Clinical Psychology
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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Crochet, Crafts and Mental Health
If you’re looking for a new hobby to take up, consider crochet. Why? The results of a recently published study from researchers in Australia give some possible reasons. In that study, the researchers surveyed over 8,000 crocheters to learn about how people saw the hobby as affecting their mental health. The vast majority of the…
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Internet Haters Might Be Psychopaths
Spend much time on the internet, and you’ll see that online comment sections can easily degenerate into a swirling, toxic stew of humanity’s worst impulses. Which makes them a perfect subject of study for psychologists. A new study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology picks up on the theme of comment section psychology by looking…
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4 Factors That Link Stress to a Decline in Work Ability
Some amount of stress is often a part of work, but too much stress can start to interfere with people’s ability to get their work done. An important question is under what conditions stress begins to derail people’s work lives. Understanding that might help with knowing what strategies people can use to cope with stress…
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Five Hours of Sleep a Night Biases People Toward Negative Interpretations
We all know that nothing good comes from cutting sleep out of your life. First, there are the cognitive effects. Sleep deprivation influences people’s performance in ways similar to alcohol consumption, which is what makes drowsy driving similarly dangerous to drunk driving. Then there’s the simple feeling of tiredness, having to get through the day…
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Perfectionism Can Interfere With Seeking Psychological Help
As I’ve written about before, a desire to be perfect can bring many imperfect consequences, from insomnia to binge eating. Now, a new study suggests that perfectionistic tendencies may exacerbate mental health struggles in a more insidious way: by preventing people from seeking psychological help. In the study, researchers in Canada surveyed 299 college students…
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The Dangers of Tying Your Self-Worth to Money
We’ve all heard that money can’t buy happiness, but that doesn’t mean that people’s ideas of “self-worth” and “net worth” don’t start to overlap sometimes. A newly published study gives a warning about the possible consequences of seeing money as something that gives you “value” as a person, so to speak. The authors of the…
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Happiness Is Possible With a History of Anxiety
Mental health conditions like anxiety can interfere in almost any aspect of people’s lives, with real consequences. And yet, in the long-run, that doesn’t mean happiness is unobtainable. I’m not saying that to provide words of inspiration. I’m saying it because a newly published study suggests it’s true. The study surveyed 2,128 adults in Canada…
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