What the Bloated Facebook IPO Says About Human Psychology – Forbes
Facebook’s IPO will be the largest ever for an Internet company, expected to raise more than 10 times as much as the $1.67 billion raised in Google Inc.’s 2004 IPO. At the end of the day, the company will be valued at more than $104 billion, and existing stockholders will collect nearly $6 billion.
I have just one question about all of this: Why?
If we turn the volume down on the hysteria for a moment, it’s not difficult to see that Facebook is ridiculously overvalued. For context on that point, consider this partial list of companies that the social media site will be worth more than after its IPO:
Kraft Foods ($66 B)
ConocoPhillips ($97 B)
Pepsi ($103 B)
Disney ($77 B)
Amazon ($93 B)
UPS ($76 B)
Comcast ($80 B)
Boeing ($55 B)
And that’s just a short sample of a very, very long list. All of the companies mentioned are established titans with time-tested brands. Facebook, on the other hand, is barely eight years old and makes its money using a business model brimming with limitations. Namely, it (1) sells advertising on its site, and (2) collects royalties from third party software developers that create content with its platform.
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PNC Adds New Bachelor’s Degrees in Psychology & History – PortageLife
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE) has granted approval to Purdue University North Central to offer Bachelor’s degree programs in Psychology and in History. Students will have the opportunity to enroll in these bachelor’s degree programs in the Fall of 2012.
Purdue North Central now offers its students 22 baccalaureate programs.
“These new bachelor’s degrees will open exciting opportunities for our Purdue North Central students,” said PNC Chancellor Dr. James B. Dworkin. “PNC is committed to offering bachelor’s degree programs in a variety of areas that will lead to relevant, stable careers. Students earning these degrees will be well positioned to put their Purdue degrees to work.”
There is a positive career outlook for those earning a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. The American Psychological Society lists more than 50 jobs in social and human services for which a degree in psychology is appropriate. Graduates will be able to pursue entry-level positions in mental health, social services and research positions.
According to Dr. Michael Lynn, chair of the PNC Department of Social Science, “Many of these jobs are found in Northwest Indiana and are experiencing an increase in demand.”
In addition, students who earn a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology will be eligible to apply for admission to all graduate programs in psychology throughout the United States, said Lynn.
The Bachelor’s degree in Psychology is designed to meet all 10 learning goals listed by the American Psychological Association (APA) for undergraduate psychology majors.
Qualifying PNC Psychology majors will have the opportunity for initiation into its chapter of Psi Chi, the International Psychology Honor Society. This organization offers students the distinctive honor of being initiated for life based on their cumulative and major specific GPA as well as percentile rank.
The PNC Bachelor’s degree in History degree meets the general guidelines of the American Historical Association. Earning a Bachelor’s degree in History will open many opportunities. According to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s list of the 50 hottest jobs for Economic Growth, graduates with degrees in History will be well suited to pursue careers as researchers, curators, archivists, entrepreneurs, business managers and in government service,. The degree also prepares students well for graduate school, MBA programs and law school. Graduates earning a degree in History will gain essential critical thinking skills, expertise in writing and communication, research capabilities and analytical skills that potential employers find essential in the workplace.
A special feature of the program is its research sequence, which will provide students with the opportunity to conduct original research in local historical societies or other archives. Upon completion of the research, students will have an opportunity to present their work at an annual conference. Qualifying students will have their work published in an online departmental journal.
The PNC program will apply for membership in the Phi Alpha Theta national history honor society, which will provide students with an opportunity for recognition of excellence, and allow them to participate in regional and national research conferences and be eligible for various scholarships, awards and recognition.
Further information about becoming at student at PNC may be obtained by contacting Enrollment Services at 219.785.5200 ext. 5505 or by visiting the PNC website, www.pnc.edu.
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You are what you read, study suggests – msnbc.com
Lionsgate
By Linda Carroll
Novels may have a lot more power than we think.
When you identify with a literary character, like Katniss Everdeen of the “Hunger Games” books, there’s a good chance you’ll become more like her, new study shows.
Researchers have found that when you lose yourself in a work of fiction, your behavior and thoughts can metamorphose to match those of your favorite character, according to the study published early online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The researchers believe that fictional characters can change us for the good.
So, if you bonded with Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” you might become more focused on ethical behavior, says the study’s lead author, Geoff Kaufman, a post-doctoral researcher at Tiltfactor Laboratories at Dartmouth College.
But the fiction-effect can have a dark side. “Think of ‘American Psycho,’” Kaufman says. “The character is very likable and charismatic. But he’s a serial killer. To the extent that you connect with him, you may try to understand or justify the actions he’s committing.”
Kaufman and his co-author Lisa Libby of Ohio State University suspected that when people read a fictional story they vicariously experience their favorite character’s emotions, thoughts and beliefs in a process that’s been dubbed “experience-taking.”
