Psychology Articles

PsyArticles publishes articles and features with a focus on psychological research and theory

Toxic Personality and Success
Defined as a term used to describe people who are greedy, lack modesty, act unfairly and are not too concerned with the truth, a 'toxic personality' would not seem to be something that leads to success in life. However, research at the Department of Psychology, University of Bonn suggests otherwise.

5 Ways You Can Help Your Staff Towards Reducing Stress In The Workplace
As a manager or business owner, it's important to care for your employees when they're feeling stressed and it should be considered in high regard when running your company.

Mental Health Issues Among Entrepreneurs: Taking a Look at Facts
Multiple reports have come in over the last few years that confirm the fact about entrepreneurs being more susceptible to psychiatric problems than their employees.

William James and the Principles of Psychology
William James (1842-1910) was one of the founders of modern Psychology and exercised a positive and pragmatic influence on the development of the young science.

How Watching Live Theater is Good for the Mind
Watching theater is not only entertaining but has also been shown to have many benefits in terms of mental wellbeing.

Behind Every Fear is Success - How to Conquer Anxieties That Are Holding You Back
If fear is standing in the way of your success, it's time to evaluate the situation, work towards resolving that fear, and do the thing you've always dreamed of doing.

Why People Are Addicted to Cleaning Their Ears
If you're set on cleaning your ears, there are ways to do so without the use of cotton buds.

The Importance of Sleep
Here are some ways you can improve your body's ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Constancy
Our brains 'correct' images to make objects appear constant. 

How Medical Malpractice Can Affect You Mentally
Medical malpractice is often the stuff of nightmares: many of us don't want to think about how it would affect us mental and physically if it were to ever happen to us.

To Love and to Be Loved - This Is the Psychology of Love
Whether we are aware of it or not, love is all around us.

Introduction to Psychology
The work of psychologists helps us to distinguish between inside information which is subjective, and may be biased and unreliable, and the facts.

How to Approach the Subject of Death with Your Children
Death is a part of life, and it is better to prepare children for this eventuality rather than to ignore it.

Infant Attachment
Attachment between a parent and infant is one of the strongest human relationships in existence - but how does it form?

4 Supplements That Can Elevate Your Mood
If you just want to find some natural remedies to help, then here are some supplements you could try to help you get back on track.

Stress in the 21st Century
Stress is associated with a number of physical conditions including back-pain, susceptibility to viruses, chronic fatigue syndrome and autoimmune disease.

5 Effects That Migraines Can Have On Your Mental Health
Migraines are so much more than a painful headache. Those that experience migraines on a regular basis often report that they have a detrimental impact on their mental health.

Perception
Perception is the word used to describe the process by which we get information from our sense organs.

Which Career: Social Worker or Psychologist?
Social workers and psychologists have certain things in common. For example, they are both in the field of helping and supporting people, often those who have complex needs or who are facing challenges. However, there are also many differences between the two professions.

Why Do We Have Regrets?
It's a natural human feeling and something we all experience multiple times throughout our lives. Regret is something we never want to feel but it is inevitable.

5 Ways to Take Care of Your Mind in the New Year
If you struggle with anxiety, depression, or any other mental health condition, taking care of your mind should be high on the priority list. Here are several resolutions to tick off your list.

The Importance of Sleep
Here are a few ways that sleep - or lack thereof - can have an effect on the quality of your life.

Learned Perception
There is evidence that much of the process of perception is learned.

Change Your Perspective On How to Pursue A Good Career
>What makes a good career? In this new era of gig economy, new roles are being created every hour somewhere in the world and existing jobs are also constantly evolving.

How to Maintain Your Mental Health When Pursuing a Demanding Nursing Degree
Ensuring that your environment promotes your wellbeing, that you are working towards a job you feel passionate about, and that you have support systems in place will help you maintain a healthy mind during this stressful time.

Can Supplements Help Your Long Term Brain Function?
There are so many supplements on the market that claim to work magic on the brain, however, there are very few that can actually make a difference.

5 Teenage Addictions That Are Often Underestimated – Until It's Too Late
Are your teenagers favorite pastimes verging on becoming addictions? Learn to recognize the signs and plan to step in if things seem to be getting out of hand.

What CBD Oil Could Do for Your Well-being
Research on both humans and animals says that CBD may help lower feelings of isolation, reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and relieve autism symptoms.

How Exercise Improves Mental Health
Many people choose to exercise to lose weight or build up muscle, but what you may not realize is that exercise can also work wonders for improving mental health.

