The Psychology of Emotional Spending | Psychology Today United Kingdom
What are the hidden dangers of emotional spending? Know what to watch for and how to deal with it.| Psychology Today
What are the hidden dangers of emotional spending? Know what to watch for and how to deal with it.| Psychology Today
Seeking an accountability partner to exercise might be sabotaging you before you walk out of the door. Unpack accountability and find out what might be hiding underneath.| Psychology Today
Social support and connection are good for us. Can we find that sense of belongingness we crave online as well as in person?| Psychology Today
Social media may be both harmful and helpful for mental health. Here's the latest research, and how to help make sure you come out on top.| Psychology Today
It's time to dive deeper into what we know about social media and suicide risk, and question those media headlines that tell you we have it all figured out.| Psychology Today
More a popular idea than a scientifically valid concept, internet addiction is the belief that people can become so dependent on using their mobile phones or other electronic devices that they lose control of their own behavior and suffer negative consequences. The harm is alleged to stem both from direct involvement with the device—something that has never been proven—and from the abandonment of other activities, such as studying, face-to-face socializing, or sleep.| Psychology Today
What do you think you look like? Body image is the mental representation an individual creates of themselves, but it may or may not bear any relation to how one actually appears. Body image is subject to all kinds of distortions from the attitudes of one's parents, other early experiences, internal elements like emotions or moods, and other factors. The severe form of poor body image is body dysmorphic disorder, where dissatisfaction over a slight or undetectable defect in appearance becomes ...| Psychology Today
Polyamory may be a sexual orientation, both in a legal and personal sense.| Psychology Today
This blog explores seven common types of non-monogamy: cheating, polygamy, open relationships, swinging, monogamish, polyamory, and relationship anarchy.| Psychology Today
Sexual orientation describes patterns of sexual, romantic, and emotional attraction—and one's sense of identity based on those attractions. Sexual orientation is distinct from gender identity, the internal sense of being male, female, or non-binary.| Psychology Today
Falling in love is amazing — but we still need to keep our eyes open.| Psychology Today
A new study finds that husbands and wives change their personalities as they adapt to the demands of married life.| Psychology Today
Many singles are interested in marriage but fear divorce. You can do things before marriage to increase your odds of lasting love in marriage.| Psychology Today
Your partner cheated on you. Should you cheat on him or her to get even?| Psychology Today
Psychologists think they know why some people cheat, but why do most remain faithful?| Psychology Today
Domestic violence occurs when a person consistently aims to control their partner through physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. The United States Department of Justice defines domestic violence as “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain control over another intimate partner.”| Psychology Today
People cheat not only for sex but also for passion—to feel alive and to be wanted. Now it's women's turn to unleash lust.| Psychology Today
"Untrue" women threaten modern notions of coupledom and propriety. But new research suggests that polyandry is far from novel or unnatural in human history, and may even suggest a path into the future.| Psychology Today
Is it true that half of all marriages end in divorce? Is the divorce rate changing over time?| Psychology Today
There is plenty of research, but the results are inconsistent. And some of the reasons may surprise you.| Psychology Today
How do you prepare to tell your spouse that you want a divorce? This conversation will set the tone for the divorce process that will follow. Here are some important tips.| 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
Why humans dream remains one of behavioral science's great unanswered questions. Dreams have a purpose but it may not be to send us messages about self-improvement or the future, as many believe. Instead, many researchers now believe that dreaming mediates memory consolidation and mood regulation, a process a little like overnight therapy.| 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
Our memories can change without our intent, but we also know that some people actively modify them. Such changes are usually inconsequential, but sometimes things get complicated.| Psychology Today
Does the unconscious matter? You bet it does. In fact, nothing matters more.| Psychology Today
Rather than a secret container of impure, sexualized, and irrational thoughts, the unconscious is highly organized, uncritical, and even empirical in how it learns about the world.| Psychology Today
Why do we love the psychological myth of the 10-percent brain? Neuroscience shows no support for this, but we do not seem willing to let the idea go.| Psychology Today
Dreams may decompose autobiographical elements and then recombine them in creative ways to create our long term memories.| Psychology Today
