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Can Dreams Help You Solve Problems?
... As well, in recent years, researchers have found ways to influence dreams by communicating with people while they are in a lucid state. In 2021, Ken Paller and Karen Konkoly of Northwestern University and their colleagues reported that they had established two-way communication with lucid dreamers, tapping their hands in a specific pattern and having them signal back with eye movements. The sleeping subjects received math questions and dreamed about the solutions, relaying them to the experimenter. This work opened the door to someday, perhaps, asking people in real time what they are dreaming about.
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Can’t Stop Overthinking?
Overthinking might not strike you as a strenuous activity. You don’t have to move a muscle to spend hours imagining worst-case scenarios, debating choices or playing the day’s headlines on a loop. And yet, running mental laps can feel almost as exhausting as real ones. ... Thinking itself isn’t the problem. Ethan Kross, psychologist, researcher and author of “Chatter,” said that our inner voice can be a really valuable tool. It allows us to reflect, plan, rehearse important conversations, motivate ourselves toward goals and make sense of what happens to us, among other things.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A sample of recent articles covering substance abuse, psychopathology, bias, and much more.
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The Secret to Happiness? These Experts Say It’s Feeling Loved by Others
There are plenty of theories about the source of happiness. Who doesn’t think they would be happier with more money and success? We talked to happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, and relationship expert Harry Reis, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, about their recently published book, “How to Feel Loved: The Five Mindsets That Get You More of What Matters Most.”
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When Honesty Is Overrated in Relationships
From childhood, honesty is framed as a moral north star. Tell the truth. Don’t lie. Say what you mean, no matter the cost. But adult relationships quickly expose the limits of that lesson. Instead of building closeness, some truths erode it—especially when honesty is delivered without care, context, or concern for the person on the receiving end. ... Engler points to Gottman's Four Horsemen—criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling—identified by psychologists John and Julie Gottman to describe what they call the four destructive communication patterns that often cause a relationship to break down.
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2026 National Academy of Sciences Award Recipients Announced
Congrats to APS Fellows Deanna Barch, M.J. Crockett, Tor Wager! Deanna M. Barch, Washington University in St. Louis, and Tor D. Wager, Dartmouth College, will each receive an Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences. With these awards, the Academy recognizes Barch for her seminal contributions to advancing understanding of developmental psychopathology, and Wager for his pioneering research revealing how the brain shapes pain, emotion, and belief. Each will receive a $100,000 prize. ... M.J. Crockett, Princeton University, and Jason D.
