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Three Easy Ways to Make Your Work More Efficient---and Help Your Body Too

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - Mar. 30 (Opinion) -

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Revenge of the Introvert | Psychology Today - September 07, 2010

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - Sep. 26 (Other) - There are as many introverts as extraverts, but you'd never know it by looking around. Introverts would rather be entertained by what's going on in their heads than in seeking happiness. Their big challenge is not to feel like outsiders in their own culture.

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Why Parents of Girls Divorce More

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Anita E. Kelly - Aug. 29 (Review) - Economists Gordon Dahl (at the University of Rochester) and Enrico Moretti (at UCLA) discovered the following facts in 2003: In the United States, the parents of a girl are nearly 5 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of a boy. The parents of three girls are close to 10 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of three boys.

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Nobody Becomes a Psych Major to Study Statistics: Part I

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - Paradigms shape what questions psychologists ask and what we use as evidence to provide valid answers for them.

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When God is Watching, People Are More Generous.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Gad Saad - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - One argument in support of religiosity is that it makes people more moral. I am not particularly moved by this premise, as I find it a lot more impressive to be ethical, moral, kind, honest, and decent for reasons other than the fact that a "celestial dictator" (to borrow Christopher Hitchens' brilliant term) is watching over me. Moral and immoral acts are committed both by atheists and believers so neither group holds a monopoly over either form of behaviors.

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The Age of Paranoia

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Stanton Peele - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - There is profound paranoia on the economic front all along the political spectrum. Conservatives AND liberals feel that bailouts are arranged for the benefit of Wall Street insiders by leaders of both parties who rely on former Goldman Sachs directors and people who have worked closely with them. At the same time many people are suspicious about the presence of immigrant and unfamiliar religious groups in our midst. For their parts, as demonstrated by Dr. Nidal Hasan, people in these groups are paranoid about the intentions of the rest of the country towards them. Thus, there is a reciprocal exchange between anti-immigrant paranoia and paranoid acting out by its targets. Of course, we are paranoid about the intentions of those overseas who wish to destroy the United States. But a remarkably large percentage of Muslims internationally support jihadists because they fear American intentions and believe that we hate them. Many Muslims believe that the American government itself launched the 9/11 attacks in order to justify wars against Muslim nations.

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The wetware imperative: Stopping small-mindedness before it kills us

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D - Oct. 18 (Research) - In other words, the limiting agent isn't hardware or software but wetware, the human mind, or more specifically the human small mind.

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Imperfect Guides to Living: Our Five Core Concerns

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. - Sep. 24 (Special Report) - Every day we face decisions that help determine what tomorrow will look like -- for ourselves and for others as well. In my work as a clinical, social, and political psychologist, I've found that the decisions we make are powerfully influenced by five core concerns. These concerns revolve around issues of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. Their impact is felt almost everywhere: at home, at work, in the community, in politics, and even in international relations. Of particular importance, these five concerns shape our perceptions and actions by serving as persuasive yet imperfect guides to the world around us. In our pursuit of positive personal and social change, they can both illuminate the path forward and lead us far astray. Sadly, too often we fail to recognize the difference. Let's briefly consider each in turn.

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Let's Avoid Another Culture War

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Christopher Lane - Jun. 13 (Opinion) - Remember the last major culture war in this country? Clinton had been in office—what?—two or three months before his administration became mired in a fierce, polarized debate over whether gay men and lesbians should be able to serve openly in the military. His administration accomplished a lot after that, but even so, the country went on to fixate on a number of similar hot-button topics, establishing for-and-against positions on all of them. A lot of subtleties were lost. Quite a few signs are pointing to our heading in a similar direction, with potentially the same kind of paralysis and rancor. I hope these turn out to be serious aberrations, but the recent killing in Washington, DC, of a security guard at the Holocaust museum; the murdering in Arkansas of a young soldier by an extremist of another kind; and the shooting—in a Kansas church—of a doctor following the law are not good signs. Nor are there grounds for such anger.

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Weathering the Storm

Sun, 17 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Bruce Grierson - May. 17 (Special Report) - In September of 2008, Philip Schultz, a humble and plainspoken fellow, crossed the hardwood floor and slid in behind a temporary lectern in the Center for Well-Being at The Ross School in East Hampton. It was commencement day for the eighth-grade class. Some students recognized Schultz, who was giving the address, as the father of eighth-grader Eli. He was a local poet. Schultz told the students he hadn't learned to read until he was 11. By then, he'd been held back a grade and was a permanent member of what the other kids called the "dummy class." Teachers just didn't know what to do with a kid like Phil Schultz—who, it turned out, was dyslexic. When a teacher asked him what he wanted to do with his life and Schultz said he wanted to be a writer, the teacher laughed. "I wasn't insulted," Schultz recalls. "I understood it was a funny thing to hear from someone who hated to read and couldn't write a simple English sentence."

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A mixture of frailties

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Timothy A. Pychyl - Mar. 08 (Opinion) - 'm reading Dr. Peter Ubel's new book, Free Market Madness: Why human nature is at odds with economics and why it matters. It is excellent. It does for behavioral economics what Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink did for other aspects of social psychology. Like any good book, my reading is generating a number of responses. The first are thoughts on the rationale vs. the irrational in psychological science. Dr. Ubel, Peter if I may, is a good writer and one of those people who, even at a distance, is easy to admire. He knows a great deal, and he's able to communicate it clearly, integrating history, economics, psychology, medicine and just plain-old good story telling to make his point. I highly recommend his book (although I really don't like the cover design, Peter - Did marketing gurus do research to show that most people are more likely to choose a cover with that design?

