A blog about human brains and behavior for students of psychology.
Find your passion. It seems like such self-evidently good life advice. But it’s worth stopping to think about what it means to “find” your passion. The implication behind this phrase is that your passion already exists somewhere, and you just
A theme that often comes up on this blog is that people tend to be biased in their judgments about themselves and about the way other people see them. In many situations, it’s as if people are wired not to
A common treatment for anxiety disorders is cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT for short. CBT aims to help people develop effective coping strategies for addressing stressful situations and managing their emotions. It provides a set of techniques that people can use
When mental health conditions appear during the teenage years, one of the most complex questions is what the long-term implications are. Some conditions tend to be life-long, but for behaviors like self-harm, it’s harder to know what to expect over
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It also makes him less healthy, less physically fit and less likely to lead an active life. That second part isn’t from the original proverb. Rather, it’s from a study
Snapping a selfie might seem like the most frivolous, inconsequential act. But on a deeper level, selfies are potentially tied up with questions of how we see our bodies and present ourselves to others. Posting a selfie to social media
Perfectionists might find that when they lie down for the night, their sleep is anything but perfect. A growing collection of studies are highlighting a link between perfectionism and insomnia, as well as giving clues about why that link exists.
People choose to spend their precious weekend hours in different ways. Sometimes taking it easy and recharging your batteries is just what you need to start the next week off fresh. Other times, you might find that planning a physically
I’ve got one heck of a conspiracy theory for you. It goes like this: contrary to what scientists say, everything in the natural world exists because someone created it that way, not because it’s the result of evolution. The idea
We all engage in what psychologists call mental time travel. It’s not as futuristic as it sounds. Essentially, it’s just the ability to think about our past and future experiences. While we all engage in mental time travel, we don’t
