Exploring the forces that shape the human psyche
Humans are a social species that evolved to live in tightly knit, genetically related groups. Early humans highly depended on their groups for survival. Being shunned by one’s social group likely meant death. Therefore, humans have developed psychological mechanisms to be sensitive to the signs of shunning. They seek to conform to their group and …
Being salty means being bitter towards something or someone. When others make you salty, they ‘leave a bad taste in your mouth’. Of course, they don’t physically put something bitter in your mouth. But it certainly feels that way. Human experiences are fascinating, as always. It’s natural to feel bitter towards someone when they intentionally …
There seem to be two types of people in the world- shallow and deep. You probably have some idea of who deep people are. Their thoughts, feelings, and words have depth. They have the ability to see beyond the surface. Shallow people are the complete opposite. They lack depth in their thoughts, words, feelings, and …
Humans are social species hard-wired to care about the business of other humans in their social circles. It’s what made us tick for thousands of years. An unwanted consequence of this tendency is nosiness. I have done a separate piece on what makes people nosy that you might want to check out. Long story short, …
A highly sensitive person easily senses threats in their social environment. They have a lower threshold of getting offended. Hence, they’re often labeled as thin-skinned and overreactive by others. Both genetic and environmental factors seem to contribute to high sensitivity. Introverts and those who score high on Neuroticism are likely to be highly sensitive. Traumatic …
A sociopathic person is one who has antisocial personality disorder. Sociopaths pursue their self-interest with disregard to others. They have a win-lose mentality. While both men and women can be sociopaths, sociopathy is more common in men. Sociopathy in boys is often detected at a young age (around 8 years). It’s not clear what exactly …
Neuroticism is a personality trait in the Big 5 or OCEAN model of personality. It lies on one end of a spectrum, the opposite end of which is Emotional Stability. Thus, those scoring high on Neuroticism tend to be emotionally unstable. Neurotics experience negative thoughts and emotions frequently and intensely. They have a lower threshold …
When we enter relationships, we have certain expectations from our relationship partners. When those expectations are violated, things get sour, and a breakup looms around the corner. A breakup can be a very complicated psychological phenomenon. How you move on from an ex largely depends on how and why the breakup happened. Breakups can occur …
Resentment occurs when we believe someone close to us has intentionally harmed us. When we’re wronged, we feel angry in the moment. Anger is an emotion that tells us that our rights have been violated. That is, the other person has incurred significant costs upon us. When we suppress our anger in the moment for …
A passive-aggressive person is the one who tends to adopt a passive-aggressive communication style. When someone’s rights are stepped on or when their goals are frustrated by others, they can either behave: Passively = Do nothing Aggressively = Get their rights back by stepping on others’ rights Passive-aggressively = Indirect aggression Assertively = Get their …