Insight Therapy

Motivation

What Are Young People's Most Important Life Goals?

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on April 3, 2026

What are humanity’s fundamental motives, our most important goals? New work points to an interesting consensus among young adults.

Anger

A Symbolic Action Technique for Managing Anger

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on April 2, 2026

Recent research explores a simple technique for anger management.

Fear

They Who Fear Together: Can Recreational Fear Bring Us Closer?

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on April 1, 2026

While fear is generally considered aversive, it is nevertheless sought after recreationally. Do controlled recreational fear experiences improve interpersonal bonding?

Therapy

Environmental Sensitivity: A Transdiagnostic Trait?

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on February 25, 2026

Are you more than others affected by the moods of other people? Do you become unpleasantly aroused when a lot is going on around you? Learn how it's linked to your mental health.

Narcissism

Narcissism in Power: We Know How It Ends

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on February 2, 2026

Psychological science can predict what will happen when a narcissistic individual assumes a position of great political power.

Health

Help Is Other People: The Power of Social Connectedness

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on January 10, 2026

The psychological literature is clear: Social relationships are our most powerful psychological currency; they are the key to our psychological health.

Academic Problems and Skills

The Gender Equality Paradox: Equality Begets Stratification

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on January 3, 2026

Gender equality was supposed to reduce gender stratification and segregation in academic and professional pursuits. Instead, it increased them. Why?

Narcissism

The Tyrant’s Paradox: We Don’t Want to Have What He’s Having

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on January 2, 2026

The psychological structures that help the malignant narcissist's rise to power will prove destructive once he's achieved it.

Loneliness

It’s Lonely at the Middle: Loneliness in Middle Age

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on October 5, 2025

Loneliness has been considered an epidemic, but new findings suggest that we should view it instead as endemic.

Leadership

Bending The Rules: A Path to Leadership, but at What Cost?

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on October 4, 2025

As rule benders gain leadership, they enact a self-reinforcing loop: More influence facilitates further rule bending, including the rules that uphold the social order.

Bias

Blaming the Perpetrators: A New Take on Misinformation

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on October 2, 2025

Misinformation spreads quickly and widely, leaving damage in its wake. Dealing with it effectively must involve both inoculating individuals and holding institutional perpetrators accountable.

Politics

The Totalitarian Mindset: Where Democracies Go to Die

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on September 25, 2025

Totalitarianism is not just a state of politics, but also a state of mind.

Social Media

How Different Kinds of Screen Use Affect Adolescents' Mental Health

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. on August 4, 2025

Many teens, if not most, use smartphones and social media. But certain use trajectories appear to be worse than others in terms of mental health, research finds.