Brain research provides a framework for understanding how the brain processes and internalizes athletic skills. In practicing a complex movement such as a golf swing, we experiment with different grips, positions and swing movements, analyzing each in terms of the results it yields. This is a conscious, left-brain process. Once we identify those elements of the swing that produce the desired results, we rehearse them over and over again in an attempt to record them permanently in muscle memory. In this way, we internalize the swing as a kinesthetic feeling that we trust to recreate the desired swing on demand. This internalization transfers the swing from a consciously controlled left-brain function to a more intuitive or automatic right-brain function. This description, despite being an oversimplification of the actual processes involved, serves as a model for the interaction between conscious and unconscious actions in the brain, as it learns to perfect an athletic skill.

Intergroup contact is more likely to reduce stereotyping and create favorable attitudes if it is backed by social norms that promote equality among groups. If the norms support openness, friendliness, and mutual respect, the contact has a greater chance of changing attitudes and reducing prejudice than if they do not. Institutionally supported intergroup contact ― that is, contact sanctioned by an outside authority or by established customs ― is more likely to produce positive changes than unsupported contact. Without institutional support, members of an in-group may be reluctant to interact with outsiders because they feel doing so is deviant or simply inappropriate. With the presence of institutional support, however, contact between groups is more likely to be seen as appropriate, expected, and worthwhile. For instance, with respect to desegregation in elementary schools, there is evidence that students were more highly motivated and learned more in classes conducted by teachers (that is, authority figures) who supported rather than opposed desegregation.

Managers frequently try to play psychologist, to figure out why an employee has acted in a certain way. Empathizing with employees in order to understand their point of view can be very helpful. However, when dealing with a problem area, in particular, remember that it is not the person who is bad, but the actions exhibited on the job. Avoid making suggestions to employees about personal traits they should change; instead suggest more acceptable ways of performing. For example, instead of focusing on a person's unreliability, a manager might focus on the fact that the employee has been late to work seven times this month. It is difficult for employees to change who they are; it is usually much easier for them to change how they act.

The known fact of contingencies, without knowing precisely what those contingencies will be, shows that disaster preparation is not the same thing as disaster rehearsal. No matter how many mock disasters are staged according to prior plans, the real disaster will never mirror any one of them. Disaster-preparation planning is more like training for a marathon than training for a high-jump competition or a sprinting event. Marathon runners do not practice by running the full course of twenty-six miles; rather, they get into shape by running shorter distances and building up their endurance with cross-training. If they have prepared successfully, then they are in optimal condition to run the marathon over its predetermined course and length, assuming a range of weather conditions, predicted or not. This is normal marathon preparation.

Fears of damaging ecosystems are based on the sound conservationist principle that we should aim to minimize the disruption we cause, but there is a risk that this principle may be confused with the old idea of a 'balance of nature.' This supposes a perfect order of nature that will seek to maintain itself and that we should not change. It is a romantic, not to say idyllic, notion, but deeply misleading because it supposes a static condition. Ecosystems are dynamic, and although some may endure, apparently unchanged, for periods that are long in comparison with the human lifespan, they must and do change eventually. Species come and go, climates change, plant and animal communities adapt to altered circumstances, and when examined in fine detail such adaptation and consequent change can be seen to be taking place constantly. The 'balance of nature' is a myth. Our planet is dynamic, and so are the arrangements by which its inhabitants live together.

Before the modern scientific era, creativity was attributed to a superhuman force; all novel ideas originated with the gods. After all, how could a person create something that did not exist before the divine act of creation? In fact, the Latin meaning of the verb inspire is to breathe into, reflecting the belief that creative inspiration was similar to the moment in creation when God first breathed life into man. Plato argued that the poet was possessed by divine inspiration, and Plotin wrote that art could only be beautiful if it descended from God. The artist's job was not to imitate nature but rather to reveal the sacred and transcendent qualities of nature. Art could only be a pale imitation of the perfection of the world of ideas. Greek artists did not blindly imitate what they saw in reality; instead they tried to represent the pure, true forms underlying reality, resulting in a sort of compromise between abstraction and accuracy.

The objective point of view is illustrated by John Ford's philosophy of camera. Ford considered the camera to be a window and the audience to be outside the window viewing the people and events within. We are asked to watch the actions as if they were taking place at a distance, and we are not asked to participate. The objective point of view employs a static camera as much as possible in order to produce this window effect, and it concentrates on the actors and the action without drawing attention to the camera. The objective camera suggests an emotional distance between camera and subject; the camera seems simply to be recording, as straightforwardly as possible, the characters and actions of the story. For the most part, the director uses natural, normal types of camera positioning and camera angles. The objective camera does not comment on or interpret the action but merely records it, letting it unfold. We see the action from the viewpoint of an impersonal observer. If the camera moves, it does so unnoticeably, calling as little attention to itself as possible.

