Using Social Psychology to Stay Healthy

source Imagine the following scenario. You learn that a family member has been diagnosed with an illness. This illness has a genetic basis a...

Happy Birthday, Psych Your Mind!

source On this day last year, Psych Your Mind ( PYM ) was born. The first post was a brief summary of our expectations for the future of t...

Why you might not like when others like you.

Source Take a moment to think carefully about the answers to these questions: Do you prefer when others  dislike  you? Do you feel  bad  whe...

The power of red

source Like most teenagers in suburbia I took a driver’s education class shortly after I earned my learner’s permit. Though I picked up crit...

Want to become a wizard? Just read Harry Potter

source I will never forget when the final installment of the Harry Potter series came out. Myself and a few of my closest friends from coll...

Friday Fun: Take a (real) personality questionnaire!!

source This post originally appeared back when PYM was just getting started. We thought our newer readers would be interested in this as w...

Women better at judging men’s sexual orientation near to ovulation

source Living in the San Francisco Bay Area provides many benefits: good food, great activities, incredible landscape. For me, however, the...

Increase working memory, decrease alcohol consumption in problem drinkers

source There are many theories about why individuals engage in heavy alcohol consumption. One general theory psychologists refer to is calle...

Narcissists know they're narcissists

source While positive self-views are generally considered healthy, adaptive, and attractive, OVERLY positive self-views often have social...

Adversity: A path to vulnerability or resiliency? Depends on how much.

source Throughout my life I’ve been lucky to be friends with a diverse array of people, who have had quite varied past experiences. There ar...

You’re a psychologist, right? What do you mean you don’t see clients?!

source Perhaps you, our most interested and involved reader, have taken a look at the “About the Bloggers/Researchers” section of Psych You...

Flexing the Muscle that is Self-Control

source College was a busy time for me and by extension a trying period for my roommate Vanessa. Unlike the average 19 year old, Vanessa had ...

Reflection without Rumination

sourc After we go through a painful experience – a conflict with a friend, a break-up, a loss, we face a conundrum. On the one hand, reflect...

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...

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...

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...

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...

How to get to the gym when you would rather sit on the couch.

source For months now a good friend has been trying to convince me to run a half marathon with him. Each time the conversation comes up I ca...

One cookie or Two: Part 3

source Today I will wrap up this mini-series on delay of gratification . What have you learned from parts 1 and 2 ? Delay of gratification ...

One cookie or two: Part 2

source Last week I introduced you to work on delay of gratification – the ability to forgo an immediate, but less desirable reward, in or...