How well do you know yourself? It’s a question many of us struggle with, as we try to figure out how close we are to who we actually want to be.
In a new report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist Timothy D. Wilson from the University of Virginia describes theories behind self-knowledge (that is, how people form beliefs about themselves), cites challenges psychologists encounter while studying it, and offers ways we can get to know ourselves a little better. [continue reading…]
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Ask middle-school students if they are popular or make friends easily, they likely will depend on social comparisons with their peers for an answer. Such reliance on the perceived opinions of others, or reflected self-appraisals, has long been assumed, but new evidence supporting this claim has now been found in the teen brain.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers looked at adolescent and young-adult brain activity related to both direct self-appraisals, such as “Do I think I’m smart?” and perceptions of others’ opinions — reflected self-appraisals: “Do I think my friend thinks I’m lonely?”
Hypothalamus, a node of the emotion circuit. (Credit: Image courtesy of NIH/National Institute of Mental Health)
During direct self-appraisals, researchers found that adolescents show more activity than adults in neural networks tied to self-perception (medial prefrontal and parietal cortices) and in areas linked to social cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporal-parietal junction and posterior superior temporal sulcus). The results, said lead author Jennifer H. Pfeifer, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon, suggest that adolescent self-perceptions depend heavily on others. [continue reading…]
Celebrities, media personalities and athletes are increasingly being misrepresented in the world of new social media, especially on Twitter. Are social media going through the same growing pains that were experienced in the early days of the Internet? Why do people feel compelled to commit social media fraud? Temple University experts in new media, journalism and psychology offer their insights. [continue reading…]
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If you think having loads of money, fetching looks, or the admiration of many will improve your life — think again. A new study by three University of Rochester researchers demonstrates that progress on these fronts can actually make a person less happy.
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