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Invisible Habits Are Driving Your Life
You probably remember when you took your last shower, but if I ask you to examine your routine more closely, you might discover some blank spots. Which hand do you use to pick up the shampoo bottle? Which armpit do you soap up first? ... Around the new year, countless people pledge to reform their bad habits and introduce new, better ones. Yet the science of habits reveals that they are not beholden to our desires. “We like to think that we’re doing things for a reason, that everything is driven by a goal,” Wendy Wood, a provost professor emerita who studies habit at the University of Southern California, told me.
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Radical Acceptance Can Help Build Emotional Resiliency
... A growing body of research suggests that the more you fight against your pain, the stronger and louder it’s going to get. Marsha Linehan, a retired University of Washington psychology professor and creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), calls the process of allowing the feelings to come without judgment or action “radical acceptance.” She advises that “the pathway out of hell is through misery. The more you fight your misery, the more you stay in hell.” The goal of radical acceptance is not to condone or approve of a situation but to recognize its existence and let go of the emotional suffering caused by fighting reality.
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10 Ways to Keep Your Mind Healthy in 2025
Are you feeling mentally ready for 2025? ... Distancing yourself from your thoughts is also useful. Ethan Kross, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, has found that when people use the word “you” or their own name in internal dialogue instead of saying “I,” it feels more constructive and positive. So instead of saying: “I cannot believe I made that mistake. It was so stupid of me,” consider saying this: “You made a mistake. But your mistake is something that has happened to a lot of other people, too, and you won’t feel badly about it forever.”
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June Gruber Welcomes Research with Societal Impact as New Editor of Current Directions in Psychological Science
Gruber plans to highlight a diversity of scientists and global discoveries in her new role.
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Psychologist Explains Why We Love Holiday, Feel-Good Movies
Dr. Pamela Rutledge, Director of the Media Psychology Research Center, discusses why people love predictable, feel-good holiday movies.
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Wikipedia Searches Reveal Differing Styles of Curiosity
The website Wikipedia describes curiosity as a “quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals.” But there is a lot more to this prime motivator for so much of human behavior—and Wikipedia, as the world’s largest encyclopedia, is now helping social scientists deepen the definition of curiosity. ... Princeton University psychologist Erik Nook praised the study’s “dazzlingly large” scope.
