a psychologist's blog – research and ideas to digest
The literature of self-esteem tells us that we need to gain self-esteem to be succesful. But this might be all wrong and a widespread misconception, according to a longitudinal study of nearly 2500 students. I’ll introduce you to self-compassion as an alternative to self-esteem, and
Continue readingWhy You Need Self-Compassion More Than Self-Esteem in Difficult Times, Study Shows
Positive thinking can feel like a job to do, while negative thinking seems to happen more automatically. In fact, this is true at a very fundamental level of the brain, studies show. It is called the negativity bias.
A large-scale study by Hudson and Fraley (2016), published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, finds that almost all people between the ages of 18 to 70 want to change aspects of their personality.
Human beings are social beings. The tendency to behave, talk and walk like others is what we call conformity, which has been documented in various studies.
The human brain is sophisticated. In fact, it separates us from all other animals. It allows us to have abstract ideas and to solve complex problems. We are rational social beings, or are we?
Four independent sets of studies show that there is a link between analytical thinking and religious disbelief. The results of the studies are described briefly in this post.
Why would people maintain negative self-evaluations when they result in a great degree of distress? What purpose do negative self-evaluations have? Do they help us solve our problems, or do they help us in some other way? It seems not.
Are you aware that psychological need satisfaction is crucial to your well-being, and that it should be one of your biggest priorities? This post will show you why.
When we hold others responsible, we expect something from, and in order to expect something from others, we must trust and believe in them. We have to believe that they are capable of doing what we expect.
Brain training is a hot topic. It’s a million-dollar business and its popularity is still increasing. We have been interested in increasing people’s intelligence since the study of intelligence, but computerized brain training is a relatively new invention.