Perhaps you've lived this moment before. Perhaps you're seeing yourself at a distance, as never before. Anomalous experiences are real and life-changing. That doesn't mean they occur outside your own head.
By Matthew Hutson, published on July 03, 2012 - last reviewed on July 09, 2012
Chances are, at some point in your life, you've felt someone staring at you. Maybe you were at the grocery store. Maybe walking along the sidewalk. Maybe sitting on a bus. And sure enough, when you turned your head to look, the suspect's eyes met yours.
You just had an anomalous experience.
The job of the conscious mind is to form a story out of all our sensations...
Thursday
90 Percent of a Person's Traits Can Be Judged with Their Shoes

90 Percent of a Person's Traits Can Be Judged with Their ShoesDenise Baker
First Posted: June 13, 2012 7:52 PM EDT
A new study says that a person can be accurately judged just by the choice of his shoes.
According to a study by researchers at University of Kansas, people could judge a stranger almost exactly by looking at their shoes. A person's age, gender, income, political affiliation, emotional and other important characters were among the personality traits that could be judged by just his/her shoes.
Omri Gillath, lead researcher of the study, said that the style, cost, color, and condition of the shoes were the determinants of the owner's...
Social Networking Sites Can Increase Anxiety

Social Networking Sites Can Increase AnxietyDrishya Nair
First Posted: July 9, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
From time immemorial, it is a common notion that being with friends is perhaps the best therapy for anyone who is going through a low phase of life, and anyone who needs to be pepped up.
Ever since social media has taken over the internet world, it has certainly changed the meaning of the words 'friends' and 'friendship.' While there was a time when friends were the reasons to boost up confidence in people, mingling with a large social group is the reason people feel inadequate these days, says a latest research.
A latest survey has found that...
Monday
What Do Men Really Want?

By Eric Jaffe, published on March 13, 2012 - last reviewed on April 30, 2012
The study of male sexuality really should have ended in 1989. That year psychologists Russell Clark and Elaine Hatfield reported the results of a social experiment conducted on the campus of Florida State University. For the study they recruited young women to approach male students at random and have a brief conversation. Average-looking women, mind you—"moderately attractive," even "slightly unattractive"—in casual clothes. No supermodels; no stilettos; no bare midriffs. It was important that the young man remain coherent. The ladies all told their guy they'd seen...
LeBron James: The Making of a Narcissist

Evolution of the Self
On the paradoxes of personality.
by Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D.
When we consecrate someone as "King"--even if just metaphorically--he's likely to begin acting like royalty. Similarly, if we, figuratively, put him on a pedestal, we're literallymaking him higher than us. However unwittingly, we're actually inviting him to look down on us "common folk," and to view our needs and preferences as mattering far less than his own. It's hardly any wonder, then, that his behaviors may end up seeming self-centered, arrogant--and woefully lacking in empathy.
Obviously, the above characterizations are meant to describe something essential...
Sunday
Freud & Women: Freud's Perspective on Women

Freud & Women: Freud's Perspective on Women
By Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide
"The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is 'What does a woman want?'"
-From Sigmund Freud: Life and Work by Ernest Jones, 1953Sigmund Freud’s views on women stirred controversy during his own lifetime and continue to evoke considerable debate today. "Women oppose change, receive passively, and add nothing of their own," he wrote in a 1925 paper entitled "The Psychical Consequences of the Anatomic Distinction Between the Sexes."Donna Stewart, M.D., a professor and chair of women’s health at the University Health Network, explained, "Freud was a man of his times. He was opposed to the women’s...
Addiction in Society

Addiction in Society
Addiction—the thematic malady for our society—entails every type of psychological and societal problem.
by Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D.
Abraham Lincoln is an unusual psychological case study. He was both chronically melancholy, and yet among the strongest people in history.
Lincoln lost perhaps his one true love, and married a mentally unstable woman who abused him. He loved his sons - indulged them ridiculously - but one died very young, and another (Willie) died at age 11 in the White House, almost breaking Lincoln.
Oddly, the same philosophical-psychological outlook caused Lincoln to be both depressed, and incredibly...
Saturday
The Ten Keys To Perfect Partnership

Ambigamy
Insights for the deeply romantic and deeply skeptical.
by Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D.
1. Find a good enough partner and be 100% committed, even married.
2. Play hard but don’t ever hurt each other. Not even by mistake.
3. If hurt by mistake ignore it. If hurt on purpose ignore it.
4. Be with a partner who is fair enough, and then ignore fairness altogether. Never discuss fairness.
5. Allow yourself to appear to be bullied, bumped, pushed around and humiliated, but never interpret it that way. Keep your pride, hold your temper and don’t retaliate. Be robust to perturbation. Signal your healthy inflexibilities through equanimity not fierceness.
6. In contrast be hypersensitive to your partner’s vulnerabilities. Remember that life is short and that he or she, like all of us, was a vulnerable,...
Friday
The Negative Effect of Texting

"Texting through mobile phones has a negative impact on a person’s linguistic ability to interpret and accept new words. A survey on university students about their reading habits, including text messaging, showed that those who texted more were less accepting of new words. On the other hand, those who read more traditional printed media such as books,newspapers and magazines were more accepting of the same words."
"Reading traditional print media encourages flexibility in language use and tolerance of different words,and helps readers to develop skills that allow them to generate interpretable readings of new or unusual words. In contrast,...
Psychology of Robert Nesta Marley "Bob Marley"

Bob Marley - Early LifeBob Marley was born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945. Bob was born to Cedella Marley when she was 18. Bob's early life was spent in rural community of Nine Miles, nestled in the mountainous terrain of the parish of St. Ann. Residents of Nine Miles have preserved many customs derived from their African ancestry especially the art of storytelling as a means of sharing the past and time-tested traditions that are oftentimes overlooked in official historical sources. The proverbs, fables and various chores associated with rural life that were inherent to Bob's childhood would provide a deeper cultural context and an...
Edgar Allan Poe's psychology: The raven

War of the Mind in Edgar Allen Poe’s
“The Raven”
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is wrought with symbolism of the mind, specifically the subconscious and the conscious aspects of Mind. The poem is an interesting one, in the sense that one can argue that the events of the piece are not happening to the narrator himself, but rather, within him, specifically, within his mind. This is reminiscent of Poe’s poem “The Haunted Palace,” where the mind is described as “monarch Thought’s dominion”, and hair is described as banners, and the mouth painted as “pearl and ruby glowing”, from which thoughts flow. Perhaps “The Raven” is also describing...