Quotes About Psychology

Amusement and annoyance are, perhaps, both forms of denial.

This sunshine... The chance fashion in which its rays fall, the way it moves, infiltrates things, becomes part of the earth's fabric -- who will ever paint that? Who will ever tell that story? The physical history of the earth, its psychology.

The distinguished psychologist Martin Seligman has conducted a sustained programme of research on the attainment of well-being. His conclusion is unambiguous: 'If you want well-being, you will not get it if you only care about accomplishment . . . Close personal relationships are not everything in life, but they are central.'14

Happiness is corny. It is a word you do not find in Dorland's medical dictionary. When people are feeling tops, really at peace with themselves and others, they are not happy. In the medical sense, in that condition they are thought of not as happy, they are "euphoric," which, loosely translated, means slap-happy.

Fear is a funny thing. If that's true, why aren't I laughing?

By using priming, defaults, commitments, and norms in your own life, you can become a whole lot happier without actually having to think very hard at all about becoming happier. You will be happier by design.

It is well established that you will feel uncomfortable when there is a discrepancy between what you think and what you do. This is known as cognitive dissonance.

Modest expectations will also mean that you can avoid false-hope syndrome, whereby we stick with crazy expectations way past the point at which we should have reined them in.

Projection bias is what behavioral scientists call the scenario when we mistakenly use our current feelings to project how we will feel in the future.

cognitive dissonance.

why people who have been unfaithful to their partners are prone to trivializing their affairs.

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.

Smiles are probably the most underrated facial expressions, much more complicated than most people realize. There are dozens of smiles, each differing in appearance and in the message expressed.

People also smile when they are miserable.

Believing-a-lie mistakes occur because certain people just don't make mistakes when they lie. These are not just psychopaths but also natural liars, people who are using the Stanislavski technique, and those who by other means succeed in coming to believe their own lies. The lie catcher must remember that the absence of a sign of deceit is not evidence of truth.

Lying is such a central characteristic of life that better understanding of it is relevant to almost all human affairs.

No discussion of facial signs of deceit would be complete without considering one of the most frequent of all the facial expressions—smiles. They are unique among the facial expressions. It takes but one muscle to show enjoyment, while most of the other emotions require the action of three to five muscles.

The behavioral clues in face, body, voice, and manner of speaking are not signs of lying per se. They may be signs of emotions that don't fit with what is being said. Or they may be signs that the suspect is thinking about what he is saying before he says it. They are flags marking areas which need to be explored.

it's still something of a shock to recognise just how 'multiple' we are.

it is not our fault that we are the way we are with all our drives, passions and aversions.

if we stimulate the affiliative system it puts them in touch with a loneliness, linked to the kindness they wanted (e.g. as a child) but didn't get.

Does madness ever recede? Can it get better on its own, without therapeutic intervention?

Research by Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman upends the idea that beliefs determine what we do or what we can do. It is the opposite. Beliefs do not change our actions. Actions change our beliefs.

Stress! You been listening to them shrinks again? You didn't hear anything about stress when I was a girl." "When you were a girl, Freud wasn't old enough to masturbate.