Do you have a self-actualized personality? Maslow revisited
Rediscovering the principles of self-actualisation might be just the tonic that the modern world is crying out for.
Abraham Maslow was the 20th-century American psychologist best-known for explaining motivation through his hierarchy of needs, which he represented in a pyramid. At the base, our physiological needs include food, water, warmth and rest.
Believe in soulmates? You're more likely to 'ghost' romantic partners.
Does believing in true love make people act like jerks?
- Ghosting, or cutting off all contact suddenly with a romantic partner, is not nice.
- Growth-oriented people (who think relationships are made, not born) do not appreciate it.
- Destiny-oriented people (who believe in soulmates) are more likely to be okay with ghosting.
Why do we feel schadenfreude — and who it feels it the most?
Delving into the psychology of an uncommon joy.
- Few words convey as much meaning as Schadenfreude, or the joy that arises from seeing harm come to others.
- Schadenfreude is a complex psychological phenomenon, and researchers have only begun to look into rigorously.
- Psychology can tell us why we feel schadenfreude, when we feel it, and who feels it the most.
New study finds strength of imagination not associated with creative ability or achievement
If you have a strong imagination, this won't help you with academic study.
Imagination is sometimes claimed to be a uniquely human ability, and it has long intrigued psychologists. "Nevertheless, our understanding of the benefits and risks that individual differences in imagination hold for psychological outcomes is currently limited," note two researchers who have created a new psychometric test – the Imaginative Behaviour Engagement Scale (IBES) – for measuring how much imagination a person has, and then used it to investigate whether, as some earlier work hinted, having a stronger imagination might aid learning and creativity.
Why radicals can't recognize when they're wrong
It's not just ostriches who stick their head in the sand.
- Not only does everyone have personal experience with how difficult it can be to change people's minds, but there's also empirical research showing why this is the case.
- A new study in Current Biology explains why some people seem to be constitutionally incapable of admitting they're wrong.
- The study shows the underlying mechanism behind being bull-headed, and there may be some ways to get better at recognizing when you're wrong.
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