This blog presents information from the archives of psychological research journals. It also includes comments about research findings that have appeared in various news sources. Some of what I post is from recent publications. Some of it is old material. There are additional articles that I have written for this blog that do not reference a specific source, and instead, are based on my knowledge and experience as a psychologist. There are also some general articles related to the profession of psychology that I prepared for the Psychology Resource Information website: psyris.com
All of it is stuff that I think is interesting, and of interest to a general audience. My focus is on writing on topics that have some relevance to everyday experience and everyday life.
In general, psychology is concerned with how people perceive the world around them and how they react to it, how they grow and how they learn, and how they relate to others and function in groups. Psychology is about how people think, feel, and behave. That is a definition that includes a lot of what we might encounter in everyday life, whether at home at work or in the community.
Some of the material involves psychological perspectives on the problems of living, but this is not meant to be a forum that is concerned only with clinical psychology or mental health issues.
It is also my goal to present information in a readable form.
Psychological research can be extremely fascinating, but it is often routinely boring. Most scientific journals only publish papers that are written in a dense and technical style. Even for those who are trained in the field, interesting material is often incomprehensible. In graduate school, we were all taught to write that way. Those who go on to become professors will teach their students to write in a similar manner. Here, my intention is to present information in a way that makes sense to the casual reader.
Some of the studies I discuss are available on the web, but most are in journals you would have to find in a library or with a paid subscription. I come across some articles by scanning recent journals. Others I find because they were referenced in current articles. Some times, I scan or search old journals, just as a matter of curiosity. Hundreds of articles about psychological issues are published each month. There is really no end to the amount of stuff that might be found, and every now and then, you can find a nugget that is worth sharing. What I share is what has captured my imagination.