Repression is a defense mechanism in which people push difficult or unacceptable thoughts out of conscious awareness. Repressed memories were a cornerstone of Freud’s psychoanalytic framework. He believed that people repressed memories that were too difficult to confront, particularly traumatic memories, and expelled them from conscious thought.| Psychology Today
Freudian psychology is based on the work of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He is considered the father of psychoanalysis and is largely credited with establishing the field of talk therapy. Today, psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches to therapy are the modalities that draw most heavily on Freudian principles. Freud also developed influential theories about subjects such as the unconscious mind, the sources of psychopathology, the significance of dreams.| Psychology Today
Thinking about your favorite place and the psychology of place attachment can relieve stress, improve mood, and promote empathy.| Psychology Today
A new study confirms the diametric model of mental illness where mirror neurons are concerned, contradicting expectations and reversing previous findings.| Psychology Today
Empathy enables us to relate to others and motivates us to help those in need. Unfortunately, empathy is on the decline. Here's how to promote empathy in our kids and ourselves.| Psychology Today
What can rats tell us about the evolution of empathy? Is it all about avoiding danger rather than helping others?| Psychology Today
Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that is activated both when performing an action and when observing another individual perform that same action, a process thought to help an individual recognize or understand the behavior of another. Mirror neurons were first discovered in the brains of macaque monkeys in the 1990s; since then, similar neurons have been identified in the brains of birds, mice, and, perhaps most notably, humans.| Psychology Today
Body language is a silent orchestra, as people constantly give clues to what they’re thinking and feeling. Non-verbal messages including body movements, facial expressions, vocal tone and volume, and other signals are collectively known as body language.| Psychology Today
Altruism is acting to help someone else at some cost to oneself. It can include a vast range of behaviors, from sacrificing one’s life to save others, to giving money to charity or volunteering at a soup kitchen, to simply waiting a few seconds to hold the door open for a stranger. Often, people behave altruistically when they see others in challenging circumstances and feel empathy and a desire to help.| Psychology Today
Passive-aggressives try to block whatever it is you want. You feel their unspoken anger. Learn the signs and what you can do.| Psychology Today
Passive-aggressiveness is a form of anger.| Psychology Today
Teamwork—working with other people to achieve a shared goal—is essential in just about every domain, whether on the job, at home, or on the playing field. Though there are some situations where it’s better to act alone, learning how to work together without conflict is a critical skill that can help almost anyone achieve greater success.| Psychology Today
For some people, the prospect of rejection colors all their close relationships. New research shows how these overly sensitive individuals turn off the people they most care about.| Psychology Today
Researchers have found that it is easier to train humans and other primates to fear snakes than other dangers, indicating a genetic predisposition for the fear of snakes.| 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
Margee Kerr spends her evenings watching people melt down at one of the country’s most popular haunted houses. In her new book, she shares what really scares us, why we love it, and how pros like her stay a step ahead of us.| Psychology Today
Navigating a divided America with cognitive flexibility.| Psychology Today
We all negotiate (or try to), whether with our political opponents or with our friends and family. But what tactics should we use?| Psychology Today
This is the most basic and most often-asked question about leadership. And the answer is...| 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
The high-stakes science of campaign messaging reveals that success at the ballot box hinges more on how you feel about things than on what you think about them. Is anyone getting it right?| Psychology Today
The most carefully crafted incentives, from cash rewards to social props, routinely backfire. What does it really take to get people to do the "right" thing?| Psychology Today
In a world of wannabe Michael Jordans, be a Dennis Rodman.| Psychology Today
10,000 hours of practice doesn't ensure success. Studies indicate that generalists tend to be more creative, perceptive, and better at problem-solving than specialists.| 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
The great challenge of all committed partnerships is to commit to the fulfillment of the relationship and the needs of one’s partner without losing or neglecting one’s own needs in the process.| Psychology Today
Much has been made of the so-called midlife happiness curve, but yet another critique sheds doubt on its ubiquity. When you look closely at it, the curve becomes a wiggly line.| Psychology Today
The concept is mostly mythical. Parents miss their kids when they leave home but enjoy greater freedom and time for their own relationship and interests.| Psychology Today
