In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week, we’re going to look at the psychology behind selfies. Smartphones and social media have given rise to the age of the selfie, which was the 2013 Oxford Languages Word of the Year. Back in the not-so-distant day, selfies just …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is self-esteem. Self-esteem refers to the extent to which we perceive the various elements of our self-concept positively. It incorporates our physical self-image, how we feel about the things we’ve accomplished, how successful we consider ourselves to be …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is the compass of shame. I first heard of the compass of shame quite recently in a post by Zoe of Serious Mental Health. Psychiatrist Donald Nathanson developed it in 1992, and it identifies four different types of human …
I’ve long had issues with the whole self-improvement industry, but the idea for this post came from a quote that Suzette Benjamin shared on her blog: We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement… All the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. Pema …
The Problem with Self-Improvement — Aren’t You Good Enough? Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is self-verification theory. Self-verification theory comes from social psychology, and it says that we want other people to see us the way we see ourselves. That might seem self-obvious, but what’s interesting is that this applies even when …
Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself is written by Kristin Neff, a prominent researcher in the area of self-compassion. It includes research findings, a variety of exercises with room to complete them in the book, and stories from the author’s personal experience. The author draws on Buddhist teachings, and she writes that: …
“Am I a bad person?” It seems to be a fairly common question. Searching for that question on Google yields 263 million hits. I’ve also seen it raised in the blogosphere. Regardless of what the answer may or may not seem to be, though, is it a valid and/or useful question? What exactly is a …
Am I a Bad Person? Or Is That the Wrong Question? Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is self-efficacy. Essentially, self-efficacy is our belief in our ability to get shit done. Or, for a more textbook definition, there’s this quote from psychologist Alfred Bandura: “Perceived self-efficacy refers to belief in one’s agentive capabilities, that one …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is codependency. We hear about codependency often, particularly in relation to addiction, and it’s sometimes confused with dependency. What does it actually mean, though? Dependency vs. codependency While dependency involves relying on another person to help meet one’s own …