The Stages of Recovering from an Eating Disorder
If you or a friend are suffering from the symptoms of an eating disorder, you may be wondering what the stages of recovery will look like.

Ways to Help Your Teen Through Addiction
As a parent, addressing your child's drug addiction might be one of the hardest tests you will ever take.

Time for a 'back to basics' approach? Getting to grips with HOW people learn
One thing that hasn't changed is people's individuality in learning, with some finding that it just comes naturally whilst others face an uphill struggle to process the same information.

How Your Lifestyle Affects Your Mental Health
Many doctors often prescribe lifestyle factors such as exercise and a good diet as part of treatments for illnesses such as depression and anxiety.

Decisions and Problem-Solving
You can view any decision making as solving a problem - in fact any kind of thinking task could be called problem solving.

Sustaining a Life-Changing Injury at Work: The Steps to Take
A workplace injury can be a difficult thing to overcome - and this article aims to help by providing the tips you'll need to overcome your setback, step by step.

How To Help Your Loved One Bounce Back After Addiction
Watching someone that you love go through a period of addiction and substance abuse can be one of the hardest things that you ever have to do,

HIV Stigma - How Can You Deal With It?
HIV stigma is something that's partially rooted in myths and partially rooted in misunderstandings.

Compassion and Friendship: 7 Ways to Uplift a Friend Struggling from Depression
Chances are, someone you know is struggling with depression. If this person is close to you, you probably want to do all you can to improve the way they feel.

Money Psychology
How To Retrain Your Brain From Overspending to Saving

Napping - The Good, The Bad, And How To Do It Properly
What you get out of a nap depends largely upon two factors: who you are, and how you nap.

Is Depression Really On The Rise? If So, Why?
What, if anything, is going on? What do people think is behind this problem?

Colour Enhances Taste
Is there a relationship between colour and taste? We look at two studies that have a bearing on this question.

The Generational Differences in PTSD Treatment
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of the most misunderstood mental health conditions, and there is a wealth of myths and mistruths that surround the condition.

Aging and the Sense of Smell
Some studies show that sensory neurons in the olfactory system in people over 60 may show responses to odour that make it difficult to identify specific smells. This can create issues with identifying dangerous substances and promoting good nutrition.

Fear and Politics
Political campaigns often use fear as a mechanism to influence public opinion on issues such as immigration and war but this strategy does not affect everyone equally.

A Genetic Link to Leadership
A specific DNA sequence has been significantly associated with the likelihood that an individual is linked with a leadership position.

Racism and Knowledge of History
The acknowledgement of racism hinges on people's knowledge of history. If you are a member of a group that has been disadvantaged in the past you will not be surprised that this is frequently not acknowledged - and may be denied - by people from other backgrounds.

Learning language in the womb
While it was already known that babies were born with the ability to learn and were able to discriminate between language sounds within their first few months of life, the researchers claim that this study provides crucial evidence that recognition of speech sounds had occurred in the womb.

Resilience, Satisfaction and Happiness
Resilience and life satisfaction seem to be inter-twined.

Why is Laughter Contagious?
Research shows possible mechanisms for contagious laughter.

Loneliness and the Baby Boomer
Single baby boomers have a lonely old age ahead according to new statistics from Bowling Green State University's National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR).

Power and Poor Decision-Making
How power can fuel the overconfidence that causes people in leadership positions to make bad decisions.

Bullying
Schoolyard bullying and cyber-bullying have very different characteristics.

Eye Contact and Social Interaction
A study reported in Psychological Science looks at some of the small signals that seem to be important for social interaction.

Facial Recognition: Ethic Differences
Caucasians and East Asians examine faces in different ways

Second Impressions Have Limited Value
An international team of psychologists argue that there appears to be truth in the saying ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression'.

Personality of 'Beautiful' People More Accurately Rated
People identify the personality traits of people who are physically attractive more accurately than others during short encounters, according to a new University of British Columbia study.

Recognizing and Remembering Faces
The ability to recognize and remember faces is best when we are aged 30-34 - ten years later than most of our other mental abilities.

Perceiving Emotions
Japanese people pay more attention to the tone of voice than facial expression.

Volunteers Disliked
Employees who readily volunteer even for unwanted tasks tend to be disliked by less selfless colleagues.

Revising Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs
The current revision, which the authors acknowledge is controversial, takes into account developments in areas such as neuroscience, developmental psychology and evolutionary psychology.