Kaufman and Libby found that experience-taking can lead to real changes in the lives of readers. What the researchers can’t say yet is whether those changes are brief or long-lasting.
Kaufman suspects novels can sometimes be life-changing. “If you’ve got a deep connection with the characters, it can have a lasting impact,” he says. “It can inspire you to re-read something. And then the impact can be strengthened over time.”
The researchers ran several experiments to look at how we react to fiction. In one, they found that people who strongly identified with a fictional character who overcame many obstacles in order to vote were significantly more likely to vote in a real election days later than volunteers who read a different story.
In another experiment, the researchers compared two groups of volunteers who read different versions of a story in which the protagonist was gay. In one version, readers didn’t learn till the end that the character was gay. In the other, they learned that detail right at the beginning.
Study volunteers who learned about the sexual orientation of the hero at the end of the story expressed more positive feelings towards gay people when they were questioned later on.
That’s because they got to know the character and connect with him before they had a chance to cloud their impression with gay stereotypes, Kaufman explains. Those who learned about the character’s sexual orientation early on didn’t relate to him as much because their stereotypes put distance between them and the character.
Kaufman believes that the fiction-effect only comes with written works. “When we watch a movie, by the very essence of it, we’re positioned as spectators,” he explains. “So it’s hard to imagine yourself as the character. I suspect that if you read the screenplay it would be more powerful as far as experience-taking goes.”
So, who is Kaufman’s favorite fictional personality? Anna Karenina, the protagonist in Leo Tolstoy’s novel of the same name.
“My identification with her might have inspired my research,” Kaufman muses. “It’s the connection with a female character and understanding her struggles and difficulty in adapting to life and society. Looking back, I think a lot of my favorites are strong, complex female characters struggling in society.”
What literary character do you most identify with, and why? Let us know in the comments here, or over on our Facebook page — we may use you in an upcoming msnbc.com post!
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Psychology Professor’s Research Focuses on Distracted Drivers – Newswise (press release)
Newswise — Of all the dangers on the road, drivers are what you have to watch out for the most.
Alex Chaparro, director of Wichita State University’s psychology department, studies drivers who multitask behind the wheel, especially drivers who try to text or call while driving.
“When you ask people to rate how good they are at driving and the kind of risks they pose, they often have very positive assessments,” said Chaparro. “They believe that they’re good drivers.”
“But what we see when we look at participants in our experiments is that their driving is affected. What people believe in terms of their capabilities isn’t reflected in the data.”
Chaparro has researched drivers’ behavior since 1998.
“Some tasks may be more distracting than others,” Chaparro said. “For example, there’s evidence that listening to a book on tape doesn’t seem to interfere much with driving.”
Driving interference
One of the experiments Chaparro conducted was reading a set of letters to each participant while driving. Some only had to repeat the letters back in the order they received them, and that didn’t seem to affect their driving.
“But when you asked drivers to alphabetize their set of letters it has a big impact on their driving,” he said. “Thinking about generating a response is perhaps the main source of interference in driving.”
Chaparro said when you’re thinking about generating a response, you’re not thinking about what’s going on in the road ahead.
Most recently he has been directing his research at texting while driving.
“We did an initial study looking at texting versus talking, and we found that texting was a lot worse,” he said. “On virtually every measure we found that drivers who were texting were significantly worse than drivers who were just talking on the phone.”
When you’re texting, Chaparro said, you have the cognitive demands of talking. But now, you also have to physically interact with a device using small buttons that require visual confirmation.
Chaparro cited a study done at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that used video cameras in vehicles to record drivers’ behavior on the road. The study attempted to correlate crashes and near misses with the drivers’ behavior.
The study found evidence that texting while driving increases the chance of a crash by as much as 23 times. That compares to being four times as likely to crash while talking on the phone.
Timely research
With Kansas’ new laws against texting while driving, Chaparro’s research has become more timely than ever.
“I think the law highlights the difficulties faced by both the police and drivers when it has to be enforced,” he said.
Kansas law now allows law enforcement officers to stop motorists for “sending, receiving or reading text messages or emails on their wireless devices.”
“First, it appears that many drivers are not aware of the law and that it covers not only the typing of a text message but also the act of reading a text message,” Chaparro said. “A public education program may be needed to raise awareness and educate drivers.”
“Second, enforcement poses a challenge because it is not always clear from a short glance whether the driver was texting, using the phone to check the time or to turn off an alarm. Would all of these cases be treated as if the person was texting? Is dialing a telephone number any less risky than texting ‘got 2 go’?”
Even though some people are naturally better at multitasking than others, that doesn’t mean that they are immune from the risk, he said.
