In many ways, psychology suffers from an overdose of individualism. This is problematic because this dominant view conceptualizes social relationships as external to the isolated individual. In his new book, Martijn van Zomeren develops an essentially relational theory of motivation, which assumes that, in essence, we are moved and motivated by others.
Throughout history, many great religious leaders such as Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed claimed to hear voices not heard by others. How do religious and spiritual practices relate to hearing voices nowadays? I had the opportunity to explore this in an adolescent sample during my PhD project.
In September 2016, the Department of Psychology starts five new international master’s tracks. These tracks link psychological knowledge to particular fields of application, to prepare students in the best possible way for the job market in their respective fields. All tracks seem promising, but how do you pick the track that is right for you?
“Cool, we travel through space!”, “Oh look there is Saturn, that is my favorite planet!”. Guess where you are? You are enjoying a virtual journey into space in the Kapteyn Mobile Planetarium of the University of Groningen together with upper grade pupils of a primary school. It is dark inside the Mobile Planetarium, but you […]
Studying psychology in Groningen does not only mean enjoying the international student life but also going for several months abroad in order to make worthy life experiences and get to know a new perspective of psychology. Come with us and discover which amazing experiences students have made in New Zealand, the United States, Spain and […]
Psychologists usually distinguish relevant traits and characteristics, or signs, to predict future performance. Here, I outline an alternative approach to predict whether someone will be successful, namely by sampling actual relevant behavior.
The author discusses the lack of female- specific research in autism and proposes a new way to look at the issue of under-diagnosing girls with this condition.
Perceiving to be socially included at work is vital for the well-being and performance of employees. Yet, due to increasing levels of workforce diversity it is often difficult for people to fit in at work. In his dissertation, Wiebren Jansen studied what organizations can do to ensure that their employees feel included.
While an acute decrease in brain serotonin may have few effects on social behaviour, a longer-term increase in serotonin in individuals at risk for depression improves mood and alters social behaviour. This Thursday, February 4, 2016, Koen Hogenelst defends his dissertation, in which he explains the relevance of his research findings for the effectiveness of serotonergic medications for depression.
ADHD is a common disorder that suffers from many misconceptions. For example, do you also think that ADHD is caused by a lack of dopamine in the brain? In this blog post, I explain why this is not true.