Fantasies are imaginary, daydream-like scenarios that individuals play out in their heads. Whether conscious or unconscious, fantasies serve several psychological purposes and are a normal part of most people’s interior world.| Psychology Today
Job hunting is stressful. After many rejections, one can feel crushed, defeated, and deflated. Psychology tools offer helpful ways to respond to painful job rejections and thrive.| Psychology Today
In the absence of an appropriate intellectual foundation and motivation to learn, students acquire academic skills by rote, in shallow, meaningless ways.| Psychology Today
"What's wrong with expecting people to do what is right? Don't I have a right to feel resentful when they don't?" Find out what is wrong with that kind of thinking.| Psychology Today
The term “Dark Triad” refers to a trio of negative personality traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy—which share some common malevolent features. The construct was coined by researchers Delroy L. Paulhus and Kevin M. Williams in 2002.| Psychology Today
Discover how dopamine impacts your mood, motivation, and mental health—and learn simple ways to naturally boost it for a happier, more rewarding life.| Psychology Today
Have you often been described as having no motivation? There is another way to be effective at accomplishing your goals.| Psychology Today
From android assistants to self-driving cars, smart devices are here to stay. Fine-tuning the relationship between man and machine may be the biggest design challenge of all.| Psychology Today
These three proven psychological strategies can help you break bad habits and establish better ones.| Psychology Today
Struggling to figure out what a fulfilling life looks like? This technique might help.| Psychology Today
Does the unconscious matter? You bet it does. In fact, nothing matters more.| Psychology Today
The unseen reason you drag your feet when a deadline looms, along with eight tips on how to cross the finish line.| Psychology Today
The path of least resistance isn't always the best path to take.| Psychology Today
You may think you’ll never get over your tendency to put off the tasks you’d rather not complete, or even the ones you’d like to start, but new research suggests how to try.| Psychology Today
Practical strategies and tips to help you gain control over your finances, make informed decisions, and set yourself up for long-term success.| Psychology Today
There is a difference between healthy critical thinking and an unhealthy obsession with options. Here are five easy steps to help you stay on the right path.| Psychology Today
The rapid advancement of generative AI tools represents more than technological progress—it's a cognitive revolution that demands our attention.| Psychology Today
A persuasive series of research studies with both animals and humans show us that our first instinct really is to be good, kind and compassionate.| Psychology Today
Are you feeling stuck with procrastination? Is the gap between your intentions and actions a mile wide? Do even small steps feel too big? Enter the micro-yes.| Psychology Today
Equine Assisted Therapy can have profound effects on healing children and teens.| Psychology Today
Knowledge of your personality can help you make the perfect Career choice.| Psychology Today
Careers that could prevent or cure mental or physical illness.| Psychology Today
With behavioral interview questions, recruiters and staffing agency owners can learn new information that they wouldn't find on a resume.| altLINE
Years of research show promise for self-affirmations as an intervention.| Psychology Today
Who is granted the grace to be different and still hold power? Three barriers holding neurodivergent women back at work.| Psychology Today
Artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes known as machine intelligence, refers to the ability of computers to perform human-like feats of cognition including learning, problem-solving, perception, decision-making, and speech and language.| Psychology Today
The concept "video game addiction" has been rejected by the APA, by many video game researchers, and by many therapists who work with video gamers. Here is why.| Psychology Today
Video games do not promote obesity, ill health, social isolation, or violence. They do promote friendships, cooperation, self-control, and brainpower.| Psychology Today
Introversion is a basic personality style characterized by a preference for the inner life of the mind over the outer world of other people. One of the Big Five dimensions that define all personalities, introversion sits on a continuum at the opposite end of which is extroversion. Compared to extroverts, introverts enjoy subdued and solitary experiences.| Psychology Today
Albert Einstein famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Through imagination, people can explore ideas of things that are not physically present, ranging from the familiar (e.g., a thick slice of chocolate cake) to the never-before-experienced (e.g., an alien spacecraft appearing in the sky).| Psychology Today
Boredom is at once both easy to identify and difficult to define. A small but growing collection of scientists have devoted their research to boredom, and some conceive of the state as a signal for change. Boredom indicates that a current activity or situation isn’t providing engagement or meaning—so that the person can hopefully shift their attention to something more fulfilling.| Psychology Today
Research highlights effective, mental practices we can do from the comfort of our own recliners.| Psychology Today
Passive aggression is a way of expressing negative feelings, such as anger or annoyance, indirectly instead of directly. Passive-aggressive behaviors are often difficult to identify and can sabotage relationships at home and at work.| Psychology Today
