Clinical Psychology
Census Bureau Data Shows 2020 Brought a Spike in Anxiety and Depression
From posttraumatic stress to sleep disturbances, recent studies have begun to confirm that the coronavirus pandemic has brought a range of mental health consequences. Now, an analysis of data from the US Census Bureau provides what appears to be some of the most robust evidence yet that 2020 saw a rapid decline in the United…
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3 Traits That Might Help With Jobs Involving Trauma
Certain jobs put an extra burden on the mental health of people who do them because they frequently involve dealing with traumatic situations. Not everyone who does potentially traumatic jobs experiences negative mental health effects, though. So why are some people able to take on these jobs and still enjoy relatively good mental health? A…
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Do Different Addictions Have the Same Risk Factors?
From substance use to compulsive behaviors, addiction can take a variety of forms. Given that range of possible addictions, psychology researchers are still trying to figure out the extent to which different types of addictive behaviors share similar roots. A new study from researchers at Bar-Ilan University and UCLA provides some new data for exploring…
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An Intervention for Imposter Syndrome
Do you feel like a fraud? Well, you might be for all I know. I’m not in a position to say that you aren’t. But there’s another possible explanation: you might have imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome occurs when people believe their accomplishments aren’t truly deserved and that they might be exposed as frauds. As I’ve…
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Study Shows Uptick in Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms During Lockdown
In March, as public health officials around the world were dialing up measures against COVID-19’s spread, a group of researchers published an article in The Lancet highlighting the potential psychological consequences of widespread quarantine. When that article came out, most of the available evidence was from past epidemics. The authors pointed out that little was…
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Writing Therapy to Develop “Good” Rumination
Repetitively turning over negative thoughts, or ruminating, is a behavior that has been explored as a target for therapy in conditions like depression. After all, it’s not hard to imagine that getting stuck in a cycle of replaying negative thoughts might harm mental health. So what’s the best way to stop ruminating on negative thoughts?…
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Reflecting on Life Lessons Can Help With Aging
In a general sense, life looks the same for all of us: stuff happens to us. We learn from that stuff, sometimes. We get older. Ideally, we have a sense that there’s some progression to our lives. Learning from our past experiences helps us live our lives more effectively as we get older, and eventually…
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Envy Might Drive Some of Social Media’s Mental Health Effects
Social media has facilitated both new ways of connecting with others and new ways of tallying how our lives stack up against theirs. In the twenty-first century, keeping up with the Joneses has become keeping up with the hundreds of people on your Facebook feed. Several previous studies have suggested that comparing yourself with others…
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Psychopaths Don’t Care About Cute Animals
Above is a picture of a very cute kitten. Surely that picture warms your heart. If you don’t look at that picture and go “aww,” what kind of person are you, a psychopath? Well, maybe so, says a new study. The authors of the study started with a premise we all know to be true:…
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The Mental Health Unknowns of COVID-19
For people around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant a major disruption to familiar ways of life. With changes being implemented rapid-fire in response to the immediate need to slow the spread of COVID-19, relatively little is known about what the long-term, secondary consequences of those changes will be. When it comes to mental…
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