Academics, politicians, marketers and others have in the past debated whether or not it is ethically correct to market products and services directly to young consumers. This is also a dilemma for psychologists who have questioned whether they ought to help advertisers manipulate children into purchasing more products they have seen advertised. Advertisers have admitted to taking advantage of the fact that it is easy to make children feel that they are losers if they do not own the 'right' products. Clever advertising informs children that they will be viewed by their peers in an unfavorable way if they do not have the products that are advertised, thereby playing on their emotional vulnerabilities. The constant feelings of inadequateness created by advertising have been suggested to contribute to children becoming fixated with instant gratification and beliefs that material possessions are important.

We commonly argue about the fairness of taxation ― whether this or that tax will fall more heavily on the rich or the poor. But the expressive dimension of taxation goes beyond debates about fairness, to the moral judgements societies make about which activities are worthy of honor and recognition, and which ones should be discouraged. Sometimes, these judgements are explicit. Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and casinos are called sin taxes because they seek to discourage activities considered harmful or undesirable. Such taxes express society's disapproval of these activities by raising the cost of engaging in them. Proposals to tax sugary sodas (to combat obesity) or carbon emissions (to address climate change) likewise seek to change norms and shape behavior. Not all taxes have this aim. We do not tax income to express disapproval of paid employment or to discourage people from engaging in it. Nor is a general sales tax intended as a deterrent to buying things. These are simply ways of raising revenue.

Most beliefs - but not all - are open to tests of verification. This means that beliefs can be tested to see if they are correct or false. Beliefs can be verified or falsified with objective criteria external to the person. There are people who believe the Earth is flat and not a sphere. Because we have objective evidence that the Earth is in fact a sphere, the flat Earth belief can be shown to be false. Also, the belief that it will rain tomorrow can be tested for truth by waiting until tomorrow and seeing whether it rains or not. However, some types of beliefs cannot be tested for truth because we cannot get external evidence in our lifetimes (such as a belief that the Earth will stop spinning on its axis by the year 9999 or that there is life on a planet 100-million light-years away). Also, metaphysical beliefs (such as the existence and nature of a god) present considerable challenges in generating evidence that everyone is willing to use as a truth criterion.

When evaluating a policy, people tend to concentrate on how the policy will fix some particular problem while ignoring or downplaying other effects it may have. Economists often refer to this situation as The Law of Unintended Consequences. For instance, suppose that you impose a tariff on imported steel in order to protect the jobs of domestic steelworkers. If you impose a high enough tariff, their jobs will indeed be protected from competition by foreign steel companies. But an unintended consequence is that the jobs of some autoworkers will be lost to foreign competition. Why? The tariff that protects steelworkers raises the price of the steel that domestic automobile makers need to build their cars. As a result, domestic automobile manufacturers have to raise the prices of their cars, making them relatively less attractive than foreign cars. Raising prices tends to reduce domestic car sales, so some domestic autoworkers lose their jobs.

Why do people in the Mediterranean live longer and have a lower incidence of disease? Some people say it's because of what they eat. Their diet is full of fresh fruits, fish, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts. Individuals in these cultures drink red wine and use great amounts of olive oil. Why is that food pattern healthy? One reason is that they are eating a palette of colors. More and more research is surfacing that shows us the benefits of the thousands of colorful phytochemicals(phyto=plant) that exist in foods. These healthful, non-nutritive compounds in plants provide color and function to the plant and add to the health of the human body. Each color connects to a particular compound that serves a specific function in the body. For example, if you don't eat purple foods, you are probably missing out on anthocyanins, important brain protection compounds. Similarly, if you avoid green-colored foods, you may be lacking chlorophyll, a plant antioxidant that guards your cells from damage.

One line of research suggests that how often you go over material is less critical than the depth of processing that you engage in. Thus, if you expect to remember what you read, you have to wrestle fully with its meaning. Many students could probably benefit if they spent less time on rote repetition and more on actually paying attention to and analyzing the meaning of their reading assignments. In particular, it is useful to make material personally meaningful. When you read your textbooks, try to relate information to your own life and experience. For example, if you're reading in your psychology text about the personality trait of confidence, you can think about which people you know who are particularly confident and why you would characterize them as being that way.

Scientific discoveries are being brought to fruition at a faster rate than ever before. For example, in 1836, a machine was invented that mowed, threshed, and tied straw into bundles and poured grain into sacks. The machine was based on technology that even then was twenty years old, but it was not until 1930 that such a machine actually was marketed. The first English patent for a typewriter was issued in 1714, but another 150 years passed before typewriters were commercially available. Today, such delays between ideas and application are almost unthinkable. It is not that we are more eager or more ambitious than our ancestors but that we have, over time, invented all sorts of social devices to hasten the process. Thus, we find that the time between the first and second stages of the innovative cycle―between idea and application―has been cut radically.

Most of us have problems that have been posed to us (e.g., assignments from our supervisors). But we also recognize problems on our own (e.g., the need for additional parking space in the city where you work). After identifying the existence of a problem, we must define its scope and goals. The problem of parking space is often seen as a need for more parking lots or parking garages. However, in order to solve this problem creatively, it may be useful to redefine it as a problem of too many vehicles requiring a space to sit in during the workday. In that case, you may decide to organize a carpool among people who use downtown parking lots and institute a daytime local taxi service using these privately owned vehicles. Thus, you solve the problem not as you originally posed it but as you later reconceived it.