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.
10 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…
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic, often debilitating mental health disorder that may develop after a traumatic life event. Fortunately, effective psychological treatments for PTSD exist. In 2017, the Veterans Health Administration and Department of Defense (VA/DoD) and the American Psychological Association (APA) each published treatment guidelines for PTSD,…
This review looked at smartphone apps made for treating eating disorders. The authors found that research on whether these apps work is scarce. They also found that most existing apps include few proven treatment methods and do not use the special abilities of smartphones (like real-time interaction and sensors). The…
This systematic review looked at clinical studies that paired psychedelics with a structured psychotherapy. It found that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can give promising results across many clinical conditions when given to carefully screened people in controlled settings, but some patients relapse or do not respond. The review highlights that individual and…
Researchers collected face photos and personality surveys from about 12,400 volunteers and used a type of computer program that learns patterns, called artificial neural networks, to try to predict the Big Five personality traits from those pictures. The program could guess some traits better than chance, with the strongest matches…
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…
The authors reviewed 83 papers and guides about how therapists prepare people for substance-assisted psychotherapy — therapy that uses drugs like psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, or ketamine together with psychological support. They found clear agreement that good preparation before a drug session is important for safety and for helping people get…
This study looked at people who were left by a partner in the past 6 months (136 people, mean age 30.4). It asked about short-term “dysfunctional” behaviors after a breakup, such as persistent calls or messages, threats, sending unwanted objects, and attempts to defame an ex. People with a secure…
This study asked 16 experienced international trauma experts about the final ‘‘reintegration’’ phase in treatment for complex PTSD. Experts disagreed about the exact definition and which activities reintegration should include. They did agree, however, on important principles for how reintegration should be delivered. The authors say these findings help build…
This paper is a review of economic research that treats identity as a set of beliefs about one’s core traits, values, goals, and social ties. It explains the main cognitive ideas behind self-image concerns and then summarizes many lab, online, and field experiments that show how those concerns change how…
