Clinical Psychology
What Search Trends Tell Us About Anxiety
There are different ways people might choose to cope with anxiety. Talking to a mental health professional. Taking up meditation. Or maybe, Googling it! A new study from researchers in Australia and Hong Kong suggests that a lot of people who are feeling anxious take to Google to learn more about anxiety, and that fluctuating…
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Optimism and Life Satisfaction Go Together in Schizophrenia
Psychologists have been optimistic about the power of optimism, and a new study provides more evidence consistent with the idea that optimism might have far-reaching mental health effects. In the study, researchers in Korea found that adults with schizophrenia tended to have higher life satisfaction when they had higher levels of optimism. It may be,…
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Chocolate vs. Depression
Good news for chocolate lovers: there’s more evidence out that chocolate can be part of a (mentally) healthy diet. Previous research has suggested that chocolate might be associated with lower risk of depression. So a recent study decided to examine that possibility more closely in a large pool of adults chosen to be representative of…
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Distinguishing Narcissism and Self-Esteem
Everyone wants to feel good about themselves. But when does feeling good about yourself cross the line into feeling better than other people? There are different ways of thinking about the difference between narcissism and high-self esteem. We can say that self-esteem is about valuing yourself while narcissism is about feeling superior. Or that self-esteem…
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Anxiety and a First Depressive Episode
Sometimes mental health conditions are buy-one-get-one-free. Anxiety and depression are an example of two conditions that often come in a package deal. Recently, researchers in China designed a study to learn a little more about what it means when anxiety and depression team up. They focused on people experiencing a first episode of depression who…
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A Tip to Find Meaning in Stressful Situations
When we encounter stressful situations in life, sometimes we’re able to turn them into something more than stressful situations. They can become stressful situations that add something to our life and that have meaning. How to actually do this is the challenge, of course. Generally, it requires finding a new perspective on the stressful situation…
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Who Grows the Most From Trauma?
Being able to take a bad situation and turn it into something good is a valuable skill from a mental health standpoint. Perhaps there’s no greater test of this skill than being confronted with a situation that’s not just bad, but traumatic. Different people seem to respond to trauma in different ways. One aspect of…
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Interventions Can Reduce Ageism
Old age is a life stage that we all hope to reach, but that doesn’t always make us empathetic toward people who have already reached it. Prejudice against older adults shows up in a variety of settings, and older adults feel the effects. A survey by AARP found that three-quarters of adults over 45 felt…
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The Character Traits of Productive Procrastinators
In the traditional telling of the story, procrastination is the arch-enemy of productivity. The more you procrastinate, the less you get done. But psychologists who study procrastination have questioned that narrative. A 2005 study proposed that there are two types of procrastinators: so-called active and passive procrastinators. Passive procrastinators are your typical procrastinators who struggle…
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Spending Habits Can Reveal Personality Traits
Among the various types of data that are being collected about you while you browse the internet, you can bet that your spending habits are one of them. That raises the question of just how much someone knows about you when they have a record of your purchases. There are some obvious conclusions that can…
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