Get the basics right. Understand the fundamentals of psychology.
To compartmentalize something means to divide it into compartments or sections. In Psychology, compartmentalization means dividing mental contents into separate compartments in the mind. These mental contents could be thoughts, emotions, feelings, motives, beliefs, memories, personalities, or identities. Compartmentalization is a natural consequence of how the mind works. By categorizing mental information, the mind can …
Anhedonia is a reduced ability or inability to derive pleasure from activities from which you previously derived pleasure. It has two main types: 1. Physical anhedonia It’s the inability to derive pleasure from stimulating one or more of the five senses. For example, you may no longer find foods pleasurable that you previously found pleasurable. …
Have you ever wondered why the same situation affects different people differently? For instance, you may be able to handle rejection well, but your friend may get depressed and lose sleep over it. While humans have many genetically programmed universal behaviors, it’s not just our genes that program us. The environment in which we’re raised …
Emotion is one of the most complex, highly-debated topics in psychology. Even after decades of research, there still isn’t a consensus on what constitutes an emotion. You can’t define what you can’t clearly understand. As a result, there’s no universal definition of emotion.1 Still, a definition we can work with would be: Emotions are signals …
There’s a process vs. content distinction in almost everything we do. Keeping in mind the difference between process and content can help you become more effective in everything you do. Content is simply the ‘what’ of things, and process is the ‘how’ of things. It’s often easier to come up with a ‘what’ than it …
“I miss you, not mentally but physically.” When my girlfriend said that to me recently, it left me scratching my head. I mean, I understood what she meant, but I’d never thought about ‘missing’ that way. People usually only say, “I miss you”. The fact that she specified a modality of ‘missing’ had me thinking. …
Limbic resonance is defined as a state of deep emotional and physiological connection between two people. The limbic system in the brain is the seat of emotions. When two people are in limbic resonance, their limbic systems are in tune with each other. Limbic resonance is also referred to as emotional contagion or mood contagion. …
Intuition and instinct may seem like the same concepts. In fact, many use these terms interchangeably. But they differ in important ways. An instinct is an innate behavioral tendency shaped by evolution to promote survival and reproductive success, mostly, in the present moment. Our instinctive behaviors are triggered in response to some environmental stimuli. Instincts …
Relationship dynamics can simply be defined as ‘everything that happens between two people in a relationship’. The relationship dynamics between relationship partners tell us about: How the couple interact with each other What they think of each other How they feel about each other Respect, love, and intimacy levels in the relationship Every relationship we’re …
Researchers have tried to classify emotions for decades. Yet, there’s very little agreement on what classification is accurate. Forget the classification of emotions, there’s disagreement even on the appropriate definition of emotion. Before we talk about primary and secondary emotions, let’s first define emotions. I like to keep things simple, so I’ll give you the …