Psychology Archives

STEPPS Marketing: Jonah Berger’s Powerful Strategy

What is Jonah Berger’s STEPPS marketing strategy? How can understanding this help you create contagious products or ideas? In his book Contagious, Jonah Berger shares his best marketing secrets, including his STEPPS marketing strategy. This involves six powerful steps for creating contagious products and services. Understanding this strategy will help you make your product or idea compelling enough to become contagious. Keep reading to find out the six key principles of Berger’s STEPPS marketing strategy.

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath: Book Overview

What does Switch by Chip and Dan Heath teach us about sustainable change? How can we create change that lasts? In Switch, Chip and Dan Heath discuss how change works, how to motivate change in yourself and others, and how to create sustainable change by overcoming obstacles and making change as easy as possible. Here is a brief overview of Switch by Chip and Dan Heath.

The Link Between Childhood Trauma and Depression

What is the relationship between childhood trauma and depression? How can the effects of childhood trauma be reversed? Childhood trauma and depression are interrelated because trauma can create a deep emotional wound that has a lasting impact on the life of the victim. Trauma can lead to a deep sense of guilt that triggers depression. It can be confronted by acknowledging your emotional scars, and recognizing that you never deserved what happened to you. Read on to learn more about how childhood trauma and depression are interrelated.

Effortless Love Is a Myth: Love Takes Work

Do you believe in effortless love? Or do you think that love takes work? According to psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, effortless love is a myth. Genuine love takes work, and work requires attention. He argues that listening with full attention is a critical act of genuine love for parenting and other types of relationships. He also discusses when love isn’t worth the effort. Keep reading to better understand how and why love takes work.

Can’t Relax? Try Slowing Down Your Tempo

Are you always tense and agitated? Do you have difficulty relaxing and just “muting” your problems for even a short time? People have difficulty relaxing and this stops them from living a full life. If you are always on edge and can’t relax easily, try to slow down: consciously do everything more easily, slowly, and without pressure. Here are some relaxation tips from Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking.

The 3 Elements of Change: Set Yourself Up for Success

What is the key to changing an undesirable behavior and making the change last? Is there a formula behind a successful behavior change? Successful change involves certain patterns that you can intentionally engineer to significantly improve your change success rate. According to Chip and Dan Heath, the authors of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, there are three elements of behavior change: 1) the rational you, 2) the emotional you, and 3) the path forward. Keep reading to learn about the three elements of change.

Understanding the Psychology of Learning

How do we learn? What are the processes that allow us to encode knowledge into the brain? Psychologists conceptualize three stages of learning: 1) encoding, 2) consolidation, and 3) retrieval. At the encoding stage, the brain creates mental representations of the information. Then, it consolidates it by transferring it from short-term to long-term memory. Finally, it cements the knowledge to make it available for retrieval. Learn more about the psychology of learning, what happens at each stage, and how new information is embedded in the brain at the cellular level.

Why the Idea of “Finding Oneself” Is Limiting

Are you on a journey of self-discovery? Do you want to find yourself and your identity? According to The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, the idea of “finding oneself” may actually be counterintuitive. Author Mark Manson says that labeling yourself puts you in a box and limits your opportunities and growth. Instead, Manson says, you should let go of your identity altogether. Keep reading to learn why Mark Manson says you should stop labeling your identity.

How to Distinguish Dependency Disorder From Love

What is dependency disorder? Why is it sometimes confused with love? A common myth about love is that it is the same as dependency. However, dependency is a disorder in which the need for nurture takes over your life. Dependency disorder is parasitic, not leaving room for freedom. True love is interdependence, a healthy dynamic that thrives on freedom. Keep reading to learn more about dependency disorder and how it is different from love.

Luck and Success: Succeeding by a Roll of the Dice

What role does luck play in success? Do you tend to attribute your own successes to luck or effort? People often overestimate the influence of effort in success. Though hard work, skill, and intelligence are often necessary first steps toward success, they rarely account for runaway success, which is far more often due to luck—a positive rare event plus a lack of negative rare events. In today’s article, we’ll talk about luck and success—how huge of a role luck plays in bestowing success and why we often mistake it for skill.