You’ve reached a roadblock on a project at work, so you go home in frustration. While cooking dinner, you suddenly figure out a solution to the obstacle you left at the office. You’ve had an “aha moment,” and it’s the underappreciated path to creativity and productivity.

We’ve all experienced those times when a sudden occurrence makes our eyes widen, heart quicken, gut contract, and awareness sharpen — any or all of which signify that whatever we’re encountering, or feeling, is potentially new or meaningful. And so, this (whatever this is), demands our attention. An “AHA!” moment can hit without warning…

Many of our relationships begin with that moment when our eyes meet and we realise the other person is looking right at us. Pause for a second and consider the intensity of the situation, the near-magical state of two brains simultaneously processing one another, each aware of being, at that very instant, the center of the other’s mental world.

Eye contact occurs when two animals look at each other’s eyes at the same time.In human beings, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and is thought to have a large influence on social behavior. Coined in the early to…

Many people are feel like failures because they believe success, happiness or fulfillment has evaded them in life. These beliefs are often strongly held and don’t necessarily result from a rigorous examination of logical facts or evidence. Yet, research has shown that these self-limiting beliefs can be self-deception or false. The challenge for people who are in the grip of self-limiting beliefs is how to change them.

What are Self-Limiting Beliefs?

A belief is the attitude that something is the case or true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term “belief” to refer to personal attitudes associated with true or false ideas and concepts. However…

In spite of many good intentions, we often give in to temptation. There are so many choices to make each day that many of them are made on autopilot. We often rely on easy rules of thumb rather than consciously weighing up the options. This automatic processing helps us deal with the complex challenges of too much choice, but it can also compromise the results. …

You’ve just had a fight with your partner or a confrontation with a co-worker. Now your heart’s racing, and you’re struggling to think straight. What should you do?

Psychologists are not short on ideas for how to calm yourself down after a stressful experience. Seek out a friend? Yes, there’s good evidence that can help. But what if there’s no friend to hand? You could try to alter your view of what just happened from “Disaster!” to “Not really so bad”.

But it can be difficult to engage in this kind of “cognitive reappraisal” when you’re in the immediate aftermath…

Most of us have regrets about something in our lives. And it’s very common for those near the end of their lives. There are conflicting views as to whether having these regrets have a purpose. Is it possible to have no regrets? Which regrets are more powerful — the ones that involve mistakes we have made, or the ones that involve things we didn’t do?

What are Regrets?

Janet Landman, author of Regret: Persistence of the Possible, defines regret as a “more or less painful cognitive and emotional state of feeling sorry for misfortunes, limitations, losses, transgressions, shortcomings or mistakes. It is an…

Children as young as 4 years old may reap better health from altruistic giving, a behavior that tends to be less common among kids from high-income families, according to research on the nature and nurture of altruism published in Psychological Science.

“The findings provide us with a new understanding of how children’s altruistic behaviors, family wealth, and physiological health are intertwined,” says psychological scientist and lead researcher Jonas Miller of the University of California Davis.

Previous research has shown that altruism, or giving that is personally costly, can promote both physical and psychological well-being in adults. This new study extends…

Persons who display either narcissistic personality disorder or the narcissistic personality type are preoccupied with maintaining excessively positive self-concepts. They become overly concerned with obtaining positive, aggrandizing feedback from others and react with extreme positive or negative emotions when they succeed or fail to receive confirmation that others hold them in high regard. Narcissists want positive feedback about themselves, and they actively manipulate others to solicit or coerce admiration from them. Accordingly, narcissism is thought to reflect a form of chronic interpersonal self-esteem regulation.

Individuals with a narcissistic personality disorder, according to the American Psychological Association’s DSM-5, exhibit five or…