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 »
Posts Categorized: The Self
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 »
Psychology of COVID-19: Contact Tracing and Human Memory
Description: Think back over the past 10 days and then itemize everything you did, everywhere you went, everyone you saw, interacted with, for how long and how far apart were you during that interaction? Include every place or situation you encountered over that same period that involved groups of people. How many people? How close… 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: Resolutions THIS Year
Description: I will not say Happy New Year. That seems a bit trite and unreflective this year. How about Wishing you a Happier and Free-er New year as 2021 unfolds? You may also be thinking that what with all the pandemic driven hopes for things just getting less worse and for our progress towards broader… 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 »
Psychology of Covid-19: Masks and Emotions – The Kids May Be All Right!
Description: We are all wearing masks these days (or should be). I have posted previously about research suggesting that adults experience functional prosopagnosia (the lack of the ability to recognize people when one see’s them) when others are wearing masks covering their mouth and nose. A related, important question concerns how children manage socially when… Read more »
Challenges to Admitting Defeat
Description: Somewhere in the aftermath of the American election (November 3, 2020) there will be (maybe) a point where the outgoing president acknowledges his loss. At least that is how it has gone in every previous American Presidential election. But, as of today, November 14, 2020, Donald Trump has not yet conceded the election to… Read more »
The Psychology of Covid 19: Unselfish Self Care
Description: Have you read anything about Positive Psychology? It is a relatively new sub-discipline within Psychology that is based on the idea that Psychology can do more that focus in on the ways in which things can go wrong for us in terms of things like mental illness. Research in Positive Psychology looks at what… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19: Stunting Children’s Social Growth?
Description: Have you heard of social referencing? Even very young infants do this. Basically, it involves looking at and reading another person’s face (facial expression) in order to find out what something that is around you means. Imagine a toddler sitting in a stroller beside a park bench that one of their parents is sitting… Read more »
Books for Success!
