A cognitive bias is a genuine deficiency or limitation in our thinking — a flaw in judgment that arises from errors of memory, social attribution, and miscalculations (such as statistical errors or a false sense of probability). Some social psychologists believe our cognitive biases help us process information more efficiently, especially in dangerous situations. Still, they lead us to make grave mistakes. We may be…
The 12 Cognitive Biases That Prevent You From Being Rational (Part 1)
How Successful People Approach A New Year
Want to come out ahead in 2013? Here are the resolutions the most successful people make and then keep for both business goals and personal gain. 1. Spend more time on your not-to-do list. 2. Do what’s essential first, then email second. 3. Not make excuses. Not cheat. Not waste time. 4. Books are important. 5. Take time to do something slower than you normally…
New Year’s Resolutions – How To Keep Your 2013 Resolutions
13 New Year’s Resolutions – and How to Keep Them 1. Lose the Weight From wearing a pedometer to surrounding yourself with the color blue, there are all kinds of small changes that can help you finally drop those extra pounds. Make a commitment that 2013 will be the year you get rid of what’s weighing you down. 2. Get Organized If your home is…
The Psychology of Gift Giving: Unique and Expensive or Ordinary but Useful?
The holiday shopping season is almost upon us. Gift giving: What do you get someone? Will they like it? What will they give you? Will you like it? Quite frankly, the whole process can be fun but exhausting. Gifts can be tokens of social relationships, ways that we transmit impressions and feelings to one another. If you boil down the above questions, you are really…
Understanding How Children Develop Empathy
The capacity to notice the distress of others, and to be moved by it, can be a critical component of what is called prosocial behavior, actions that benefit others: individuals, groups or society as a whole. Dr. Eisenberg, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, draws a distinction between empathy and sympathy: Empathy is experiencing the same emotion or highly similar emotion to what the other…
10 Tools For Dealing With Holiday Depression
There has been a long standing myth that suicide rates increase over the holiday season. According to the Mayo Clinic, this is completely false. What is true is that the rates of depression and stress do increase. Here are ten solid tools to help you and deal if Santa also brings you some holiday blues. Keep your expectations balanced. You won’t get everything you want, things will go wrong, and…
How Technology is Changing The Way Children Think and Focus
Thinking. The capacity to reflect, reason, and draw conclusions based on our experiences, knowledge, and insights. It’s what makes us human and has enabled us to communicate, create, build, advance, and become civilized. Thinking encompasses so many aspects of who our children are and what they do, from observing, learning, remembering, questioning, and judging to innovating, arguing, deciding, and acting. There is also little doubt…
Foods That Soothe You To Sleep
“You are what you eat” is as true when you turn in at night as it is the rest of the day. The foods you choose may improve sleep quality and help prevent insomnia. Research shows that sleep affects diet and weight. In particular, lack of sleep may wreak havoc with your eating habits, amp up your appetite, alter your metabolism, and increase your odds of becoming obese. Emerging evidence suggests that…
Delaying Parenthood May Come At A Cost
With more and more young people waiting until their late 30s and early 40s to start their families. As Shulevitz points out, one in three female college graduates in the US waits until after age 30 to have her first child, while for women without a degree that number is just one in ten. The negative aspect of delaying parenthood Delaying can wreak havoc with the…
To Clear Negative Thoughts, Physically Throw them Away
Bothered by negative thoughts? Clearing your mind of them could be as simple as writing them down and physically throwing them away, according to a new study, published in the journal Psychological Science. “At some level, it can sound silly. But we found that it really works — by physically throwing away or protecting your thoughts, you influence how you end up using those thoughts,” study researcher Richard Petty,…