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Read about and understand the various psychological phenomena you observe in your day-to-day life. Get answers to common curiosities about everyday behavior. Understanding the root causes of your behaviors and those of others will greatly improve your understanding of human psychology. No human behavior, however small, is insignificant.
Psychologist Erik Erikson discussed the stages of psychosocial development that each person goes through. At each stage, specific needs must be met. If those needs aren’t met, a person gets psychologically ‘stuck’ or arrested in that stage. According to Erikson, unresolved developmental tasks leave a life-long residue of emotional immaturity. As a result, many people’s …
Criticism is a massive deal for humans. We have a strong desire for approval and acceptance from others- to belong to our tribe. For most of our evolutionary history, living in close-knit tribes increased the odds of survival. The more valuable you are to your tribe, the more acceptance, status, and approval you get. The …
Survival is a top priority for the brain. You feel physiological and psychological stress when you encounter a survival-threatening or traumatic situation. When you’ve dealt with the threat, the stress fades, and you return to psychological and psychological balance. However, when a stressful event is high-impact or low-impact but continuous, it’s hard for the mind …
It’s common to see two people getting stuck in an argument where one of them says something like: “Answer my question! You’re deflecting!” When humans ask questions, they expect a straightforward answer. They don’t want you beating around the bush because it means extra and unnecessary cognitive processing. While some can handle the meandering, others …
“What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all.” – Dan Quayle We’ve all experienced times when we felt like we were losing our minds. This is a crazy psychological phenomenon that makes you think that you’re going crazy. Of course, it’s unlikely that you’re actually going …
Learning by osmosis, learning by proxy, or passive learning involves absorbing knowledge and skills by being around people with such knowledge and skills. It involves putting yourself in environments where you can gain valuable information and expertise. Active or intentional learning, in contrast, involves actively seeking knowledge by exerting a lot of effort. For example, …
As a social species, humans expect other humans to support them, especially in difficult times. When two people go through the same traumatic experience, as difficult as times can get, they typically have no one but each to support them. When we’re supported and reciprocally support during a hardship, our distress gets reduced1Olff, M. (2012). …
Consider the set of all the things that happen to you. A lot of them you have no control over. You didn’t choose to be born. Some you have full control over. You chose to read this article. And then there are others you have partial control over. You can be good to someone in …
When you experience a traumatic event, your mind perceives great danger and goes into survival mode. When your mind is in survival mode, your senses sharpen, and you enter into this super-learner mode, trying to understand your current situation as much as possible. The mind tries to learn as much as possible about a traumatic …
Name-calling or labeling is calling someone by degrading and demeaning names. The goal of name-calling is to hurt someone and make them look bad. It can occur in any relationship but is particularly damaging in a romantic relationship. A few incidences of name-calling here and there are forgivable, but if it happens repeatedly, it’s verbal …