Till date, scientists are still studying the human brain and how it works. That is because the brain is so powerful and complex that it will take forever to fully understand how everything works. Our conscious and subconscious mind has a great influence on our behaviour and our physical reaction to the environment. More and more are being fascinated with the subject of psychology. Some out of curiosity, others suspect a need to visit a psychologist for mental, emotional, and other health problems.
While others might be considering a career in psychology. And these are the things that normally drive people’s interest in this very important field of human study. Phycology is the study of the mind and our behaviour.
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The role psychologists play in the society is becoming more and more important as a growing number of people face a different emotional and mental problem around the world, resulting from stress, difficulties, wars, crimes, violence, oppression, and all sorts of evil. In a bit to deal with stress, anxiety, and other emotional problems, people are always browsing the internet, seeking advice on how to manage these conditions, and also how to understand themselves better in order to protect against experiences that can damage their health.
In this article, I will briefly describe 15 things you need to know about psychology.
Table of Contents
1. We Tend to Ascribe Behavior to Personality for Other People
Humans have a greater tendency to rebuke a person for some actions they do and also ascribe that action to the person’s personality. That means if it is a good action, we’ll likely ascribe it to a positive personality, and a bad action, we ascribe to a negative one. While there are many reasons behind certain actions, we tend to consider the more negative ones without considering the fact it could be a mistake, an honest intention, or compulsion that led to the person taking that action. But if we are the perpetrators of bad actions, we are more likely to consider the less negative reasons behind such actions.
2. Ten Minutes is Our Highest Attention Span
We can only maintain steady concentration on something for a maximum of ten minutes at a time before our minds start to wonder. That is, no matter how much you try, you cannot prevent your mind straying from a task at most after ten minutes. Most people find it hard to concentrate even for five minutes without thinking about other things. It is important to take brain exercises that improve your concentration so that you can be more productive and use time effectively.
3. Relationships Are as Important as Diet to Our Health
The University of North Carolina conducted a study which concluded that the quality and size of a person’s social relationship has a direct impact on their well-being. And a poor relationship with others or being very lonely can lead to or exacerbate hypertension, abdominal obesity, and lower life expectancy. Humans naturally have an insatiable craving for admiration and respect by others and to have good relationships. That is why we are such social animals.
4. We Feel Happier Spending More on Others Than Ourselves
Like I mentioned earlier, humans are social creatures. And we heavily rely on teamwork in order to succeed. There is an in-built reward system in our brain that send out oxytocin which makes us feel very good about ourselves whenever we do something good for others like spending money on them. This fact implies that feeling sad after helping someone is an abnormality. We love people who are generous. We want people to be generous with us, but the reverse is not always true.
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5. People Who Are Smart Are More Likely to Think They Are Not
This is known as the Dunning Kruger Effect. And it shows that intelligent people tend to underestimate themselves far more than the average person does. On the other hand, ignorant people are more likely to overestimate themselves. This fact may be a result of intelligence and knowledge coming with humility. In many cases, one must humble themselves to learn new things, and learning new things is what increase our knowledge and makes us smart. That humility during learning probably stays long after that.
6. We Aren’t Good at Prediction Our Future Reactions
Through our imagination and thought, when we acknowledge the possibility of a future that’ll affect us, we often tend to predict our reaction in the even such incident happens. But as soon as that even takes place, we aren’t likely to react in the way we expected to.
7. Our Strongest Memories Aren’t Always Accurate
Bad memories threaten to linger on our minds longer than usual, as what is called, Flashbulb Memory. So under normal circumstances, we may believe that because an event traumatized us, we are likely to remember it accurately over a long period of time. But studies show the opposite reality. The more intense our emotion about a painful event, the less accurate our memory is of that event.
8. Our Brains Wonder for 30% of the Time Every Day
Researchers found that we spend 30% of our wakefulness time daydreaming. Not that this is a completely bad habit. In fact, daydreamers tend to better at solving problems and more creative than those who daydream less.
9. Humans Are Incapable of Multitasking
Contrary to what some believe that there are people who are capable of handling multiple tasks at the same time, humans are not able to carry on a different task simultaneously. You could listen to music while working on a particular project, but the fact is that your brain cannot process both the music and task simultaneously. It is either you are ignoring the music or your work, but certainly, you much ignore one.
10. Most Human Decisions Are Made Subconsciously
Do you think all your past decisions have been from careful considerations and calculations of risks and benefits? Many think so, but in reality, the reverse is the case. Research shows that most decisions are made in the subconscious mind because it would overwhelm the conscious mind to handle all decision making. The brain receives 11 million bits of information each second to process. There isn’t enough brain power to process that information in the conscious mind.
11. We Read Longer Lines of Texts Better Despite Preferring Shorter Lines of Text
Naturally, we humans prefer to read shorter lines of text, like in a column. That is the reason newspaper stories are mostly written in columns. The fact is, had a newspaper column been spread out across the width of a page, we’ll read it faster.
12. We Believe Others Are Easier to Influence Than Us
We recognize the effects of advertisement on other people faster than we do on ourselves. This is what is termed, the Third Person Effect. Anytime someone reacts to an advertisement, we are quick to notice, but ours go unnoticed by us, particularly if the advert is on something we have no interest in. But research shows that each advertisement you are exposed to in a day has an effect on your subconscious mind, your attitude and moods.
13. Your Brain Works Even When You Sleep
Many think that when people sleep, their brain also sleeps and that it does not work like when you are awake. This is a misguided belief. It is proved that your brain works even when you sleep at the same rate as when you are awake, only the task is a little different from that of wakefulness. Scientist found that it is when you sleep that your brain clears the toxins and wastes accumulated during your activities in wakefulness. It sorts out all the data from the previous day and creates new associations between the data.
14. The Wisdom of a Crowd is Not Very Wise
Researchers found that the larger a group of people, the more likely they are to make decisions based on emotions as opposed to logic and common sense. This could be because smart people are by far smaller in number compared to the ignorant ones, and where ignorant people dominate, there isn’t going to be an intelligent decision made. The smart ones will be overwhelmed by the ignorant ones in the sheer number and drown their voice.
This is why the masses are so easy to deceive and manipulate by the media through propaganda. The western media, in particular, exploits this weakness in mass wisdom to indoctrinate their populations and others against a group or an ideology. It is also the reason governments around the world are taking increasingly harsh measures to contain the reach of social media and the MSM.
The phenomena of mass deception have been demonstrated in our time with the way the MSM, particularly owned by Western Cooperation, like Facebook, Google, and others, manipulate populations of other countries to turn them against a government, person, or group. The effect reflects in the Arab spring that brought chaos and instability to the targeted nations, revolutions that overthrew legitimate governments, like in Venezuela, Ukraine, and other places.
15. It Takes 66 Days to Form a Habit
Researchers have found that it takes humans 66 days to form or break a habit. If you do something consecutively for 66 days, it becomes a habit by recording with your subconscious mind. Because most of our decisions and actions are dictated by the subconscious mind, it becomes easier to maintain that habit. So if you want to learn a new habit or break a bad one, practice it consciously for 66 days without a break.
We have pointed out some basic facts about psychology that you need to know in order to understand yourself better. Understanding the way your mind and brain works will help you become the person you want to be by knowing how to influence the mental and emotional process taking place on your mind.
