Home » Psychology Resources » Magic
Category Archives: Magic
Cameron Russell: Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model.
Cameron Russell: Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model.
Cameron Russell admits she won “a genetic lottery”: she’s tall, pretty and an underwear model. But don’t judge her by her looks. In this fearless talk, she takes a wry look at the industry that had her looking highly seductive at barely 16-years-old.
Cameron Russell has stomped the runways for Victoria’s Secret and Chanel, and has appeared in many magazines. But she is much more than just a pretty face.
WHY YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO HER?
Cameron Russell has spent the last decade modeling. A Victoria’s Secret favorite, she has appeared in multiple international editions of Vogue as well as in ads for brands like Ralph Lauren and Benetton. But she feels at her core that image isn’t everything.
Cameron runs the blog ArtRoots.info, which is dedicated to covering grassroots public art and political power. She also experiments with creating street art herself. In addition, Cameron is the director of The Big Bad Lab, which creates participatory art that aims to include people in radical demonstrations of positive social change.
How Does the Brain Work?
How Does the Brain Work?
This episode of NOVA scienceNOW delves into some pretty heady stuff, examining magic and the brain, artificial intelligence, magnetic mind control, and the work of neuroscientist and synesthesia researcher David Eagleman. Can we really believe our own eyes? Will machines one day think like us? Can magnetic wands effectively control brain functions and treat depression? Explore this and more.
Intuition, magic, and meaning
Intuition, magic, and meaning
Dr. Laura King
Frederick A. Middlebush Professor of Psychological Sciences
University of Missouri
The psychological approach to meaning often relies on the notion that meaning is a conscious and intentional construction. King will present an alternative approach inspired by William James‘ “fringe of consciousness” notion, in which meaning emerges out of intuitive processes. Sense is not made but automatically sensed through meta-cognitive experience, heuristics, and affect. Research on magical thinking, pattern recognition, and semantic coherence judgments demonstrates the importance of individual differences in intuitive information processing and positive affect in the experience of meaning. Understanding the intuitive experience of meaning promises to illuminate the grand judgment of life’s meaningfulness, as well as domains of life in which we “just know” the validity of our feelings, including faith, morality, and sexuality.
Laura A. King, Frederick A. Middlebush Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, received her doctorate in personality psychology from the University of California, Davis in 1991. Author of more than 80 publications, King’s research focuses on psychological well being, meaning in life, intuition, motivation, narrative approaches, and folk theories of the “Good Life.” Her work has been funded by the National Institute on Mental Health and the Roger S. Williams Foundation. She won the Templeton Prize in 2001 for contributions to research on positive psychology and has been honored with numerous teaching awards as well. King currently serves as the editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Personality Processes and Individual Differences.
