Blog

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 […]

Abraham Maslow’s iconic pyramid of needs is one of the most famous images in the history of management studies. At the base of the pyramid are physiological needs, and at the top is self-actualization, the full realization of one’s unique potential. Along the way are the needs for safety, belonging, love, and esteem. However, many […]

“I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” – Anne Frank “What’s one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?” – Ted Bundy Why are dark triad people so seductive? Why do they get all the research attention? I asked my colleague David Yaden in his office. […]

When does cognitive functioning peak? As we get older, we certainly feelas though our intelligence is rapidly declining. (Well, at least I do!) However, the nitty gritty research on the topic suggests some really interesting nuance. As a recent papernotes, “Not only is there no age at which humans are performing at peak on all cognitive tasks, […]

Humans are motivated reasoners. When we see a news article that confirms something we think to be true or wewant to be true, we quickly “like” it and then share it vehemently on Facebook. Take thisnews story, for instance, which declares that “Cheese protects you from all causes of death, says science.”* Most cheese lovers probably didn’t […]

I’ve been wondering lately about the link between intelligence and meaning. People with high intelligence tend to adopt a critical attitude towards the world, and avoid relying on positive illusions. While these skills gain you accolades in school, are they really valued in today’s world? Anecdotally, I have spoken with a lot of extremely bright […]

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” […]

In 2005, Scott Peterson was convicted of the murder of his wife Laci and her unborn child. During the first hour on death row, he received a marriage proposal, and within a day the warden’s office was inundated with over 30 phone calls from women asking for his mailing address as well as letters from […]

What is going on in our brains when we are creating? How does our brain look different when we are engaging in art versus science? How does the brain of genius creators differ from the rest of us? What are some of the limitations of studying the creative brain? The neuroscience of creativity is booming. There is […]

This month at The Psychology Podcast we discussed the connection between comedy and science with Shannon Odell, the replication crisis with Michael Inzlicht, the importance of unsafe thinking with Jonah Sachs, and how to care for your mental health with Kati Morton. Drunk Science with Shannon Odell Shannon Odell is a Brooklyn based writer, comedian, and […]

In his classic 1923 essay, “Intelligence as the Tests Test It“, Edwin Boring wrote “Intelligence is what the tests test.” Almost a century of research later, we know that this definition is far too narrow. As long as a test is sufficiently cognitively complex and taps into enough diverse content, you can get a rough […]

The notion of “learning styles”– that teaching to students’ preferred learning style will increase learning outcomes– is one of those persistent “neuromythologies” in education that just won’t go away. Studies around the world have found that 90%–97% of teachers believe that there is an optimal delivery style for each learner. While a number of different […]