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The Dirt Psychology

• [article] Speaking in tongues — 23 Aug 2024
  Glossolalia has a unique pattern of neural activity, distinct from psychopathologies and even other trance-like states. So, the feeling underneath is special, but the actual speaking itself seems learned. It makes you wonder where that feeling comes from.
• [article] Meditating for fun and for profit — 5 Jul 2024
  Meditation generally involves either acknowledging or excluding thoughts, but can be problematic. Movement-based meditations (e.g. yoga, running) are better for people who can’t sit with themselves. More generally, many everyday activities meet the broad criteria.
• [article] Our success is not our own — 23 Jun 2022
  The success of the people we surround ourselves with directly influences our performance and sense of accomplishment. It’s worth paying attention to how we balance this, both with those more successful but also those less.
• [article] The value of relationship control — 13 May 2022
  ‘Control’ isn’t always a bad thing in a relationship. In fact it’s necessary. We always have a level of control over our partners, we must just use it with their approval, and to meet their needs as well as ours.
• [article] The five stages of grief are a lie — 12 Apr 2022
  The five stages of grief were never supposed to be an orderly process, despite the common wisdom of many clinicians. Rather, anyone can experience any stage at any time, and the best support recognises this.
• [article] Explaining group dynamics — 29 Mar 2022
  Group dynamics are often thought to be a complicated thing to explore. But a 50-year-old model explains much of it with only three things: a need for Belonging, for Affection, and for Control.
• [article] The nuance in Maslow's Hierarchy — 23 Dec 2020
  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is one of these ideas that’s regularly misapplied both inside and out of academic circles. Which seems ridiculous, because there isn’t much to it. And yet, properly understood, it’s a powerful tool for encouraging personal growth and success.
• [article] Elemental Personalities — 5 Nov 2020
  Captain Planet and his Planeteers always seemed a little trite to me. Five young people, each with an elemental ring. And each with a personality to match. Seemed like lazy writing but now I’m wondering whether they intended to tap into millennia-old thought on personality styles, or whether it was just a happy accident.
• [article] Why people lie to you (and you let them) — 24 Jul 2020
  When we first meet someone, we follow a certain social script. That script calls for certain kinds of lies. But it’s not malicious. It’s a fundamental part of the relationship building process. They lie to us, and we tell them what kinds of lies are ok. Because humans are flawed creatures, and all we want to do is connect.
• [article] What lies beneath? The uncomfortably vague 'Unconscious Processes' — 18 Jun 2020
  The least endearing parts of ourselves are often ascribed to ‘unconscious processes’. But these processes are typically very poorly defined. With anything so poorly defined, when we turn to face it, we are stymied; we don’t know what we’re up against. So let’s get a better idea.
• [article] Common sense isn't as helpful as you'd like, and neither is the truth — 18 Apr 2020
  We covet common sense, especially at those times where the expertise of the academic world can seem so distant from our daily concerns. But the spirit of academic enquiry has something that common sense doesn’t and you don’t need to be an academic to have it too.
• [article] Avoiding the scientific ego problem — 15 Jun 2019
  Science is often an egoistic pursuit. Something about developing a theory seems to inject an arrogance into the method which can lead to a relentless pursuit of a theory in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. This hurts us, but it doesn’t have to.
• [article] Why catharsis is a (dangerous) lie — 24 Feb 2019
  Aristotle used the term catharsis to describe the ‘purge’ of emotions by indulging in them. Then we made it into a theory. But ‘venting’ your emotions doesn’t fix them, it just makes it worse. Much worse.
• [article] Alert - IQ scores are meaningless — 11 Jan 2019
  The Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, is commonly considered a representation of your raw intelligence. At least, that’s the folk wisdom. But the folk wisdom is wrong.
• [article] The three reasons why everyone is so 'cliquey' — 5 Nov 2018
  The psychology of cliques has a pretty stereotypical pattern. It’s been well-described since the 80’s. There are three phases, and often they end in collapse.