Are You a Moral Grandstander?
Do you strongly agree with the following statements? When I share my moral/political beliefs, I do so to show people who disagree with me that I am better than them. I share my moral/political beliefs to make people who disagree with me feel bad. When I share my moral/political beliefs, I do so in the […]
The Creative Life and Well-Being
The Creative Life is full of new possibilities, discoveries, exploration, experimentation, self-expression, and invention. It’s a habit, a way of being, a style of existing. But is the Creative Life full of well-being? Depends on how you define well-being. In recent years, psychologists have taken a deeper look at well-being. The traditional approach to well-being […]
Emotionally Extreme Experiences, Not Just “Positive” or “Negative” Experiences, Are More Meaningful in Life
What does it take to live a meaningful life? In trying to answer this question, most researchers focus on the valence of the life experience: is it positive or negative? Researchers who focus on positive emotions have amassed evidence suggesting that we are more likely to find more meaning in our lives on days when we experience positive emotions. […]
Do Narcissists Ever Grow Up?
While most of our personality traits remain relatively stable over the course of our lives, reliable changes in personality do occur. Fortunately, we tend to show increased maturity in our personality as we age, becoming more agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable over time. But what about narcissism? Narcissism is a continuous personality trait– we are all at least a little […]
Maslow’s insightful advice on overcoming writer’s block and the necessity of writing for self-actualization
In the winter of 1963-64, the psychologist Abraham Maslow taught the course “Experiential Approaches to Personality” at Brandeis University. In a new book published by Maurice Bassett, you can take a front-row seat in his course. Personality & Growth: A Humanistic Psychologist in the Classroom contains the transcribed recordings of Maslow’s lectures during that time. […]
Authenticity Under Fire
Authenticity is one of the most valued characteristics in our society. As children we are taught to just “be ourselves”, and as adults we can choose from a large number of self-help books that will tell us how important it is to get in touch with our “real self”. It’s taken as a given by […]
In-Group Favoritism Is Difficult to Change, Even When the Social Groups Are Meaningless
People are really quick to sort themselves into categories, or social groups, and to form a preference for their in-group. In-group favoritism starts early, and has been found in children across a wide range of categories, including gender, race or ethnicity, language, nationality, and religion. Intuitively, we may think that in-group favoritism develops because the in-group is meaningful. However, almost […]
STUDY ALERT: Are Sex Differences in Preferences for Physical Attractiveness and Good Earning Capacity in Potential Mates Smaller in Countries With Greater Gender Equality?
Lingshan Zhang, Anthony J. Lee, Lisa M. DeBruine, and Benedict C. Jones Abstract On average, women show stronger preferences for mates with good earning capacity than men do, while men show stronger preferences for physically attractive mates than women do. Studies reporting that sex differences in mate preferences are smaller in countries with greater gender […]
Toward a New Frontier in Human Intelligence: The Person-Centered Approach
When it comes to intelligence, we all have bad days. Heck, we even have many bad moments, such as when we forget our car keys, forget a friend’s name, or bomb an important test that we’ve taken a day after staying up all night worrying about it. Truth is, none of us– including the world’s smartest […]
The Evolution and Cultivation of Compassion for the Dark Side: A Q&A with Paul Gilbert
The British clinical psychologist Paul Gilbert is founder of compassion focused therapy (CFT), a system of psychotherapy that helps people develop and work with experiences of inner warmth, safeness and soothing through compassion and self-compassion. Paul suggests that compassion can provide “the sensitivity to engage with the difficult things in life, including compassion for the […]
