A positive relationship between brain volume and intelligence has been suspected since the 19th century and empirical studies seem to support this hypothesis. However, this claim is not uncontroversial because of concerns about publication bias and the lack of systematic control for critical confounding factors (e.g., height, population structure). We performed a pre-registered study of […]
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STUDY ALERT: The development of the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S)
The development of the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S): A multifactorial measure for a complex emotion David B. Yaden, Scott Barry Kaufman, Elizabeth Hyde, Alice Chirico, Andrea Gaggioli, Jia Wei Zhang, Dacher Keltner Abstract Awe is a complex emotion composed of an appraisal of vastness and a need for accommodation. The purpose of this study was […]
STUDY ALERT: Cognitive Aging and Long-Term Maintenance of Attentional Improvements Following Meditation Training
Cognitive Aging and Long-Term Maintenance of Attentional Improvements Following Meditation Training Anthony P. Zanesco1 & Brandon G. King2,3 & Katherine A. MacLean3 & Clifford D. Saron3,4 Abstract Sustained attention is effortful, demanding, and subject to limitations associated with age-related cognitive decline. Researchers have sought to examine whether attentional capacities can be enhanced through directed mental […]
Why Quieting the Ego Strengthens Your Best Self
We live in some times. On the one hand, things are better than they’ve ever been. Overall rates of violence, poverty, and disease are down. There have been substantial increases in education, longevity, leisure time, and safety. On the other hand… We are more divided than ever as a species. Tribalism and identity politics are […]
What Does a Messy Room Say About Your Character?
“Clean up your room. That’s a good start.” — Jordan Peterson One of Jordan Peterson’s main theories is that cleaning your room is related to lots of other positive characteristics. Now, obviously, he doesn’t mean literally cleaning your room. It’s a metaphor for getting your whole self in order first before you try to improve the […]
Embrace your (positive) destiny
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about destiny. I think destiny exists. Within each of us is a particular set of proclivities that when matched with just the right environmental triggers, then BAM, there it is. It’s undeniable. Even though our conscious minds may go through many tricks to deny the reality of the match, […]
The hypnotic attraction of power and fame blinds us to inner value
In a completely commercialized society in which salability and optimal profit constitute the core values, and in which every person experiences [themselves] as ‘capital’ that [they have] to invest on the market with the aim of optimal profit (success), [their] inner value counts as little as that of a dental cream or a patent medicine. Whether [one] is kind, […]
The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized
[This article originally appeared in Scientific American] What does it take to succeed? What are the secrets of the most successful people? Judging by the popularity of magazines such as Success, Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur, there is no shortage of interest in these questions. There is a deep underlying assumption, however, that we can learn […]
An Existential-Humanistic View of Personality Change: Co-Occurring Changes with Psychological Well-Being in a 10 Year Cohort Study
An Existential-Humanistic View of Personality Change: Co-Occurring Changes with Psychological Well-Being in a 10 Year Cohort Study Hilda Osafo Hounkpatin • Alex M. Wood • Christopher J. Boyce • Graham Dunn Abstract Increasingly, psychological research has indicated that an individual’s per- sonality changes across the lifespan. We aim to better understand personality change by examining […]
The time has come for dimensional personality disorder diagnosis
“We are concerned about the implications of retaining a categorical system that has been so thoroughly shown to be empirically and clinically problematic. It is very difficult to justify allocating resources toward continued research on an approach that has proven to be fundamentally flawed, as opposed to a dimensional model that points to exciting new […]
The Twice Exceptional Movement: Supporting Bright and Creative Students with Learning Difficulties
One school fixed its attention upon the importance of the subject-matter of the curriculum as compared with the contents of the child’s own experience. Not so, says the other school. The child is the starting point, the center, and the end. [Their] development, [their] growth, is the ideal. Not knowledge, but self-realization is the goal. […]
The Paradox of Intelligence: Heritability and Malleability Coexist in Hidden Gene-Environment Interplay
This integrative review advances the idea that gene–environment interplay underlies differences in human intelligence, and that the high heritability of IQ is not merely a product of genetic variation. Gene-environment correlations and interactions are obscured by typical research approaches, but their contribution to the development of intelligence explains a paradoxical body of evidence from recent […]