General Psychology

Stoicism, Virtue, and Mental Health

Stoicism, Virtue, and Mental Health

The point of philosophy is to become a better person, at least according to the Stoics. Perhaps this is why the Stoicism and the Stoics writings continue to play a vital role ...
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What I Learned Writing About 1,000+ Psychology Studies

What I Learned Writing About 1,000+ Psychology Studies

If you go to get a doctoral degree in psychology, you spend five years reading a bunch of psychology studies. Or so I'm told. I've never gotten a psychology doctorate. But I ...
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Reading Peer Reviewers' Unprofessional Comments

Reading Peer Reviewers’ Unprofessional Comments

When you read about a psychology study covered on this blog, or basically any published scientific study for that matter, you can rest easy knowing that the study has been through a ...
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When Is It OK To Use Deception in Psychology Studies?

When Is It OK To Use Deception in Psychology Studies?

There are white lies, there are truly harmful lies, and then there are lies told for the sake of science. Scientists don’t always agree on whether the latter are acceptable, or how ...
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Defining Greed

Defining Greed

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a study on how childhood experiences potentially give rise to a later tendency to be greedy. The gist of the study was that only children ...
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Shyness Is Related to Thinking About Thinking

Shyness Is Related to Thinking About Thinking

Feelings of shyness can come with all kinds of thoughts. Worries, doubts, rumination. But a new study by researchers in Italy suggests it goes deeper than that: shyness might also have to ...
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/ / General Psychology
People Underestimate the Effects of Gratitude

People Underestimate the Effects of Gratitude

People aren’t always good at predicting the impact their actions will have on themselves and others. I wrote about one example earlier this week, where introverts tended to be overly pessimistic about ...
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Introverts Might Enjoy Socializing More Than They Think

Introverts Might Enjoy Socializing More Than They Think

Why do people vary in their tendency to seek out opportunities to interact with others? A reasonable explanation would be that extraverts simply enjoy social interactions more than introverts do. To some ...
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Diagnosing Social Anxiety From GPS Data

Diagnosing Social Anxiety From GPS Data

In a time where we carry smartphones that provide a constant stream of information about our lives, it’s worth asking: what can you tell about someone’s mental health from their smartphone data? ...
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Can We "Ban" Ourselves From Worrying About the Future?

Can We “Ban” Ourselves From Worrying About the Future?

What do we worry about when we worry? More often than not, the future. Ruminating about what tomorrow holds is a familiar activity for people with anxiety. A logical question, then, is ...
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