A blog about human brains and behavior for students of psychology.
If you’re looking for a scientifically tested, step-by-step formula for becoming happier, this is probably as close as you’re going to get. That makes me sound like I’m hawking copies of a self-help book. But I’m actually just talking about
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy interesting experiences. Psychologists have shown that purchases of experiences tend to make people happier than purchases of material goods. To do or to have? is how researchers from University of Colorado at
Touch can be a powerful means of communication, especially between parents and children. As the authors of a recent study explain it, “the sense of touch develops in utero and enables parent-child communication from the earliest moments of life.” Maybe
Adolescents who tend toward being night owls are at higher risk for insomnia, emotional problems and behavioral problems, according to a new study from researchers in Hong Kong. Psychologists have known for a while that people with higher eveningness, who
Feeling sad doesn’t always bring out the best in us when it comes to impulse control. From comfort eating to coping by drinking, people often find that their self-control slips when their mood is low. And then, apparently, there’s comfort
Given how much of their lives children spend in school, it stands to reason that good teacher-student relationships could make a difference in children’s mental health. So a group of researchers in Belgium decided to ask: is there a link
Mental health treatment, like everything else, is increasingly going online. People are seeking out more information about mental health on the internet, and researchers are experimenting with new types of therapy that can be done virtually. Those darn millennials, wanting
Psychologists are experimenting with an admittedly rather materialistic approach to treating phobias: bribing people to confront their fears. In a recently published study, researchers in Germany investigated whether monetary incentives could overwrite avoidant behaviors rooted in fear. The researchers recruited
Maybe you’ve heard this one: there’s a runaway trolley car headed toward a fork in the tracks. Standing on one set of tracks, oblivious to the trolley car careening out of control, is a group of five people. On the
There are many different reasons someone might choose to retire or not retire at a particular point in their life. Which means that there are also many different ways the decision to retire can affect someone’s mental health. Still, psychologists
