Clinical Psychology

Across three studies involving over 1,100 individuals and couples in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, the researchers found that perceiving a partner’s ambivalence was consistently associated with lower relationship satisfaction, greater stress and anxiety, and increased thoughts about ending the relationship.

The researchers found that people were significantly less likely to act generously when they could choose to avoid learning how their actions would impact others. Across experiments, nearly 40% of participants deliberately avoided relevant information, which led to a 15.6 percentage point drop in altruistic choices compared to when the consequences were clear.

The study found that all participants felt different and misunderstood throughout their lives. Many experienced bullying during school years and struggled to adapt to the workplace.

The researchers found that a five-week REBT intervention helped both participants reduce self-defeating beliefs and increase their internal motivation, readiness, and confidence to exercise.

The researchers found that a father’s ability to respond sensitively to his infant was linked to both his own attachment style and reflective functioning—his capacity to understand mental states.

The researchers found that girls with ADHD often feel compelled to suppress their authentic behaviors and emotions in order to appear more socially acceptable. This constant self-monitoring, particularly in school settings, was described as exhausting and emotionally taxing.

The study found that individuals with NPD tend to use language that reflects grandiosity, entitlement, and a lack of empathy, and that these linguistic features may be tied to identifiable brain structure differences.

The researchers found that different types of inattentional blindness in children were predicted by distinct aspects of executive function. Specifically, stronger working memory was linked to noticing unexpected objects in a brief, static task, while better cognitive flexibility—the ability to switch focus—predicted greater awareness in a longer, moving task.