.

Katherine Unger Baillie

At the Ryder Cup, would 12 divided by 3 equal victory for the U.S.?
The New York Times

At the Ryder Cup, would 12 divided by 3 equal victory for the U.S.?

Charline Russo of the College of Liberal & Professional Studies weighed in on a new pod system that divides professional golf teams into subgroups based on compatibility. She compared the arrangement to World War II troops, the most effective of which were assembled from the same town. “It wasn’t just because they grew up together, there was also that accountability factor,” Russo said. “You didn’t want to go home and admit that you screwed up.”

Why having too much free time can be as bad for you as having too little
The Washington Post

Why having too much free time can be as bad for you as having too little

Research led by Marissa Sharif of the Wharton School found that, when it comes to leisure time, there’s a point of diminishing return. “A moderate amount of discretionary time leads people to be better off or happier compared to having a large amount of free time,” she said. “And that’s because with a large amount of free time, people feel this lacking sense of productivity and purpose.”