Positive Psychology
Mental Imagery Can Enhance Motivation
A lack of motivation can put to ruin the greatest plans – or the smallest ones for that matter. Getting the motivation to do something is a complex process that takes place in the brain, so there’s no simple formula for boosting your motivation when you need it. But as it turns out, using mental…
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Feeling Grateful vs. Feeling Indebted
“Thanks! I owe you!” Maybe you’ve said that when someone has done a favor for you. Feeling thankful and feeling like you owe someone are related to each other, but it turns out these two emotions aren’t quite the same. Interestingly, feeling grateful seems to be a more other-focused emotion while feeling in debt to…
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Your Personality Might Have Implications for Your Cat’s Wellbeing
It’s well-known that parents’ personality characteristics can influence their children. But a new study suggests that the same might also be true of cat parents. In the study, researchers in the United Kingdom surveyed 3,331 cat owners. They asked the cat owners both about their own personality traits and about the health, wellbeing and behaviors…
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Talking About Their Future Selves Improves Preschoolers’ Cognitive Skills
Conversations with adults are a key way that children build cognitive skills. And if you’re looking for something to talk about with the young children in your life, new research suggests a topic of conversation that seems to be especially helpful in developing cognitive skills: the future. In a recently published study, researchers from Harvard…
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When Something Bad Happens, Tell a Joke?
If you use humor as a coping mechanism, you aren’t alone. And even if you are alone, you probably think it’s funny. A new study from researchers in Poland highlights humor’s power to help people shrug off stressful and unpleasant events. In the study, researchers asked 54 participants with remitted depression to view images that…
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The Best Way to Hit Rock Bottom
Ask someone to tell you their life story and chances are you’ll get a narrative that, like any good story, has high points and low points. It turns out, though, that how people describe their lowest points can tell you about their current mental health. In a recent study, for example, researchers asked over 300…
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Resilience Links Emotional Intelligence and Stress Management
Emotional intelligence has been increasingly recognized as important over the last several decades, the EQ to go with IQ. The idea being, of course, that all the smarts in the world won’t do you good if you can’t navigate your own emotions, and those of others. Emotional intelligence has been linked to everything from mindfulness…
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Unlike Receiving, Giving Never Gets Old
When it comes to material goods, people are never quite satisfied with what they have. Eventually, that cool new phone you got for Christmas starts to seem routine. You get a good job, but sooner or later, you start to wish your salary was higher. The mindset of getting things is about always wanting more.…
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Writing Part of Your Life Story Can Boost Self-Esteem
How we make sense of events that have happened to us affects how we see our place in the world around us. As I wrote about last year, for example, studies suggest that how people frame their life stories seems to be a key component of identity. Our life stories aren’t static, though. We’re constantly…
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Is a Need to Contribute Key for Teens?
When it comes to the basic psychological needs of adolescence, we often talk about things like becoming more independent and developing a sense of identity. A new paper argues that teenagers have another fundamental psychological need we don’t talk about enough: the need to contribute. Whereas developing autonomy and identity are processes that are focused…
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