Featured series 
Tag: Psychology
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Science & Tech
Learning to love the irrational mind
Just how much should we allow “human nature” to guide our politics — and our everyday decision making? Columnist David Brooks and a trio of Harvard analysts debated new findings on the unconscious mind during a panel discussion.
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Campus & Community
Harvard Thinks Big 2: “Beyond Point-and-Shoot Morality” – Joshua Greene
Joshua Greene, Assistant Professor of Psychology
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Health
Child prodigies, maybe
Study suggests our assumptions about natural talent can influence our judgments, overlooking and undervaluing the impact of hard work.
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Health
Harnessing your creative brain
Shelley Carson, a researcher in the Psychology Department and lecturer at the Extension School, has penned a how-to book on harnessing your untapped abilities.
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Arts & Culture
What Is Mental Illness?
Richard McNally, a professor of psychology, explores the many contemporary attempts to define what mental disorder really is, and offers questions for patients and professionals alike to help understand and cope with the sorrows and psychopathologies of everyday life.
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Science & Tech
Big thinkers
Psychologists at Harvard University have found that infants younger than a year old understand social dominance and use relative size to predict who will prevail when two individuals’ goals conflict.
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Campus & Community
NARSAD awards $720,000 to Harvard researchers
Twelve from Harvard are among 214 researchers named NARSAD Young Investigators.
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Health
The face looks familiar
People’s ability to recognize and remember faces peaks at ages 30 to 34, about a decade later than most other mental abilities, a new study says.
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Science & Tech
Of two minds
We resolve to exercise more and eat healthy, and then reach for a cupcake at the office holiday party. We pledge to put money away for retirement, but end up maxing out credit cards that charge 14 percent interest. According to Professor David Laibson, the reason for these struggles is that human beings are of…
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Health
Early marijuana use a bigger problem
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have shown that those who start using marijuana at a young age are more impaired on tests of cognitive function than those who start smoking at a later age.
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Health
Wandering mind not a happy mind
People spend 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, and this mind wandering typically makes them unhappy, according to research by Harvard psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert.
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Arts & Culture
How to Unspoil Your Child Fast: A Speedy, Complete Guide to Contented Children and Happy Parents
Nearly 95 percent of parents think their own children are overindulged; now Bromfield, a clinical instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychology, lays down rules — “take back the power!” — to parenting, the hardest job in the world.
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Campus & Community
Brendan Arnold Maher
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on April 6, 2010, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Brendan Arnold Maher, Edward C. Henderson Professor of the Psychology of Personality, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Maher’s scholarship centered on the complex theoretical and empirical problems surrounding human psychopathology.
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Health
Figuring out suicidal behavior
Matthew Nock is a new professor of psychology at Harvard who uses scientific research to try to determine which medical treatments help to prevent suicide.
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Arts & Culture
How to get happy
Former Harvard President Derek Bok and his wife Sissela, a Harvard fellow, discussed their recent books on happiness in a discussion at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Campus & Community
NARSAD awards professors for breakthrough schizophrenia research
Associate Professor of Psychiatry Marc J. Kaufman and Associate Professor of Psychology Dara Manoach, both of Harvard Medical School, are among 42 innovative researchers awarded NARSAD 2010 Independent Investigator grants for schizophrenia research.
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Health
What’s right for me?
In a new study, Harvard scientists find that humans can make difficult moral decisions using the same brain circuits as those used on more mundane choices such as money or food.
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Arts & Culture
A life of transition
A new exhibition at Harvard’s Houghton Library explores the life of philosopher William James.
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Science & Tech
Inklings of suicide
Two new computerized tests, developed at Harvard, show promise in predicting patients’ risk of attempting suicide.
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Science & Tech
How touch can influence judgments
Researchers find ways in which tactile sensations appear to influence social judgments and decisions in everyday life.
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Campus & Community
HAA names Harvard Medalists
The Harvard Alumni Association has announced the recipients of the 2010 Harvard Medal: Nina Archabal ’62, M.A.T. ’63, Paul Buttenwieser ’60, M.D. ’64, C. Kevin Landry ’66, and Dean Whitla, Ed. ’60.
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Campus & Community
Sherry Turkle to give centennial year Lowell Lecture May 14
Sherry Turkle, founder and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Initiative on Technology and Self, will give this centennial year’s Lowell Lecture, titled “The Tethered Life: Technology Reshapes Intimacy and Solitude,” on May 14 (8 p.m., Lowell Lecture Hall), hosted by the Harvard University Extension School.
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Arts & Culture
What makes a life significant?
A diverse Harvard panel marks the 1910 death of William James, celebrates his life, and revisits his famous question.
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Campus & Community
Steven Pinker wins George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience
Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, was named this year’s winner of the George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience, presented by the James S. McDonnell Foundation.
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Science & Tech
Strength in naughty or nice
Research suggests that when people are convinced they’re engaging in a moral act, either for good or ill, they become stronger in performing physical tasks.
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Arts & Culture
Often, we are what we were
In his latest book, professor emeritus Jerome Kagan examines the temperaments of babies and how they can be predictors of adult behaviors.
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Campus & Community
Happiness is…
Which would make you happier: winning the lottery, or losing the ability to walk? It may seem like a no-brainer, but Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University, says the answer may surprise you.
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Arts & Culture
Addiction: A Disorder of Choice
A sobering book, sure to draw ire: This psychologist posits that addiction is voluntary.By analyzing buckets of research, Heyman offers insight on how we make choices, and how we can stop ourselves from going too far.
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Science & Tech
McLean launches coaching institute
With a $2 million gift from the Harnisch Foundation, Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital recently launched the Institute of Coaching to support coaching-related research, practice, and education.