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Nine Practical Guides to Support Your Research in 2026
The Observer has compiled a list of 2025 guides, tutorials, and manuals designed to support psychological scientists as they expand their toolboxes of research practices and methods.
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A New Antidote for Youth Loneliness: Sharing Data About the Kindness of Others
The college years once ranked among the happiest times of most people’s lives, but that’s changed. Young adults face an escalating mental health crisis, fueled in part by loneliness. In 2023, 19% of young adults reported having no one they could count on, compared to less than 14% in 2006. When explaining this trend, it’s tempting to turn to stereotypes: phone-addled, self-obsessed kids these days have forgotten how to connect. A new study from our lab tells a different story. We surveyed thousands of students at Stanford University, where we both work, and discovered two different schools.
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Why Doing Good Also Makes Us Feel Good, During the Holidays and Beyond
... For many in the U.S., the season most associated with giving, receiving and volunteering runs from Thanksgiving through Hanukkah and Christmas to New Year’s. But around the world, a giving season or festival is present in many cultures, said Amrisha Vaish, a developmental psychologist at the University of Virginia. ... The tension between selfishness and altruism was recognized even by Darwin, said Michael Tomasello, a psychologist at Duke University. “That’s why life is so complicated. We have all these motives mapped together.”
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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles covering social integration, new insights on mental health care, memory and more.
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Why Are ADHD Rates On the Rise?
In some parts of the world, record numbers of people are being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the United States, for example, government researchers last year reported that more than 11% of children had received an ADHD diagnosis at some point in their lives — a sharp increase from 2003, when around 8% of children had. ... The surge in ADHD has led to concerns, particularly in the United States, about questionable diagnoses being given without a thorough clinical evaluation — through online services, for example, or by medical professionals without ADHD training.
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The Right Attitude to Gratitude
Have you ever reflected on what an ungrateful wretch you are? Instead of being thankful that a delicious beverage awaits at your favorite coffee shop, you fume because the person ahead in line ordered a caramel macchiato frappe oatmeal horchata with a splash of macadamia milk, and is now paying for it in nickels. ... A second intervention, devised by the psychologist Martin Seligman, involves writing letters of gratitude to others, telling the recipient in each case specifically what you’re thankful to them for.
