May 10, 2012 by Shannon
May 10th 2012. Pioneering work in the field was carried out in the early 1970s by Edward Deci, a psychologist at Rochester University in New York. He found that students offered cash prizes to solve puzzles were less likely to continue working on them after payments had been made, compared to students who were offered no...
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May 4, 2012 by Shannon
May 4th 2012. Aristotle’s philosophy was an influence on Edward Deci and Richard Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory, which suggests that employees will work harder for you, and perform better, if you give them tasks they find meaningful and morally worthwhile. Humans want to believe in something and to serve it. Appeal to your employees’ best nature...
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May 1, 2012 by Shannon
May 1st 2012. That common put-down aimed at homophobic people – that they may, in fact, be gay themselves – may have some truth to it. Two researchers, Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester, and William Ryan, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of...
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April 30, 2012 by Shannon
April 30th 2012. Researchers found that among the college freshmen in their study, more than one-fifth of those who described themselves as very straight showed signs of covert homosexuality on the me-cued trials. And these “discrepant” (secretly gay) students happened to be the ones most likely to have expressed anti-gay sentiments on the pre-test...
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April 10, 2012 by Shannon
April 10th 2012. (CBS News) Do homophobic people actually fear their own unconscious feelings? A new study suggests that people who repress their own sexual attraction to the same sex are more likely to express hostility towards gays. “In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this...
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April 9, 2012 by Shannon
April 9th 2012. “This study shows that if you are feeling that kind of visceral reaction to an out-group, ask yourself, ‘Why?'” co-author Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. “Those intense emotions should serve as a call to self-reflection.” The research, published in the April...
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April 6, 2012 by Shannon
April 6th 2012. <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/KOsRiH0-E6A” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> Posted by University of Rochester
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April 1, 2012 by Shannon
April 1st 2012. Say you are a parent trying to get your son to aim for all A*s in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). To get him to work hard, you promise him a reward – a trip to Disneyland or the sleek, new iPad, $150 for every A*. Sounds like a sure-win strategy,...
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March 20, 2012 by Shannon
March 20th 2012. A Cincinnati high school’s recent program to pay students to attend class and to follow school rules is another example. It’s the latest in a series of unfortunate efforts to use bribery to force students to learn. Application of these kinds of incentives has been proven time and time again to...
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