-
Big Data Gives the “Big 5” Personality Traits a Makeover
From the ancient Greeks to Shakespeare to Hollywood, humans have attempted to understand their fellow man through labeling and categorization. There was Hippocrates’s blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile; the classic dramatic archetypes of hero, ingenue, jester and wise man; and, of course, Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda from the famous HBO series More rigorously, psychologists have worked to develop empirical tests that assess core aspects of personality. The “Big Five” traits (extroversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness) emerged in the 1940s through studies of the English language for descriptive terms.
-
Harvard Psychology Professor Discusses How Trauma Affects Memory
NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with clinical psychologist Richard McNally about memory retention following traumatic events in light of the sexual assault accusations brought against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
-
New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Examining the Decoupling Model of Equanimity in Mindfulness Training: An Intensive Experience Sampling Study Adi Shoham, Yuval Hadash, and Amit Bernstein Some researchers posit equanimity, or the attitude of embracing either pleasure or pain without reaction, as a mechanism through which mindfulness contributes to well-being. The “decoupling model” suggests that separating desire (wanting and not wanting) from the hedonic nature (pleasant or unpleasant) of an experience may promote equanimity; that is, values and long-term goals may take the place of pleasure in determining desire.
-
Social Class Determines Whether Buying Experiences or Things Makes You Happier
What is the best way to spend money to increase your happiness? A series of studies suggests that it may depend, in part, on how wealthy you are.
-
Are We Wired to Sit?
Are we born to be physically lazy? A sophisticated if disconcerting new neurological study suggests that we probably are. It finds that even when people know that exercise is desirable and plan to work out, certain electrical signals within their brains may be nudging them toward being sedentary. The study’s authors hope, though, that learning how our minds may undermine our exercise intentions could give us renewed motivation to move. Exercise physiologists, psychologists and practitioners have long been flummoxed by the difference between people’s plans and desires to be physically active and their actual behavior, which usually involves doing the opposite.
-
Moving Stress Research Forward
Research tells us that severe stress can cause all kinds of adverse health outcomes, including an increased risk for mental illnesses. In his latest Director's Message, Dr. Gordon discusses how NIMH is trying to move the field of stress research forward, toward the translation of basic findings into clinical advances. .