A person with an addiction uses a substance, or engages in a behavior, for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeat the activity, despite detrimental consequences. Addiction may involve the use of substances such as alcohol, inhalants, opioids, cocaine, and nicotine, or behaviors such as gambling.| Psychology Today
Successful leaders are often credited with having high social intelligence, the ability to embrace change, inner resources such as self-awareness and self-mastery, and above all, the capacity to focus on the things that truly merit their attention. These are desirable skills for everyone else, too.| Psychology Today
Shame is an emotion that involves negative self-evaluation—believing that something is wrong with you as a person. You may believe that you haven’t lived up to certain standards and feel unworthy or inadequate as a result. Shame often operates outside of conscious awareness, making it challenging to identify and overcome—but healing and growth are always possible.| Psychology Today
Many decisions we make come with unintended consequences. But some may be more knowable and avoidable than others.| 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
As psychology and science see it, mating is the entire repertoire of behaviors that animals—including humans—engage in the pursuit of finding a partner for intimacy or reproduction. It encompasses acts from flirting to one-night stands to marriage and more. Some mating behaviors are deeply ingrained, hard-wired into the nervous system, and operate without conscious awareness—attractions, for example—and some, like marriage ceremonies, are highly scripted, with every detail worked out ...| Psychology Today
One of life's sharpest paradoxes is that the key to satisfaction is doing things that feel risky, uncomfortable, and occasionally bad.| Psychology Today
Autism is a developmental disorder that affects information processing. People with autism have difficulties with social and communication skills. They have restricted interests and engage in repetitive behaviors. They also tend to experience sensitivity or discomfort from sensory stimulation such as certain lights or sounds.| Psychology Today
Thinking about divorce? This can be terrifying. "How will I know if divorce is the right decision?" Here's how to gain clarity in the fog of indecision.| Psychology Today
Wisdom is one of those qualities that is difficult to define—because it encompasses so much—but which people generally recognize when they encounter it. And it is encountered most obviously in the realm of decision-making.| Psychology Today
Contemporary feminism has an image problem that threatens the movement. Compassionate feminism offers a way forward that unifies women and builds bridges with potential allies.| Psychology Today
Can sisterhood thrive when there is disparity in power and privilege? Creating sisterhood begins with dismantling all forms of oppression that affect women from every walk of life.| Psychology Today
Whatever one’s views on the immutability or otherwise of biological sex, gender is itself a sociolinguistic construct, confected in a cultural context.| Psychology Today
Emotions play a major role in making decisions. When integrated properly with rational thinking, they can enhance the effectiveness of the decision-making process.| Psychology Today
Psychotherapy, also called talk therapy or usually just "therapy," is a form of treatment aimed at relieving emotional distress and mental health problems. Provided by any of a variety of trained professionals—psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, or licensed counselors—it involves examining and gaining insight into life choices and difficulties faced by individuals, couples, or families. Therapy sessions refer to structured meetings between a licensed provider and a client with a...| Psychology Today
There are enviable individuals who acquire skills and knowledge effortlessly, others are more orderly and achievement-focused than are their peers, and still others who exhibit unusual talents. While such positive traits are not evenly distributed, they are not necessarily out of reach for those who are not "natural" high achievers.| Psychology Today
Nutrients fuel the body and brain's energy needs. This fuel allows humans to function and flourish—to breathe, to speak, to play, to learn, and to reproduce. Humans evolved under very different circumstances than today; sustenance was often in short supply, and it was advantageous to snatch up sugars and fats that could provide a boost of energy. These evolutionary roots are at odds with the modern world, in which food is, in many places, overabundant. Cravings can be difficult to control. ...| Psychology Today
Confidence is a belief in oneself, the conviction that one has the ability to meet life's challenges and to succeed—and the willingness to act accordingly. Being confident requires a realistic sense of one’s capabilities and feeling secure in that knowledge. Projecting confidence helps people gain credibility, make a strong first impression, deal with pressure, and tackle personal and professional challenges. It’s also an attractive trait, as confidence helps put others at ease.| Psychology Today
The evidence from national and international surveys and tests is clear: On average, boys read less, and less well, than girls. But why? And what can we do about it?| Psychology Today
Happiness is an electrifying and elusive state. Philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and even economists have long sought to define it. And since the 1990s, a whole branch of psychology—positive psychology—has been dedicated to pinning it down. More than simply positive mood, happiness is a state of well-being that encompasses living a good life, one with a sense of meaning and deep contentment.| Psychology Today