Category: Psychology

nyu.edu

Narcissistic behaviours like self-congratulation on social media (ie flexing, for the cool kids) have always perplexed researchers, and this study sheds new light.
Being a narcissist seems to be a defense mechanism for coping with insecurities, a way to cover up your low self-worth - unfortunately it makes others like us less.
The study is limited though, because it was just a test on a computer taken by 300 participants.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 26, 2021

Experimental treatments use fMRI brain imaging to teach mental illness patients how to optimize their brain activity.
Scientists analyzed 17 relevant studies with 410 total participants, and concluded that people can regulate their own brain activity when they see it in real time.
The method is called neurofeedback, and it shows promise as a way to treat mental illness patients.
However, the method has to be studied more in order to understand how it works, and how to unlock its potential as a treatment.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 12, 2021

Researchers find that people don’t know what to daydream about, but when they’re given directions - their pleasure from thinking increases by 50%.
The way to find pleasure in daydreaming might be to consciously focus on positive, meaningful memories and thoughts.
Daydreaming is a skill that you can get good at with practice, and once you do, it can be a way to never experience boredom again, and to finally be ok with your thoughts.
Try it! Just don’t confuse daydreaming with planning (which is not pleasurable), make it a habit, and you may find that you’ll be able to re-shape your emotions.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 5, 2021

Neuroscientists achieve the unthinkable - talking to someone who’s asleep, and they’ve already done it with several people.
Cross-national research team demonstrated two-way communication with lucid dreamers in the REM (rapid eye movement) sleep phase.
Eye movements generate current, which is recorded by electrodes placed around the eyes, and the signals are translated to dialogue.
Studying the mind during sleep used to be limited to people telling stories about their dreams after waking up, so this is a big gamechanger.
Psychology experiments with sleeping people are now possible, and it could greatly enhance our understanding of consciousness and the mind’s abilities.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on February 26, 2021

Whether you perform best in the morning or evening depends on your chronotype - ‘larks’ work early, ‘night owls’ work late.
Because night owls go to sleep later but have to get up early with everyone else, they incur sleep debt and need catch-up sleep on non-work days, which is bad for health.
To explore this, researchers used data from a 1966 Finland birth cohort study, initially consisting of 12,058 children.
At age 46, 2672 men and 3159 women from the study were questioned about their chronotypes in 2012, and monitored for 4 years afterwards.
Compared to larks, owls had worse ratings for variables related to sleep and health, and were twice more likely to underperform at work.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on February 26, 2021

Psychology (category filter × )