5 Ways Gratitude Can Backfire

Gratitude is good. Good for your health and well-being. Good for your relationships. In fact, I've written about the benefits of gratitu...

Can Mindfulness Make You Happier?

Today's guest post comes from Sarah Roberts, Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at  the University of Quebec in Montreal and blogger a...

The Dangers of Self-Forgiveness

Source The ability to forgive oneself for mistakes, large and small, is critical to psychological well-being. Difficulties with self-forgive...

When "He's Just Not That Into You" Backfires

Source The popular self-help book  He's Just Not That Into You: The No Excuses Truth To Understanding Guys  is intended to empower women...

The Pros and Cons of Sacrificing for the Ones We Love

This is the first in a three-part post on sacrifice in relationships. Today, in Part I, I talk about the pros and cons of sacrificing for th...

Friday Fun: The Self-Esteem Playlist

Source We make playlists for everything from exercise to studying to lulling ourselves to sleep, so why not make one for self-esteem? Here a...

No Pain, No Gain: The Psychology of Self-Punishment

Source One of my favorite professors once told the following story: She was in the check-out line at the grocery store, and two young childr...

Five Classic Psychological Catch-22s

Source Yossarian, the protagonist of Joseph Heller's classic novel,  Catch-22 , wants to be excused from air combat. To be excused, he n...

How to survive a break-up: Give yourself a break

Source There is no shortage of advice on how to recover from a bad break-up: keep busy, don't contact your ex, go out with friends, make...

Freudian defense mechanisms: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Source Freud had some weird ideas, but he also had some brilliant ones. Along with Freudian slips , one of my favorites is his classificatio...

Can your phone cure depression?

Source After years of resistance to the smartphone craze, I reluctantly accepted an iphone as a gift last month. I instantly fell in love. A...

How to trick yourself into keeping your New Year's Resolution

Source Year after year we make ambitious New Year's Resolutions, 90% of which ultimately fail, according to a  2007 study . There is no ...

I'm sorry: Sometimes not enough, sometimes too much

Source "I'm sorry" is infamous for its inadequacy. It often seems flippant, insincere, or incomplete, as in "I'm sorr...

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...

Would you eat the worm?

Source Imagine finding yourself in the following situation. You arrive at a psychology laboratory to participate in an experiment. The exper...

Understanding Mean Girls

Regina from Mean Girls "She's fabulous, but she's evil," social outcast Damian famously says about queen bee Regina Georg...

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...

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...

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...