Description: The debates and the research focused upon the impacts of video gaming and social media use on developing children and youth are heated and ongoing. The primary difficulty in sorting out the effects of video gaming and social media use is tied up in the comprehensive nature of their uptake in the population. As… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Interpersonal Attraction Close Relationships
Happy Without a Valentine
Description: Remember how sad Charlie Brown was when he did not get a single Valentine? The social norms of romantic love are burning brightly at the center of all that is involved in Valentine’s Day. Today (well tomorrow actually) having a Valentine is more difficult unless they are already holed up with you in whatever… Read more »
This is Your Brain on Lonely
Description: Being lonely is not an enjoyable experience and in many ways that I suspect you are aware of or could guess at, it is not good for you either. But how does prolonged loneliness effect your brain and why might it be useful and important to know how loneliness impacts people’s brains? Think about… Read more »
Emerging Adults and Parents’ Levels of Psychological Control
Description: There has been quite a bit of speculation about what is “wrong” with emerging adults (18- to 29-year-olds) these days. This typically occurs as part of reflections upon the significant rise (jump) in levels of anxiety among undergraduate student in general and first year students in particular. Putting aside non-useful hypotheses such as that… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19: Loneliness Epidemic
Description: How long could you live without air? How long without food? How long without companionship (social contact with someone you know)? Minutes, days, months? As we head in to what may be the worst weeks of Covid-19 impacts and lockdowns that stand between us and vaccine driven relief (and winter here in the Northern… Read more »
A Gift Giving Pop Quiz!
Description: Ok, at the risk of incurring your anger for not having passed these secrets along sooner (it is Christmas Eve as I write this), did you know that there is Psychological research into what makes something a good or at least better present and the differences between what gift givers think is the answer… Read more »
The Psychological Science of Gift Giving
Description: Ok so, no pressure, but as we struggle into winter with coronavirus spikes and flares popping up and the prospect of more restrictions, closures, and lockdowns looming, we are also approaching the holiday, gifting season. Yes, I know, we do NOT need any more stress, do we? But, think of it this way, we… Read more »
The Psychology of Covid-19: Wellbeing of Introverts and Extroverts
Description: I am sure you know quite a bit about personality. Based on what you know, what would you predict about the relative wellbeing of people who we might describe as extroverts and introverts in relation to their experiences with the current and recent states of their social worlds as a result of the circumstances… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19 – Effects of Social Isolation
Description: I have posted previously about the non-obvious ways in which the social isolation imposed upon us by the Coronavirus pandemic have added to our levels of stress and anxiety. However, my focus in those posts was on the atypical or unnatural nature of alternative forms of social engagement such as video conferencing using Zoom…. Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: When We Did Not Know We Had the Rugs That Were Yanked
Description: I am sure you have heard the phrase “having the rug pulled out from under you,” before. Interpreted literally, it obviously means having the very thing you are standing on violently shifted from under you, typically with catastrophic results. The “magic” act of whipping a table clothe out from under a fully set table… Read more »
Books for Success!
