Psyched for Psych
This term describes discomfort felt when holding two contradictory beliefs
What is Cognitive Dissonance?
Penn State was founded in 1855 under this original name, reflecting its roots as an agricultural school.
What is the Farmers' High School (of Pennsylvania)?
Excavators at the Łysa Góra site in Poland uncovered the remains of a 2,500-year-old longhouse and Thracian coin.
What is archaeology?
This ancient philosopher spent his days questioning Athenians in the marketplace, claimed to know that he knew nothing, and was eventually sentenced to death by hemlock.
Who is Socrates?
This brewing method uses finely ground coffee and steam pressure to quickly produce a small, concentrated shot topped with a layer of golden foam.
What is espresso?
This researcher's controversial 1960s obedience experiments had participants believe they were delivering increasingly severe electric shocks to a learner at the instruction of an authority figure.
Who is Stanley Milgram?
Before there was a Nittany Lion, this mule, purchased by the school in the 1860s to haul limestone, served as Penn State's unofficial mascot for three decades.
What is Old Coaly?
Sky-gazers announced that the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS is unusually rich in methanol, suggesting it formed under very different conditions than typical solar system comets.
What is astronomy?
This ethical framework judges the morality of an action purely by its consequences, holding that the right choice is whichever produces the greatest good for the greatest number.
What is utilitarianism?
This popular Starbucks-born beverage combines espresso with steamed milk and a lighter layer of foam than a cappuccino.
What is a latte?
According to Freud, this defense mechanism is at work when a person who secretly resents their boss ends up snapping at their spouse instead.
What is displacement?
In 1863, Penn State was designated as Pennsylvania's sole institution of this type, created under the federal Morrill Act to fund education through public land.
What is a land-grant university/institution?
A new producer price report showing higher costs for goods, airfares, and hospital services pushed traders to raise their bets on a Federal Reserve interest rate hike.
What is economics?
This foundational concept in Buddhist and Hindu philosophy refers to the law of cause and effect, where one's actions determine future suffering or well-being.
What is karma?
This brewing device uses a mesh plunger to separate grounds from water after steeping, producing a fuller-bodied cup than drip coffee.
What is a French press?
In Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, adolescents primarily wrestle with this conflict, centered on figuring out who they are.
What is identity vs. role confusion?
Often called the "Second Founder" of Penn State, this president led the school from 1882 to 1906 and broadened its curriculum beyond agriculture.
Who is George W. Atherton?
Fresh evidence suggested the ancient supercontinent Gondwana was significantly larger than previously believed, upending existing models of how continents have broken apart over Earth's history.
What is geology?
In this thought experiment, a prisoner escapes a lifetime of watching shadows on a wall, only to struggle explaining the outside world to those left behind.
What is Plato's Allegory of the Cave?
According to legend, this African country is the birthplace of coffee, discovered after a goat herder noticed his goats getting energetic from eating certain red berries.
What is Ethiopia?
A game of chance only rewards the player some of the time, indicating this schedule of reinforcement.
What is a variable ratio schedule?
This PSU major is the only one that's entirely student-designed, letting undergrads build a customized course of study across disciplines toward a Bachelor of Arts.
What is Letters, Arts, and Sciences?
A yeast-engineering breakthrough turned plastic and agricultural waste into ingredients for a protein-rich, 3D-printed snack developed in part for NASA's Deep Space Food program.
What is (bio)engineering?
This contemporary philosopher is best known for his arguments in favor of animal rights and effective altruism, laid out in his influential book "Animal Liberation".
Who is Peter Singer?
This chemical process, which occurs when coffee beans are roasted, involves amino acids reacting with sugars under heat to create the hundreds of compounds responsible for coffee's complex aroma and brown color.
What is the Maillard reaction?