Work smarter by taking a break. Discover 5 reasons why work breaks can lift your productivity, creativity, and motivation.| Psychology Today
It is difficult to access the joy that is right in front of us with the emotional clutter of negativity getting in the way.| Psychology Today
The urgent need for male-focused mental health campaigns and therapeutic approaches.| Psychology Today
Nostalgia is a longing and affection for the past. This can encompass positive emotions such as happiness as well as other emotions and recollections, such as tenderness and longing. We have the feeling of nostalgia when we yearn for simpler times, for example, when we were children.| Psychology Today
It's no secret that people have biases. But the nature of "implicit bias"—and whether it can be meaningfully changed—is less clear.| Psychology Today
The neuroscience of psychopathy has made great strides in the past 15 years in understanding how their brains differ from those of normal people.| Psychology Today
Why do some people develop debilitating obsessions and compulsions?| Psychology Today
Psychiatric diagnostic systems like the DSM generate continual controversy, but if they are used wisely, they can reduce stigma and enhance our understanding of psychological distress.| Psychology Today
The dominant models by which we view, classify, and treat psychological problems have failed to produce meaningful progress toward reducing psychological suffering.| Psychology Today
Most identities distinguish us from other people. What if our identities connected us with everybody else?| Psychology Today
With courage and practice, adolescent shyness can be overcome.| Psychology Today
When people find out that I study shyness, the first question they invariably ask me is: "Are we born shy?" The answer to that question is absolutely not.| Psychology Today
Loneliness is a problem of epidemic proportions, affecting millions from all walks of life. But while its roots are complex, remedies may be within reach.| Psychology Today
Gratitude is the expression of appreciation for what one has. It is a recognition of value independent of monetary worth. Spontaneously generated from within, it is an affirmation of goodness and warmth. This social emotion strengthens relationships, and its roots run deep in evolutionary history—emanating from the survival value of helping others and being helped in return. Studies show that specific areas of the brain are involved in experiencing and expressing gratitude.| Psychology Today
The glass is half-empty, and storm clouds loom overhead, never with a silver lining. Pessimists get a lot of flak for their inclination toward negativity and their tendency to expect the worst in most situations. Besides taking a toll on their mental health, their physical health may take a beating, too. Pessimism, while it may be useful in isolation or in moderation, is associated with anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, hostility, high blood pressure, and heart disease.| Psychology Today
Anxiety is both a mental and physical state of negative expectation. Mentally it is characterized by increased arousal and apprehension tortured into distressing worry, and physically by unpleasant activation of multiple body systems—all to facilitate response to an unknown danger, whether real or imagined.| Psychology Today
Human development is influenced by, but not entirely determined by, our parents and our genes. Children may have very different personalities, and different strengths and weaknesses, than the generation that preceded them. Caregivers should pay attention to their children's distinct traits and the pace of their development, and not assume that the approach to parenting that worked for their mothers and fathers will be equally successful in their own families.| Psychology Today
Self-control—or the ability to manage one's impulses, emotions, and behaviors to achieve long-term goals—is what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Self-control is primarily rooted in the prefrontal cortex—the planning, problem-solving, and decision making center of the brain—which is significantly larger in humans than in other mammals.| Psychology Today
Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention to the present. This state is described as observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad.| Psychology Today
Reading a road map upside-down, excelling at chess, and generating synonyms for "brilliant" may seem like three different skills. But each is thought to be a measurable indicator of general intelligence or "g," a construct that includes problem-solving ability, spatial manipulation, and language acquisition that is relatively stable across a person's lifetime.| Psychology Today
Stress generally refers to two things: the psychological perception of pressure, on the one hand, and the body's response to it, on the other, which involves multiple systems, from metabolism to muscles to memory. Some stress is necessary for all living systems; it is the means by which they encounter and respond to the challenges and uncertainties of existence. The perception of danger sets off an automatic response system, known as the fight-or-flight response, that, activated through hormo...| Psychology Today
New research suggests that people seek a polyamorous lifestyle because they want to live authentically according to their non-monogamous nature.| Psychology Today