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Tag: psychology

Making and Reaching New Year’s Resolutions the SMART way

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[A notebook sits in the middle of the photo with “2022” written in big words on the left side and “Goal” written in big letters on the right with one through four numbered under it. To the left is a bunch of flowers sitting on the table and to the right of the notebook there is a coffee cup with coffee in it.

It’s January 1st. You bought your notebook, numbered the page, and you’re ready; It is time to make some New Year’s resolutions. If you’re someone that regularly makes resolutions, you’re not alone. The start of a new year brings a natural push to start new routines or try to break bad habits. However, many people struggle to keep resolutions. The good news is, behavioral science and the theory of motivation tell us there are evidence-based strategies that can help…

Finding a therapist: Frequently asked questions

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[Photograph of a man gesturing with his left hand. He is speaking to a woman sitting across from him, who is writing notes on a clipboard.

Thinking about starting therapy but overwhelmed by the process of finding a therapist? You’re not alone. There are a lot of reasons that people don’t seek treatment. This post will discuss how to find a therapist and things to consider during your search. “Should I go to therapy? How do I know when it’s ‘time?’” The shortest answer is therapy can be appropriate at any time, as long as you want to be there. It is extremely common to seek therapy when we’re struggling with severe or minor difficulties…

A study on grammar and the bilingual brain

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[A cartoon of the brain, with pictures of a heart, a thought bubble, music notes, numbers, a molecule, and words.]

We humans have a unique capacity to acquire language, even as adults. However, if you have ever used Duolingo, you might have realized that children are more successful at acquiring languages than adults. This observation is puzzling; since adults are smarter than children, shouldn’t it be the other way around? One set of explanations for this paradox focuses on parsing — that is, applying our knowledge of grammar as sentences unfold incrementally…

Putting it into context: How psychology has shaped our knowledge of universal emotions

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[Yellow painted eggs with various facial expressions.]

What are common emotions experienced in your culture? In the United States, happiness, anger, sadness, and fear are considered common emotions. The traditional theory of emotion assumes emotions are universally recognized by all humans. This theory dominates pop culture, with movies like Pixar’s Inside Out, which features characters personifying five emotions that coordinate our every action, and items like Amazon’s Halo Watch, which claims to detect emotions based on tone of voice. Yet, it is not possible to determine what emotion someone is experiencing based only on their face or tone of voice. Instead, our brain makes a prediction that is influenced by past experience, the current context, and interoceptive signals from our body (e.g., heart and breathing rate, hunger cues) from a culture-specific perspective…

Collecting drinking data: There’s an app for that

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[A photo of a person drinking a beer while also on their mobile phone.]

Why do college students really drink alcohol in excess, even if they probably shouldn’t? Addiction researchers have been studying this topic for decades. They’re interested in learning more about alcohol use, the reasons for drinking, and the consequences of heavy drinking. Typically, addiction is studied by having people come into a psychology lab, fill out questionnaires, or maybe do some computerized tasks. More recently, however, scientists wanted to step out of their offices and understand real-world drinking behavior. But, how do they do that? Picture these scenarios…

The Origins of 420

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[A cannabis plant, seeds, and oil displayed on a canvas cloth.]

This Tuesday is April 20th, otherwise known as 420. For some it’s just another day in the week, but for others it’s a much-anticipated and beloved holiday. However, have you ever stopped to consider how this pseudo-holiday came to be? A quick google search will provide a number of varying and amusing theories. Some of the most popular 420 stories include 420 as a police dispatch code for cannabis use, as the number of chemical compounds in cannabis (actually there are over 500), or  the day of Bob Marley’s death (actually May 11th). However…

Building Wakanda: a graduate student’s journey into sports psychology

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[DJ Purnell is captured from the side, smiling. He is sitting at a panel on advice for applying to graduate school]

This week on the blog, we tackle sports and performance from the perspective of mental health, talking with IU’s DeJon Purnell. Purnell is a Ph.D. student in the Counseling Psychology program in IU’s School of Education, and his specific focus is Sport and Performance Psychology. While much of sports psychology translates directly into counseling the athletes themselves, DJ focuses on bigger-picture issues in sports and performance mental health, such as coaching behaviors and pathways to licensure for practicing sports counselors…

Dog Therapy

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[A service dog, with yellow lab features, stands at the side of a pool with it's harness on while sniffing the forehead of it's handler who is in the pool.]

Mental health awareness in the United States has become less taboo throughout the decade, as people young and old, become more comfortable talking about their mental health. Since 40 million adults in the US are diagnosed with anxiety disorder and 18 million adults suffer from depression, those who are dealing with their diagnosis are trying new approaches for coping with their disorders. While the traditional route of therapy and prescription medication to manage a mental health disorder works for many, the use of therapy dogs has proven as an effective method to improve mental health…

Expert or poser? Debunking the psychology behind imposter syndrome

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[An open book with faded yellow pages is sitting on a black desk. The following quote by journalist David Carr is written in capital letters with black permanent marker on the pages “We all walk this Earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn’t end soon.”]

As a young scientist, not a day goes by when I don’t see the phrase “imposter syndrome” in at least a few tweets or Instagram posts written by colleagues. In recent years, imposter syndrome seems to have become commonplace in academia, particularly among students and early-career faculty. So, what exactly is imposter syndrome, and how does it arise?

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