Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
23 papers
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a set of skills for noticing, understanding and managing your own feelings and other people’s feelings. Employers and experts say EQ helps at work by improving relationships, morale and productivity, and the Covid-19 pandemic made these skills more important. A Gallup survey reported that the share…
This research found that writing about important personal experiences in an emotional way for as little as 15 minutes on three separate days was linked to better mental and physical health. The results were seen across ages, genders, cultures, social classes, and personality types. Computer text analysis showed that people…
Using long-term data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, the authors show that physical health, thinking skills, and well-being in midlife can change in different directions for different people. They describe these changes as multidirectional (some things get better, some worse), variable between people, and plastic (open…
Attachment theory, described about 40 years ago, explains stable ways people form close bonds. This review sums up brain imaging and cognitive studies that link adult attachment styles (secure, avoidant, anxious, resolved/unresolved) to how people feel about and think about others. It proposes that attachment style shapes quick judgments of…
Researchers studied adults aged 36–84 from the MIDUS study and found that people who reported a stronger sense of purpose in life (measured about two years earlier) showed better emotional recovery after seeing negative pictures. Recovery was measured by the eyeblink startle reflex (EBR); smaller eyeblinks after the picture ended…
This article explains what shame is, how it is different from guilt, and what research says about its effects. Shame comes from feeling others disapprove of you. It can stop some behaviors but can also make people hide actions, withdraw, or feel badly about themselves for a long time. Studies…
Researchers studied 85 married couples (170 people) to see if worries about close relationships (attachment anxiety) link to stress hormones and immune cells. People with higher attachment anxiety had higher saliva cortisol across three days and lower counts of several T-cell types in blood. The study is observational, mostly white…
This review explains attachment theory and temperament and how they relate to parenting. It says infants need close, responsive relationships with caregivers. Parents who respond quickly and appropriately tend to raise securely attached children. Secure attachment is linked with more curiosity, self-reliance, and independence in childhood and often with greater…
Scientists reviewing lab rat studies say juvenile 'play fighting' helps shape the social brain. Research over the past 100+ years shows that when young rats are deprived of normal peer play during the juvenile period, adult rats show socio-cognitive problems and changes in neurons in the prefrontal cortex, especially the…
This systematic review looked at 37 studies (2,006 people) that used gold-standard interviews to measure adult attachment and objective tests of emotion regulation. It found a clear link between a person’s attachment representation and how they regulate emotions. People with secure attachment showed balanced emotion regulation. Insecure or unresolved attachment…
This study surveyed 393 Italian adults aged 18–62 (219 in stable close relationships and 174 singles) to see how adult attachment styles relate to psychological well-being. People in stable relationships reported higher well-being than singles. Singles were more likely to show attachment traits such as discomfort with closeness, treating relationships…
This study tested whether anger and aggressive actions are linked differently for men and women. Four hundred twenty-four adults did a behavioral aggression task, and 304 of them also answered questions about their typical anger. Men and women showed similar amounts of aggression overall. However, higher trait anger predicted more…
