Read morePeople who are overconfident in their own abilities are considered more talented by others than they really are, a new study finds.
These overconfident individuals are probably more likely to get promoted, to become the leaders of organizations and even nations.
On the other hand, people who are not so confident in their abilities are judged as less competent than they actually are.
Read moreScience has shown we actually can thank a phenomenon called experience-dependent neuroplasticity. “It’s a fancy term to say the brain learns from our experiences,” says Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and author of the book Hardwiring Happiness. “As we understand better and better how this brain works, it gives us more power to change our mind for the better.”
Hanson assures he isn’t just talking new-age mumbo jumbo.
Read moreAfter a few years, the researcher checked back to find fourteen of the men had since gotten married. She discovered that their lifetimes of fighting sexual desire conditioned them to regard sex as taboo even after the knot had been tied, causing poor communication in the bedroom.
“After marriage, the church culture assumes that couples become each other’s support, regardless of the issue at hand,” Diefendorf said.
Read moreIt is far too common for sexual satisfaction in long-term relationships to take a nosedive. The good news is, we know what to do about it. The bad news is many people are too lazy and complacent to do it. (As a couples therapist, I see this often.)
There have been a few replicated studies on a phenomenon called “sexual communal strength” and its impact on sexual satisfaction over time.
Read moreSociopaths tend to be nervous and easily agitated. They are volatile and prone to emotional outbursts, including fits of rage. They are likely to be uneducated and live on the fringes of society, unable to hold down a steady job or stay in one place for very long. It is difficult but not impossible for sociopaths to form attachments with others. Many sociopaths are able to form an attachment to a particular individual or group, although they have no regard for society in general or its rules.
Read moreOne inherent problem with goal setting is related to how the brain works. Recent neuroscience research shows the brain works in a protective way, resistant to change. Therefore, any goals that require substantial behavioural change, or thinking-pattern change, will automatically be resisted. The brain is wired to seek rewards and avoid pain or discomfort, including fear. When the fear of failure creeps into the mind of the goal setter, it becomes a “demotivator,” with a desire to return to known, comfortable behaviour and thought patterns.
Read moreWhen first looking out for a partner, the requirements we come up with are coloured by a beautiful non-specific sentimental vagueness: we’ll say we really want to find someone who is ‘kind’ or ‘fun to be with’, ‘attractive’ or ‘up for an adventure…’
It isn’t that such desires are wrong, they are just not remotely precise enough in their understanding of what we, in particular, are going to require in order to stand a chance of being happy – or, more accurately, not consistently miserable.
Read moreThey say that mixed marriages between geeks and non-geeks are 60 percent more likely to fail. Surprised? Well, you should be, because I completely made that up. But it is true that such a tech-unbalanced marriage can be more difficult than most, but that doesn’t mean your love of tech needs to doom the marriage.
When I met my wife, she knew that I was an engineering student, so to some degree, she had a fair warning that I was a tech geek three years before we got married.
Read moreIn the book Putting Meat on the American Table, researcher Roger Horowitz scours the literature for data on how much meat Americans actually ate. A survey of 8,000 urban Americans in 1909 showed that the poorest among them ate 136 pounds a year, and the wealthiest more than 200 pounds.
A food budget published in the New York Tribune in 1851 allots two pounds of meat per day for a family of five.
Read morePast research has suggested that infidelity is one of the leading causes of divorce. But what drives a person to become unfaithful?
Thanks to a new study published in Contemporary Family Therapy, we now have an inside look into why married women cheat.
Researchers Michelle Jeanfreau, Anthony Jurich, and Michael Mong conducted case studies on four women aged 24 to 51 who cheated on their spouses and whose marriages subsequently ended in divorce.