Menopause is the transitional period in a woman's life when her ovaries start producing less of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. Menopause is declared when a woman ceases to have a menstrual period for 12 consecutive months, marking the end of her reproductive years. A woman who has her ovaries surgically removed immediately enters menopause.| Psychology Today
Caregivers provide necessary support to someone who, due to age, illness, disability, or some other factor, cannot care for themselves. Caregiving may involve shopping, housekeeping, providing transportation, feeding, bathing, toilet assistance, dressing, walking, coordinating appointments and medical treatments, or managing a person’s finances.| 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
Those who crave risk or novelty respond to fear differently from others. They see stressors as challenges to master, not threats that can crush them.| Psychology Today
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
Can exposure to depression cause you to become depressed? The answer might surprise you.| Psychology Today
Gender dysphoria (formerly known as gender identity disorder in the fourth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM) is defined by strong, persistent feelings of identification with another gender and discomfort with one's own assigned gender and sex; in order to qualify for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, these feelings must cause significant distress or impairment.| Psychology Today
Advice to parents of newly out nonbinary youth and young adults from someone who has been there.| Psychology Today
“A deep, persistent unease with being associated only with the binary gender assigned to them from infancy.”| Psychology Today
How do we know if we're transgender or nonbinary, anyway? Let's break through doubt and analysis paralysis by affirming our felt sense of resonance and dissonance.| Psychology Today
The gender binary is deeply entrenched in Western society, but gender has historically been viewed in a more fluid manner.| Psychology Today
Every suicide is a tragedy, and to some degree a mystery. Suicide often stems from a deep feeling of hopelessness. The inability to see solutions to problems or to cope with challenging life circumstances may lead people to see taking their own lives as the only solution to what is really a temporary situation, and most survivors of suicide attempts go on to live full, rewarding lives.| Psychology Today
Conformity is the tendency for an individual to align their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those of the people around them. Conformity can take the form of overt social pressure or subtler, unconscious influence. Regardless of its form, it can be a powerful force—able to change how large groups behave, to start or end conflicts, and much more.| Psychology Today
Are the Big Five really all that and a bag of chips? See how they stand up to criticisms of other personality tests.| Psychology Today
The Ten-Item Personality Inventory was designed as a super-quick measure of the Big Five personality traits, which define the foundation of one’s personality.| Psychology Today
Suzie Pileggi Pawelski, MAPP, and James Pawelski, Ph.D. are the authors of Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love that Lasts (January 2018).| Psychology Today
The urgent need for male-focused mental health campaigns and therapeutic approaches.| Psychology Today
Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies whereby people protect themselves from anxious thoughts or feelings. Defense mechanisms aren’t inherently bad—they can allow people to navigate painful experiences or channel their energy more productively. They become problematic, however, when applied too frequently or for too long.| 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
The unconscious is the vast sum of operations of the mind that take place below the level of conscious awareness. The conscious mind contains all the thoughts, feelings, cognitions, and memories we acknowledge, while the unconscious consists of deeper mental processes not readily available to the conscious mind.| Psychology Today
Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of another person, animal, or fictional character. Developing empathy is crucial for establishing relationships and behaving compassionately. It involves experiencing another person’s point of view, rather than just one’s own, and enables prosocial or helping behaviors that come from within, rather than being forced.| Psychology Today
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a chronically recurring condition involving moods that swing between the highs of mania and the lows of depression. Depression is by far the most pervasive feature of the illness. The manic phase usually involves a mix of irritability, anger, and depression, with or without euphoria. When euphoria is present, it may manifest as unusual energy and overconfidence, playing out in bouts of overspending or promiscuity, among other behaviors.| 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
If people didn’t feel fear, they wouldn’t be able to protect themselves from legitimate threats. Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger that has been pivotal throughout human evolution, but especially in ancient times when men and women regularly faced life-or-death situations.| Psychology Today
