Clinical Psychology
What Sets Adults With Autism Who Have Savant Skills Apart?
Occasionally, people with autism have special abilities where they are able to far outperform others. They might be able to perform feats of memory, create incredibly realistic works of art, or tell you without hesitating that January 31, 2021 will be a Sunday. Of course, the majority of people with autism don’t have savant syndrome,…
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Mistaking Narcissism for Self-Esteem Might Explain Why People Are Drawn to Narcissists
If I asked you to list five traits you value in your friends, narcissism probably won’t make the cut. Yet narcissists are often able to make a good impression and draw people to themselves. A new study in the Journal of Personality provides more evidence for the surprising charisma of narcissists, and also points to…
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Facebook Posts Can Predict Depression Risk
We tend to curate our Facebook profiles to control the image we project. But a new study suggests that when it comes to mental health, our Facebook posts might be more revealing than we realize. In the study, researchers in Philadelphia, PA and Stony Brook, NY looked to see if they could identify people with…
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From Childhood Trauma to Adulthood Empathy?
If there’s a good side to suffering, it might be that it can make you more attuned to the suffering of others. A new study from researchers at City University of New York, University of Cambridge, and University College London suggests that traumatic experiences in childhood might be linked to heightened empathy in adulthood. According…
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Climate Change Has Mental Health Costs Too
This week, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that we have a window of 12 years before our chance to limit global warming to a 1.5C rise in temperatures slips away. Failing to cap global warming at 1.5C would mean more severe food and water shortages, more poverty, more severe weather, more heat-related…
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Quality Might Matter More Than Quantity in Loneliness
Loneliness has a bad rap, and it’s not entirely undeserved. The emotion of loneliness has been linked to both physical and mental health problems. As I wrote last year, for example, loneliness might contribute to the onset of depression. Not all loneliness is created equal, though. A new study suggests that some types of loneliness…
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Can Job Interviews Uncover Narcissism?
Woe be to the employer who hires a promising applicant only to discover that they are an exceptional narcissist. The employer isn’t the only one to suffer, either. For example, if the newly hired narcissist turns out to be a doctor, that’s bad news for patients as well. This latter scenario was the inspiration for…
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The Dark Side of Celebrity Worship
We live in a society that is obsessed with celebrities. But if you have concerns that idolizing someone you’ve never met might not go hand-in-hand with good mental health, you could be on to something. People differ in the extent to which they care about celebrities. Research on the topic has consistently indicated that having…
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We Need to Learn More About People Who Flourish After Depression
We know a decent amount about people with depression. At this point, quite a few studies have been done on people who have depression. But we know less about people who used to have depression – and especially about people who used to have depression but are now flourishing. A new paper by researchers from…
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Why Meaning in Life Means Better Mental Health for Teens
As I’ve written about before, having a sense of purpose in life is consistently linked with better mental health. It’s hard to be happy when you’re also wondering what the point of it all is. Of course, people’s sense of meaning in life isn’t necessary a fixed quantity. Some studies have suggested a general tendency…
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