![[Black cartoon of a human with the top of their head hinged open and a red explosion coming out.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2021/10/pexels-nadezhda-moryak-9162031.jpg)
Researchers and mental health professionals use a common definition to describe delusions: a fixed, false belief held despite contradictory evidence. Not only does this definition fail to distinguish delusions from other widespread beliefs, such as religious or ideological beliefs, but it also attempts to simplify delusions to an individual characteristic of irrationality (i.e., the person has failed to distinguish what is true and false. This conceptualization of delusions has been criticized, and new theories have emerged, which focus on the inherently social nature of acquiring beliefs. This framework might better explain why delusions exist in the general population and identify some ways in which false beliefs can form….
Tag: context
Putting it into context: How psychology has shaped our knowledge of universal emotions
![[Yellow painted eggs with various facial expressions.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2021/06/pexels-roman-odintsov-6898861.jpg)
What are common emotions experienced in your culture? In the United States, happiness, anger, sadness, and fear are considered common emotions. The traditional theory of emotion assumes emotions are universally recognized by all humans. This theory dominates pop culture, with movies like Pixar’s Inside Out, which features characters personifying five emotions that coordinate our every action, and items like Amazon’s Halo Watch, which claims to detect emotions based on tone of voice. Yet, it is not possible to determine what emotion someone is experiencing based only on their face or tone of voice. Instead, our brain makes a prediction that is influenced by past experience, the current context, and interoceptive signals from our body (e.g., heart and breathing rate, hunger cues) from a culture-specific perspective…