Wallflower power

Source  A co-worker once told me that he was a "sticker." At parties, he stuck in one place and let people come to him (like a wal...

Does marriage matter? Testosterone says no

Source Last weekend I went back to my hometown for the wedding of my childhood best friend. June is the height of wedding season and there w...

Friday Fun: It's just a lamp

I watched this IKEA commercial in my intro social psych class, and five plus years later, it is still seared into my memory. Take the minute...

Working Smart

Stepping on the fine line between hard work and smart work ! “Working Smart, not Hard” is a popular get-rich-quick concept among workers in ...

Boosting self-esteem - Putting the partner within reach

source In my last post I described a manipulation that was successful in boosting low self-esteem. Denise Marigold and colleagues directed p...

Akhtaboot Employer Side Undergoes a Major Upgrade

Akhtaboot- the career network ( http://www.akhtaboot.com ) has undergone a major upgrade on the Employer side of Akhtaboot to include severa...

The Status Paradox

Social hierarchies are quite complicated. In the animal world hierarchies are wildly different based on social contexts, species, and enviro...

Friday fun: Psychology songs

Source Like many people who study psychology, I can't help but see it everywhere - including songs that were clearly not intended to be ...

Four ways to buy happiness

Source As much as we like to romanticize poverty, there's no denying that money is important. Many of life's pleasures and necessiti...

It's good to give thanks: The benefits of gratitude

Source When someone does something nice for you, how does it make you feel? Do you experience gratitude in response to their act of kindness...

Friday Fun: My "Favorite" Comments From Anonymous Reviewers

This Friday I thought it might be nice to provide a window into the manuscript review process in psychology. In short, after a researcher (1...

Why we watch reality TV

 Source If you happened to watch  The Bachelorette  on Monday, you probably resolved never to watch another episode. Although a lot of the e...

Boosting Self-Esteem

source Last week I presented research that evaluated the efficacy of positive self-statements (a form of affirmations) for changing self-es...

The Channels of Emotion: Not (Just) in the Face!

"Emotions are the heart of social living." -- E. J. Horberg, 2011 As the above quote suggests, emotions serve important social fun...

Friday Fun? See a clip of the classic Bobo Doll experiment

source Introductory psychology courses almost always include a lecture or two on Albert Bandura ’s Social Learning Theory . This theory pro...

Matters of life and death

In the midst of unexpected turbulence on a recent flight, an ominous announcement came over the intercom: "Attention passengers, there...

Positive Affirmations: Friend or Foe?

source This morning I conducted a search for “positive affirmations” on amazon.com . These are positive statements individuals repeat to the...