“When people are engaged in these tasks, even when they’re good at them, those tasks still place a burden on the driving performance,” Chaparro said.
This can be demonstrated without even getting in a car.
“We’ve been walking since about age 1. It’s the most practiced motor task that we engage in. Yet walking is affected by the simple task of listening for two tones and responding to just one of them,” he said.
We’re not nearly as practiced at driving as we are at walking.
Chaparro said that we shouldn’t be surprised that using a mobile device behind the wheel impacts driving performance.
“Anything that distracts drivers is a risk. Looking at accident statistics, you find that driver distraction is the most common cause of mishaps,” Chaparro said. “Anything in a car that serves as a source of distraction in a car is problematic.”
Police and psychologists prevent suicide of 41-year-old woman, her 10-year-old … – Focus News
Police and psychologists prevent suicide of 41-year-old woman, her 10-year-old child in Sofia
11 May 2012 | 16:38 | FOCUS News Agency
Home / Police
Sofia. Police officers with Sofia District Police Directorate and psychologists with the Institute of Psychology have prevented the suicide of a 41-year-old woman and her 10-year-old child, announced the press center of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry.
The incident occurred on Friday in an apartment on the 14th floor of a residential building in the residential district of Tolstoy in Sofia. The police were alerted shortly after 10 a.m. by the woman’s father. He said she wanted to commit a suicide together with her child and jump over the balcony. According to the father the woman refused to unlock the door of the apartment.
When the police and psychologists arrived, they found out that the woman’s 10-year-old daughter was inside the apartment and that the mother would not let her child go to school for a month. The police and psychologists were very careful, because at one moment the woman went out into the balcony together with the child and there was a risk that they might jump over it. After four-hour talks the crisis was solved, the police entered the apartment and the woman was detained.
The woman suffers a mental disorder and she had to be admitted to a specialized hospital for treatment. According to experts, this fact has probably caused her reaction. She is now in a mental hospital and the child is in a police department where she speaks with psychologists and workers with Child Protection Service.
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Is There a Set Point That Determines Your Level of Happiness?
Is there a “set point” that determines your level of happiness, regardless of your status in life? Is it something you have little power to change?
For several decades psychologists have wrestled with that question, and in recent years many, if not most, have embraced the idea that we are born with a tendency to be happy, or sour, and it doesn’t have much to do with our surroundings or lifestyle. One researcher compared it to height. Try as you may, you probably aren’t going to get any taller.
But a new study contends that happiness is very different from height or other genetically-determined characteristics. The study concludes that the “set point” is really a range, and we can move up and down on the happiness scale within that range.
All we have to do is keep our lives interesting, and be satisfied with what we already have.
Sounds easy, and psychologist Kennon Sheldon of the University of Missouri, Columbia, argues that it is — although most of us may not succeed.
“We all have good things happen to us, and they lift us for a while and then we kind of fall back where we started,” Sheldon, lead author of a study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, said in a telephone interview. “We’re trying to figure out how people can get more out of the good things that happen to them.”
Michael Heiman/Getty Images
Sheldon and his coauthor, psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside, have collaborated on several research projects over the last couple of decades. They have come up with a program that they think could help us inch our way up the happiness scale, and stay there longer, although there will always be a tendency to drop back to our personal “set points.”
Their effort is an attempt to deal with an idea that has been kicking around for four decades, called “Hedonic Adaptation,” or the “Hedonic Treadmill.” That theory suggests that good things may move us up on the happiness scale, but in time the glow dims and we return to a point established chiefly by genetics. Bad things may move us down on the scale, but the impact of even traumatic experiences also diminishes over time, although some research suggests it’s harder to forget the bad than remember the good.
We deal as best as we can with bad things as a way of avoiding depression, and that forces us back up the happiness scale. And as for the good things, as soon as we get them, we want more, thus pushing us back down toward the median.
Sheldon and Lyubomirsky argue that simple lifestyle changes can help keep us a bit happier, “despite pessimism from the current literature that the pursuit of happiness may be largely futile,” as Lyubomirsky puts it.
It all comes down to two words: variety and appreciation.
There’s a new love in your life? Keep it alive by introducing new experiences and variety. That will keep the relationship fresh and rewarding, and, well, happy. Appreciate what you’ve got.
“To appreciate something is to savor it, to feel grateful for it, to recognize that one might never have gotten it, or might lose it,” the study says.
Without that, you’re likely going to lose interest and cast about for something better, whether it’s a new mate or a new car. It seems we are never satisfied, and that brings the happiness barometer down.
The researchers tested 481 students over two semesters to measure their level of happiness and determine if savoring a good thing could last even a few weeks. In most cases, it didn’t. The participants quickly returned to their regular levels of happiness.
But some participants were able to maintain that elevated level of happiness by keeping the memory alive and appreciating what they already had.
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