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The Pursuit of Happiness

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Carlin Flora - Feb. 15 (Special Report) - Welcome to the happiness frenzy, now peaking at a Barnes & Noble near you: Last year 4,000 books were published on happiness, while a mere 50 books on the topic were released in 2000. The most popular class at Harvard University is about positive psychology, and at least 100 other universities offer similar courses. Happiness workshops for the post-collegiate set abound, and each day "life coaches" promising bliss to potential clients hang out their shingles.

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Survival of the Kindest

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Dacher Keltner - Feb. 11 (Review) - Two hundred years ago on February 12, Adam Gopnik writes in Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, two pebbles -- Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln -- were dropped into the sea of life. Their ideas and forms of eloquence have redirected the currents of humanity. One current of Darwin's thought is well-known. His theory of evolution by natural selection would require new genesis stories about the origins of life forms, less arrogant notions about man's place in the great chain of being, and a rethinking of our species as one in flux—and with rather hairy relatives. Less well-known is a second current of Darwin's thought -- his conception of human nature. Think of Darwin and "survival of the fittest" leaps to mind, as do images of competitive individuals -- collections of selfish genes -- going at one another bloody in tooth and claw. "Survival of the fittest" was not Darwin's phrase, but Herbert Spencer's and that of Social Darwinists who used Darwin to justify their wished-for superiority of different classes and races. "Survival of the kindest" better captures Darwin's thinking about his own kind.

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Magical Thinking

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Matthew Hutson - Apr. 13 (Review) - Last year John Lennon went on tour. He visited, among other locations, Oklahoma City, Waco, New Orleans, and Virginia Tech, spreading a message of peace and love at the sites of tragic events. You may not have recognized him, though, covered in scars and cigarette burns. But to hear him, there would have been no mistaking his presence. On this journey, Lennon assumed the form of a piano, specifically the one on which he composed Imagine. "It gives off his spirit, and what he believed in, and what he preached for many years," says Caroline True, the tour director and a colleague of the Steinway's current owner, singer George Michael. Free of velvet ropes, it could be touched or played by anyone. According to Libra LaGrone, whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, "It was like sleeping in your grandpa's sweatshirt at night. Familiar, beautiful, and personal."

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Anger in the Age of Entitlement or Breathing Deeply in Emotional Pollution

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Steven Stosny - Apr. 04 (Opinion) - Entitlement is the belief that you have the right to do or get something. In social interactions, it is considering your right to do or get something to be superior the rights of those who may want you to do or get something else. When you feel entitled, you are not merely disappointed when others disagree with you or fail to accommodate your presumed rights, you feel cheated and wronged, which produces anger and a stronger sense of entitlement as compensation. Of course, once you're older than five and not cute anymore, the world is not likely to meet your entitlement needs. So it gets to be a downward spiral -- the more you don't get what you think you deserve, the more justified you feel in demanding compensation. The person who cuts in front of you in line is often saying, "With the way I've been treated, I shouldn't have to wait in line, too!" Not surprisingly, criminals, domestic violence offenders, aggressive drivers, and abusers of all kinds have been observed to have an exaggerated sense of entitlement.

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Give and Live

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By PT Staff - Feb. 28 (Review) - For some time now, researchers have known that social contact can have a measurable impact on protecting people's health. It seems to boost the immune system, lower the frequency of colds and other infections. It speeds wound healing. But now it turns out that not all social contact is created equal. And the benefits of social contact may belong only to those who are on the giving end of the contact.

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Field Guide to the Do-Gooder: Earth Angels

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Carlin Flora - Feb. 27 (Review) - Humans have a rare tendency among the world's creatures to give to those to whom they are not genetically related. And some people are particularly prone to benevolence--though as saintly as these extreme altruists seem, they insist they are not special. Even when the sacrifice is so great that they risk their very lives, they believe the rewards of giving far outweigh its consequences.

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The Perils of Higher Ed

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Steven Kotler - Feb. 19 (Review) - We go to college to learn, to soak up a dazzling array of information intended to prepare us for adult life. But college is not simply a data dump; it is also the end of parental supervision. For many students, that translates into four years of late nights, pizza banquets and boozy weekends that start on Wednesday. And while we know that bad habits are detrimental to cognition in general--think drunk driving--new studies show that the undergrad urges to eat, drink and be merry have devastating effects on learning and memory. It turns out that the exact place we go to get an education may in fact be one of the worst possible environments in which to retain anything we've learned.

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Body of Evidence: Sleeping Beauty

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Hara Estroff Marano - Feb. 01 (Review) - Motherhood has a way of turning women into sleep connoisseurs, as it did for New Yorker Johanna Teeri, whose nights took a harder hit after the birth of her first child than they did after number two. "My body has adjusted now," she says. In addition, she's trained her baby to sleep through the night. Still, she savors a morning boost from both sugar and caffeine: "They help me get through the day." Lack of sleep brings susceptibility to depression and anxiety, she reports, as well as to an array of bugs brought home by little ones. Undeterred, Teeri is planning to start graduate school soon in international relations.

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Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Psychology Today - By Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa - Dec. 02 (Review) - Human nature is one of those things that everybody talks about but no one can define precisely. Every time we fall in love, fight with our spouse, get upset about the influx of immigrants into our country, or go to church, we are, in part, behaving as a human animal with our own unique evolved nature--human nature.

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