Personality And Domestic Violence
Similar personality traits have been found in male and female perpetrators of domestic violence in a group of psychiatric patients - further study may extend this to the wider community.

Rating Others Positively Linked To Emotional Stability
Research led by Wake Forest University identified an association between the degree to which individuals perceive others in positive terms and their own happiness and emotional stability.

Keep Busy, Keep Happy
Individuals who keep busy, even with relatively pointless activity, tend to be happier than those who do not.

Child Personality Predicts Adult Behavior
Personality traits observed in childhood are a strong predictor of adult behavior.

Attractive Women Can Be Disadvantaged
Attractive women may experience discrimination when applying for jobs traditionally considered "masculine" and where appearance is not considered important.

Commitment And Counterfactual Reflection
Developing greater workforce commitment can be as simple as asking employees to reflect on their organization's history.

Rating Personality and Attractiveness
Volunteers were able to accurately judge aspects of a stranger's personality by looking at photographs.

Women Feel More Guilt
Despite changing attitudes towards interpersonal relationships, women feel significantly more guilt than men.

Rating Facial Attractiveness
Women are as complicated as men say they are when evaluating potential mates.

Infants, Adults and Novelty
Infants who are excellent at processing novel information when they are just 6- and 12-months-old are likely to demonstrate excellence in intelligence tests and academic achievements as young adults in their 20's.

Race And Ethnicity Confusion
Psychological research on racial prejudice tends to give the impression that 'colour' and ethnic groupings are clearly defined. But a study research published earlier this year points to confusion in the way people identify themselves and in official classifications, at least in the United States.

Teenage Stress
Stress in adolescence may have a negative impact on health in adulthood. Healthy teenagers reporting interpersonal conflicts had increased levels of C-reactive protein an inflammatory marker associated with later development of cardiovascular disease.

Consistent Contributors
Consistent contributors help to increase efficiency by positively influencing less motivated members of their group.

Gut Feelings Can Be Valid
Electrophysiological evidence that decisions thought to be based on guesswork or gut feelings may actually draw on valid memories that cannot be consciously accessed.

Experiences More Satisfying Than Possessions
Purchasing experiences rather than possessions results in increased well-being for consumers and others around them.

Music And The Effects Of Alcohol
Research led by the Université de Bretagne-Sud found that playing loud music in licensed premises led customers to drink more alcohol over a shorter time period.

Daytime Napping And Disturbed Sleep
Poor sleeping at night has been linked to daytime napping for older adults and another study shows that practising tai chi chih, the western version of an ancient Chinese martial art, helped improve sleep quality in older adults.

Suppressing Anger Shortens Life
Couples in which both partners suppressed their anger when unfairly attacked by the other died earlier than those in relationships where one or both expressed their anger and resolved underlying conflict.

Instinctive Staring
A study of the instinctive tendency for people in a group to stare at the person most likely to be offended if a controversial comment is made.

Youth Problems
Research from Ohio State University has challenged the common perception that girls tend to internalize their problems, becoming depressed or anxious, while boys externalize, committing violence against people or property. In another study, young people with pre-existing relationship difficulties were found to be more likely to develop anxiety and depression than the other way round, this being particularly the case when entering adulthood.

Too Little Or Too Much Sleep?
Study shows that children and adults who are short sleepers have a consistent increased risk of obesity.

Women Are More Forgiving
Men find forgiving more difficult than women but this gender gap closes if men develop empathy toward an offender by seeing they may be capable of acting in a similar way themselves.

Gut Feelings
Research has shed new light on "gut feelings" arguing that they are real psychological phenomena that should be taken seriously.

New Light On Altruism
New light on ways in which people are prepared to sacrifice personal advantage for the common good and what happens when freeloaders take advantage of their altruism.

How Culture Affects The Recognition Of Emotions
Significant differences can be seen in how people from eastern and western cultures assess interpersonal situations.

Anxiety And Heart Attacks
Longstanding anxiety significantly increases the risk of heart attack in men, even when other common risk factors are taken into account.

Depression And Intellectual Decline
Depression increases the risk of intellectual decline in older people and can be a predictive factor.

Negative Influences
While we tend to believe that we are capable of forming independent opinions, what other people think can influence our conclusions, with negative attitudes resulting in the biggest changes.

Two Studies On Autism
Characteristic and sometimes severe symptoms of autism such as repetitive motions, problems interacting with others and impaired communication can improve with age.

Hearing Messages
Hearing messages embedded in meaningless noise could be an early sign of schizophrenia.

