29 Quotes About Pop-psychology

[P]eople really are open to information that will predict the behavior of others, but they refuse to adjust their self-assessments.

Judgmentalism is indeed a disease of the mind: it leads to anger, torment, and conflict. But it is also the mind's normal condition - [...] always evaluating, always saying "Like it" or "Don't like it." So how can you change your automatic reactions? [...] Meditation is the Eastern way of training yourself to take things philosophically. Cognitive therapy works, too.

For adults, the biggest rush of oxytocin - other than giving birth and nursing - comes from sex. Sexual activity, especially if it includes cuddling, extended touching, and orgasms, turns on many of the same circuits that are used to bond infants and parents. It's no wonder that childhood attachment styles persist in adulthood: The whole attachment system persists.

Because men and women in a relationship have many conflicting interests, evolutionary theory does not view love relationships as harmonious partnerships for childrearing; but a universal feature of human cultures is that men and women form relationships intended to last for years (marriage) that constrain their sexual behavior in some way and institutionalize their ties to children and to each other.

Passionate love does not turn into companionate love. Passionate love and companionate love are two separate processes, and they have different time courses.

Some constraint is good for us; absolute freedom is not.

[D]uring the twentieth century, as people became wealthier and the producer society turned gradually into the mass consumption society, an alternative vision of the self arose - a vision centered on the idea of individual preferences and personal fulfillment. The intrinsically moral term "character" fell out of favor and was replaced by the amoral term "personality.

I believe it is dangerous for the ethic of divinity to supersede the ethic of autonomy in the governance of a diverse modern democracy. However, I also believe that life in a society that entirely ignored the ethic of divinity would be ugly and unsatisfying.

[C]hanging an institution's environment to increase the sense of control among its workers, students, patients, or other users was one of the most effective possible ways to increase their sense of engagement, energy, and happiness.