Personality

Neurotics have one more thing to worry about - they may earn less money than their less neurotic peers. According to my current line of research where I examined the hypothesis that personality affects the motivation, work drive and salary of workers, Neuroticism had significant negative direct effects on salary (B = -.26, p < .05). Read More

Archeological evidence indicates that we human beings have lived in groups for at least 250,000 years of our evolutionary past. Read More

Going from one child to two (or two to three or more) is a dilemma single parents and couples wrestle with, sometimes for years. Does knowing that mothers who have one child are happiest make the decision easier?  Read More

The old saying goes that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Why would that be? Surely, getting to know someone ought to give you more valuable information about who they are than just a brief encounter. And clearly first impressions can be mistaken. A favorite storyline in the featured wedding in the Sunday New York Times is that the couple didn't like each other when they first met even though their friends were all convinced that they were right for each other.

What is going on with these snap judgments? Read More

Can You Find Freud in This Photo? Read More

I recently read Daniel B. Smith's article, "Is There an Ecological Unconscious?" in the New York Times Magazine (1-31-10). New terms like "eco-anxiety" and "eco-paralysis" are popping up because people are reacting to the ecological decline by experiencing "numbness, despair, ‘a sense of being overwhelmed or powerlessness,' and grief." At the other extreme nature lovers, biophiliacs like E. O. Wilson and his followers, are not letting ominous news deter them from happily celebrating nature's joys. Read More

Usually I write mostly about children or adolescents on the autism spectrum. Read More

I came here to exercise but it's definitely not working. The gym's owner keeps coming over to talk to me about God. He's born again. He asked me what I'm listening to and like a fool I told him it's a book about Darwin.

"Let me ask you this," he say. "If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" Read More

If you are an academic, like I am, when you are faced with a piece of bizarre data (like how does a Presidential candidate allow himself to cheat on his wife in the middle of a campaign AND not even use a condom), you search for a theory to explain what has happened- as opposed to just writing this guy off as one stupid, self absorbed, jackass. Read More