From humble beginnings, self-help books have now colonised huge and ever-growing areas of bookshops.
From humble beginnings, self-help books have now colonised huge and ever-growing areas of bookshops. Best-selling titles like ‘Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
‘, or ‘Don’t Worry, Make Money
‘ promise to teach us how to fix our relationships and live ‘more fully’. But are these, and other come-ons, just empty assurances designed to sell a product?
Continue reading “Is Modern Self-Help Just a Massive Money-Making Scam?”
Five factors that have a huge effect on how accurately we report our own higher mental processes.
Accessing our own higher mental processes is often difficult. Psychologists have found it easy to manipulate the reasons we give for decisions, judgements or actions. Worse than this, even when we’re not actively being manipulated, we regularly fool ourselves without the need of any encouragement.
But are these mistakes systematic in any way? Nisbett and Wilson (1977) provide five factors likely to have a huge effect on how accurately we report our own higher mental processes. These give us useful clues about when we’re most likely to be fooling ourselves.
Who do you turn to for a helping hand?
Who do you turn to for a helping hand?
For some common mental health problems people are good at helping each other without the need for professionals. Research has shown face-to-face support groups can be effective for people with depression, chronic mental illness and bereavement. But for those who can’t get to a face-to-face support group, or don’t want to, there’s another rapidly growing option: online support groups.
Continue reading “Can You Recommend an Online Support Group?”
Psychologists are skilled at inventing unusual tests of human thought and behaviour, but some research is pretty weird.
Psychologists are skilled at inventing unusual tests of human thought and behaviour, but some research is pretty weird. Over the past few months I’ve been examining some of the weirdest studies around. There’s research into psychic dogs, invasions from Mars, the antidepressant properties of semen, pigeon-guided missiles and men’s urination.
Continue reading “10 Weird Psychology Studies: Vote Now For Your Favourite!”
A classic 1931 experiment shows how the mechanics of our own problem-solving are often a puzzle to us.
A classic 1931 experiment shows how the mechanics of our own problem-solving are often a puzzle to us.
The process of human creativity is both fascinating and, at the same time, mystifying. Understanding the mental processes of great thinkers offers an enormous reward to any who can replicate them: immortality. Perhaps if we really understood what was going through their minds, we too could create an object or idea that would live long after our deaths.
Continue reading “Why Problem Solving Itself is a Puzzle, Even to Poincare and Picasso”
When you change your attitude about something, do you know why?
When you change your attitude about something, do you know why? Psychologists have argued that the inner workings of our minds are largely hidden away from us. One aspect of this is the surprising finding that people are often unaware when they have changed their attitudes.
How do great artists create? Listen to them try to explain and you’ll probably be disappointed.
How do great artists create? How do brilliant scientists solve the hardest problems in their field? Listen to them try to explain and you’ll probably be disappointed. Artists say mysterious things like: “The picture just formed in my mind.” Writers tell us that: “I don’t know where the words come from.” Scientists say they: “Just had a hunch.”
It’s one of the great paradoxes of life that we all want to be happy, yet so few of us seem to know exactly where happiness comes from.
It’s one of the great paradoxes of life that we all want to be happy, yet so few of us seem to know exactly where happiness comes from. Happiness itself can be defined in many different ways, it may have all kinds of components, it may be a life’s work, or even no work at all, but we are, most of us, in pursuit of this elusive goal.
Psychologists have good and bad news about our search for happiness. The bad news is that we have essentially no control over 50% of our happiness levels. Happiness, like many of our other attributes is partially set by our genes. While these do interact to a certain extent with the environment, on a day-to-day basis this 50% can be considered immovable.
Continue reading “Sustainable Happiness: Why It’s All About the Day-to-Day”
Television commercial for Nabisco’s Fig Newton bars that debuted Friday preys on a wide range of innate human weaknesses.
Satirical website The Onion reports that:
A television commercial for Nabisco’s Fig Newton bars that debuted Friday preys on a wide range of innate human weaknesses, from greed and gluttony to the compulsive need for self-gratification in an otherwise cold and uncaring world, industry sources reported Monday.
“Flattery, pride, self-aggrandizement, fear of rejection: This latest Fig Newtons ad campaign fires on all cylinders,” advertising executive and CNBC talk-show host Donny Deutsch said. “It has nothing but contempt for its target audience, its exploitative nature borders on the unethical, and it’s one of the most brilliant marketing strategies in years.”
Continue reading “Advertising Psychology Satire by The Onion”
Back in 1994 a television company claimed a dog called ‘Jaytee’ could psychically sense when its owner returned home.
Back in 1994 a television company claimed a dog called ‘Jaytee’ could psychically sense when its owner returned home. And they had some evidence to back up their claim.
One TV crew was sent out with Jaytee’s owner while she walked around her home town and the other stayed at home with Jaytee. The cameras showed that just as the dog’s owner turned to go home, Jaytee got up and went to the porch and remained there until she returned.
Perhaps this dog really was psychic.
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