The study of politics draws from the knowledge and principles of political science, sociology, history, economics, neuroscience, and other related fields to examine and understand the political behavior that ultimately informs government policy and leadership. Exploring these relationships can help us understand how we act collectively, govern ourselves, make political decisions, resolve conflict, and use and abuse power, all of which reflect our deepest fears at least as much as our aspirati...| Psychology Today
A career is a professional occupation that you pursue for a significant period of your life, which often requires special training. It frequently involves a series of advancements and different position titles as well. To enjoy the many waking hours spent at work, it helps you love what you do, respect the people you work with or serve, and share the goals of your employer. Finding a creative flow and sparking innovative output is also important, as is engaging with a larger purpose.| 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
Resilience is the psychological quality that allows some people to be knocked down by the adversities of life and come back at least as strong as before. Rather than letting difficulties, traumatic events, or failure overcome them and drain their resolve, highly resilient people find a way to change course, emotionally heal, and continue moving toward their goals.| Psychology Today
Midlife or middle age is that transitional period of life between young adulthood and old age. Middle-aged people often undergo significant changes in their relationships, jobs, and health and their appearance.| 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
Sensation-seeking, also called thrill-seeking or excitement-seeking, is the tendency to pursue new and different sensations, feelings, and experiences. The trait describes people who chase novel, complex, and intense sensations, who love experience for its own sake, and who may take risks to pursue those experiences.| Psychology Today
Hormones are a class of signaling molecules that exist in all multi-cell organisms and, in humans, include commonly-known examples like melatonin, testosterone, and cortisol. They influence the health and functioning of the body and brain in a wide variety of ways; on a psychological level, they affect mood, how we behave, who we’re attracted to (or not), and more.| 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
All humans are born with biological characteristics of sex, either male, female, or intersex. Gender, however, is a social construct and generally based on the norms, behaviors, and societal roles expected of individuals based primarily on their sex. Gender identity describes a person’s self-perceived gender, which could be male, female, or otherwise.| Psychology Today
The differences between people’s personalities can be broken down in terms of five major traits—often called the “Big Five.” Each one reflects a key part of how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. The Big Five traits are:| Psychology Today
Human beings are not always—in fact, probably not often—the objective, rational creatures we like to think we are. In the past few decades, psychologists have demonstrated the many ways people deceive themselves in the process of reasoning. Cognitive faculties are a distinguishing feature of humanity—lifting humankind out of caves and enabling language, arts, and sciences. Nevertheless, they are also rooted in and subject to influence, or bias, by emotions and instincts.| Psychology Today
Chocolate or strawberry? Life or death? We make some choices quickly and automatically, relying on mental shortcuts our brains have developed over the years to guide us in the best course of action. Understanding strategies such as maximizing vs. satisficing, fast versus slow thinking, and factors such as risk tolerance and choice overload, can lead to better outcomes.| Psychology Today
A bias is a tendency, inclination, or prejudice toward or against something or someone. Some biases are positive and helpful—like choosing to only eat foods that are considered healthy or staying away from someone who has knowingly caused harm. But biases are often based on stereotypes, rather than actual knowledge of an individual or circumstance. Whether positive or negative, such cognitive shortcuts can result in prejudgments that lead to rash decisions or discriminatory practices.| 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
Psychopathy is a condition characterized by the absence of empathy and the blunting of other affective states. Callousness, detachment, and a lack of empathy enable psychopaths to be highly manipulative. Nevertheless, psychopathy is among the most difficult disorders to spot. Psychopaths can appear normal, even charming. Underneath, they lack any semblance of conscience. Their antisocial nature inclines them often (but by no means always) to criminality.| Psychology Today
Psychiatry is a specialty of medicine that focuses on researching, understanding, diagnosing, and treating diseases of the brain and disorders of the mind and behavior. Psychiatrists diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions, from Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, and autism to mood disorders, Munchausen syndrome, psychosis, and suicidality. As physicians, psychiatrists are trained to recognize the many ways general physiologic processes and pathologies can influence mental functioning—an...| Psychology Today