Longing Influences Choice
Longing for something intensely (like a holiday or food) can change an individual's choice making processes with a wider array of options considered than would normally be the case.

The Easy Way To Manage A Flu This Fall
No matter how careful you are during the winter months and how hygienic you always try to be, catching the flu is often difficult to avoid.

How Children Relate To Storybook Characters
An innovative study evaluated young children's storytelling ability and found that they are able to immerse themselves in the thoughts and feelings of fictional characters.

Loneliness Affects Health
Pointing out that loneliness is not the same as solitude which can be highly valued they nevertheless conclude that social isolation and physical aging may have a deleterious effect on health.

Explaining Out-of-body Experiences
Two recent studies offer insight into how individuals perceive their own bodies and a possible explanation for out-of-body experiences.

Lack Of Sleep Affects School Results
Insufficient sleep can have an adverse effect the next day not only on an adult's work performance but also on how well students perform at school.

Conflict
Conflict is a normal part of life - from childhood to old age, at work and at home, from the most trivial domestic quarrel to world war.

Conflict Resolution
Some people are attracted to or create conflict as if they had a 'need' for it.

IQ And Short-term Memory
Research from the University of Oregon published in Psychological Science suggests that short-term memory capacity is a strong predictor of IQ.

Counterfactual Thinking
Research sheds new light on the mental processes involved in "counterfactual thinking" in which past decisions are reviewed and alternatives evaluated.

Suppressing Negative Emotional Memories
Recent research has shown that negative emotional memories can be suppressed with practice, offering the possibility of new treatments for people suffering from a range of conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive syndrome.

Conflict And In-Group Bias
In-group bias is the basis for discrimination, the favoring of people in your group over those in another.

Breaking Up Is Not Necessarily Hard To Do
New research shows that people were less distressed and coped much better with ending a relationship than they predicted and that this unanticipated effect was particularly marked for those described as "madly in love".

Whiskers Act Like Finger Tips
A study has found significant parallels between sophisticated use of facial whiskers by rats and fingertips by humans.

Evening-preference and Adolescent Problems
New research suggests that early adolescents who prefer evening to morning activities are more likely to exhibit antisocial behavior. Previous studies focusing on older adolescents showed a similar link with psychological problems.

Managing Teen Emotions
Teenagers can learn to manage powerful emotions and gain insight into the processes involved.

Why Women Prefer Pink
Study supports the popular notion that men and women differ when it comes to colour preference.

Girl Talk Heightens Anxiety
Excessive discussion about problems with friends (co-rumination) may have a negative impact on emotional adjustment in girls who are more likely than boys of the same age to develop anxiety and depression as a result.

Links Between Teenage And Domestic Violence
Adolescents who engaged in violent behavior relatively regularly throughout their teenage years or who began in their mid teens and increased with time were significantly more likely to perpetrate domestic violence in their mid 20s.

Appreciating Another Perspective
People from Western cultures such as the United States find it particularly difficult to understand someone else's point of view because they are part of a culture that encourages individualism.

The Origins of Morality
A new consensus that scientists are reaching on the origins and mechanisms of morality.

Straight Talk about Psychological Testing for Kids
Is My Child Delayed? Expert Advice on When to Seek Help and What to Expect from the Testing Process

Decision-making Made not Born
People who do well on a series of decision-making tasks involving hypothetical situations tend to have more positive decision outcomes in their lives.

Facial Composite Systems Give Poor Results
Recent technological advances in facial composite systems have failed to improve identification and apprehension of criminal suspects.

Consciousness Consciousness remains a mystery.

Learning and Forgetting Languages
Two studies shed light on the process of learning new languages.

Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia can be predicted years before development of psychosis.

Why Psychosis Rates Vary
Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London have found higher rates of schizophrenia and other psychoses in certain ethnic minority groups and also that parental separation in childhood is associated with an increased risk of developing psychosis later in life.

People who find relationships difficult value marriage most
The most positive attitudes about the value of marriage and the importance of families are found among groups that experience the greatest difficulty forming and maintaining healthy family relationships.

Message Less Important Than Emotion in Advertising
The amount of emotional content in television advertisements affects viewers' opinions of the product, regardless of the intended message.

Recognizing faces and moods
Facial recognition is a topic of renewed interest for psychologists and computer scientists.

Possible Causes of Dyslexia
An eighty-year-old theory about the neurobiological basis of reading disability has been partly confirmed by researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activity in children.

Mapping Choice-Making in the Brain
Someone who says "I'm of two minds about this" is not just procrastinating.